Capitol Men

by Philip Dray

  "The white boy gave little heed to lessons": New York Times, Mar. 18, 1898.

  [>] It was his misfortune to be present: Stiles, p. 95.

  "Quantrill's band certainly would not have spared": Kansas City Times, Oct. 17, 1886; St. Clair, pp. 263–64.

  [>] "In the midst of their vassalage": Congressional Record, 45th Cong., 2nd sess., pp. 382–83.

  "The logical sequence to the freedom of the negro": Montgomery, pp. 267–68.

  "[Florey] had a big drum at his office": Ibid., p. 272.

  "He stands very straight and is very dignified": Washington Bee, July 21, 1883, quoting Boston Herald; quoted in St. Clair, pp. 253–54.

  [>] He "had outgrown the degradation and ignorance of slavery": Bruce to the Kansas City Times, Oct. 17, 1886; quoted in Urofsky, "Blanche K. Bruce," Journal of Mississippi History.

  By late 1872 Bruce had twenty-one schools: Harris, "Blanche K. Bruce of Mississippi," in Rabinowitz, pp. 8–9. In the 1880s Bruce became interested in Booker T. Washington's ideas about industrial education, and after a visit to Washington's school at Tuskegee, he joined a group of Mississippians trying to establish a similar institute to serve young blacks from Arkansas and Mississippi.

  [>] "False doctrine of despotic sovereignty": New York Times, June 25, 1874.

  "The most responsible citizens in Mississippi": St. Clair, p. 85.

  Alcorn showed him the ultimate disrespect: Simmons, p. 703. Bruce was rescued by Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York. "When the names of the new Senators were called out for them to go up and take the oath, all the others except myself were escorted by their colleagues," Bruce later said. "Mr. Alcorn made no motion to escort me, but was buried behind a newspaper, and I concluded I would go it alone. I had got about half way up the aisle when a tall gentleman stepped up to me and said: 'Excuse me, Mr. Bruce, I did not until this moment see that you were without an escort. Permit me. My name is Conkling,' and he linked his arm in mine and we marched up to the desk together." Bruce so esteemed Conkling's gesture he named his only son, born in 1879, Roscoe Conkling Bruce. See Bruce's letter to Conkling, Sept. 21, 1879, in St. Clair, pp. 280–81. Senator Conkling would perform a similar service a year later for Frederick Douglass at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, when an attempt was made to keep Douglass from taking his seat on a reviewing stand.

  An "excited imagination": New York Tribune, Sept. 21, 1875.

  The New York Times proposed that if the Republicans: New York Times, Sept. 16, 1875.

  10. The Eternal Fitness of Things

  [>] "The whole public are tired": Grant, vol. 26, p. 314-n.

  "This flippant utterance": Adelbert Ames to E. Benjamin Andrews, May 24, 1895, J. W. Garner Papers, Mississippi State Archives; see also Wharton, p. 194.

  "I suggest that you take all lawful means": Grant, vol. 26, p. 314n; Lemman, p. 123.

  [>] "Taking advantage of Grant's": Grant, vol. 26, pp. 312–13; Gillette, p. 157; Lemman, pp. 122–23.

  "I have taken steps to put all the arms": Adelbert Ames to Blanche Butler Ames, Sept. 22, 1875, in Ames, Chronicles, vol. 2, p. 191; see also Lemman, pp. 125–26.

  "The paradox of law enforcement": Zuczek, Encyclopedia of Reconstruction, vol. 1, p. 414.

  "A hyena in human form": Hinds County Gazette, Oct. 13, 1875.

  [>] "Election day may find our voters": Adelbert Ames to Blanche Butler Ames, Oct. 8 and 12, 1875, Ames, Adelbert Ames, pp. 431–32, 433–34.

  "Domestic violence prevails": Adelbert Ames to President Grant, Sept. 8, 1875, ibid., p. 424.

  [>] Having noticed that many of the so-called: Testimony of George K. Chase, "Mississippi in 1875: Report of the Select Committee to Inquire into the Mississippi Election of 1875," GPO, Washington, 1876.

  "The [Democratic] citizens expressed": Ibid.

  "Notwithstanding the apparent injustice": Undated clippings from Cincinnati Commercial, early to mid Sept. 1875, Blanche Kelso Bruce Papers, Library of Congress.

  [>] "The city of Jackson was almost literally filled": Testimony of Adelbert Ames, "Mississippi in 1875."

  "One smart nigger in some localities": Testimony of George K. Chase, ibid.

  "Sublit had a band of ... about 100 armed men": Ibid.

  These efforts at intimidation: Rable, p. 161; also see Testimony of Adelbert Ames, "Mississippi in 1875."

  With the election over, the time had come: Testimony of Margaret Ann Caldwell, ibid.; also see New York Times, Aug. 7, 1876.

  [>] "I have never read of such depravity": Adelbert Ames to Blanche Butler Ames, Aug. 31, 1875, in Ames, Adelbert Ames, p. 419.

  "Some of our party are indignant": Adelbert Ames to Blanche Butler Ames, Oct. 15, 1875, ibid., pp. 439–40.

  Ames didn't know it but he was fortunate: Wells, "Reconstruction and Its Destruction in Hinds County," Mississippi Historical Publications,; quoted in Ames, Adel-bertAmes, p. 436.

  [>] "What surprises me ... Mr. President": Lynch, Reminiscences of an Active Life, pp. 173–75.

  [>] In the difficult fall 1875 election: Ibid., pp. 181–86.

  "Whose Captain was one Charles Caldwell": Ames, Chronicles, pp. 335–37. These allegations were also shared with the congressional select committee investigating the 1875 election in Mississippi by Hiram Revels; see Testimony of Hiram Revels, "Mississippi in 1875."

  [>] "Their object is to restore the Confederacy": Garner, p. 402.

  "He had given the state an excellent administration": Lynch, Reminiscences of an Active Life, p. 187.

  "In one phrase, hostility to the negro": Testimony of Adelbert Ames, "Mississippi in 1875"; see also New York Times, May 2, 1876.

  [>] "Invigorated by the free air": New York Times, Aug. 26, 1873.

  [>] "I desire to inform the members of the Senate": New Orleans Republican, Feb. 11, 1872.

  "The period of slavery was itself so monstrous": New National Era, Jan. 2, 1873.

  [>] "As a father, I know him to be affectionate": Congressional Record, 44th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 1444–45.

  "Knocking at the door": New National Era, Jan. 15, 1874.

  [>] "I will state to the Senate that since the adjournment": Congressional Record, 43rd Cong., 1st sess., p. 775.

  "That was really, and in fact the end": Warmoth, p. 236. Warmoth found himself the subject of a public scandal later that year when, on December 26, he stabbed the New Orleans journalist Daniel C. Byerly in a street altercation over published insults regarding Warmoth's political career in Louisiana. The killing was ruled justifiable homicide—Byerly had assaulted Warmoth with a cane—and the ex-governor was freed after being briefly held in jail. See New York Times, Dec. 27 and 28, 1874.

  "Let the investigation proceed": New Orleans Republican, Feb. 7, 1873.

  Both addressed that body on June 8, 1874: Congressional Record, 43rd Cong., 1st sess., appendix, pp. 426–38.

  [>] "Prima facie title to admission": New York Times, Feb. 9, 1875.

  [>] "Under these circumstances": Congressional Record, 44th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 1444–45.

  In an executive session of the Senate: New Orleans Times, Feb. 17, 1876. Bruce was so angry, he initially refused to meet with Grant but was coaxed into it by colleagues. Bruce later became a leading supporter of Grant's bid for a possible third term at the 1880 Republican convention.

  "In the country the tides were changing": Haskins, p. 222.

  11. Black Thursday

  [>] "Fellow citizens, rights impose duties": Elliott's remarks in New National Era, Mar. 19, 1874.

  "Blinded by long confinement": DeForest, Miss Ravenel's Conversion, p. 348.

  "The only thing he wouldn't steal": Bowers, p. 76.

  "Somewhat like the charge of communism": Holt, p. 196.

  [>] "Misgovernment works its own suicide": Elliott's remarks in New National Era, Mar. 19, 1874.

  "With the courage and good sense": Charleston Courier, quoted and remarked upon in New York Times, Feb. 21, 1874.

  [>] "Together, then" Lamson speculates: Lamson, Peg
gy, p. 199.

  She hypothesizes further: Ibid., p. 200.

  [>] The News & Courier termed this maneuver: Charleston News & Courier, Dec. 17, 1875.

  "South Carolina, noble old mother": Charlotte Observer, quoted in Charleston News & Courier, Dec. 21, 1875.

  Even the Republican Daily Union-Herald feared: Columbia Union-Herald, quoted in Charleston News & Courier, Dec. 20, 1875.

  "With muskets on our shoulders": Woody, "Franklin J. Moses Jr., Scalawag Governor of South Carolina," North Carolina Historical Review.

  "To Africanize the state": News & Courier, Dec. 18, 1875; Lamson, Peggy, pp. 223–24.

  "One immediate effect": Quoted in Allen, p. 195.

  [>] "I cannot attend your annual supper": Charleston News & Courier, Dec. 23, 1875.

  "A rumpus has begun in South Carolina": Allen, p. 221.

  [>] By the end of the Civil War it was: MacDowell, "Hamburg: A Village of Dreams," South Carolina Magazine; see also Williamson, p. 267.

  "If there should ever be a black monarchy": Higginson, pp. 43–44. Rivers was such a fine physical specimen that, like Smalls, he had been sent north during the war to promote the idea of making slaves into soldiers. In New York City, however, the sight of the tall, coal-black sergeant in a federal uniform disturbed passersby, and a riot nearly ensued. Rivers himself held off the mob until police arrived.

  [>] He came home, it was written: Avary, p. 161.

  "One of the most malignant of the unreconstructed rebels": Morgan, James M., pp. 362, 373.

  [>] "[McKie's death] exasperated his friends": Charleston News & Courier, July 11, 1876.

  "Those of the meanest character": Martin, p. 210.

  "Begged for his life, but in vain": Attorney General William Stone's report, July 12, 1876, quoted in Allen, pp. 313–18.

  The rifle clubs then joined: Charleston News & Courier, July 11, 1876, and New York Times, July 24, 1876.

  [>] It condemned the cowardly killing of "negro prisoners": See coverage of Charleston News & Courier, July 10, 11, and 12, 1876.

  As the Charleston Journal of Commerce observed: Quoted in Allen, p. 320.

  "Shame and disgust must fill the breast of every man": Daniel Chamberlain to U.S. senator T. J. Robertson, July 13, 1876; quoted in Allen, p. 319.

  [>] "We have supported Governor Chamberlain's reform measures": Charleston News & Courier, Aug. 10, 1876; quoted in Holt, p. 200.

  "The late unwarrantable slaughter": New York Times, July 24, 1876.

  "Remember," Cain told his followers: New York Times, July 21, 1876.

  [>] To Chamberlain, the Indian fighters' fate: Daniel Chamberlain to U.S. senator T. J. Roberston, July 13, 1876, quoted in Allen, p. 319.

  The debate in Congress about troop deployment: Gillette, p. 35.

  [>] "The presence of the troops was most providential": Congressional Record, 44th Cong., 2nd sess., appendix, p. 218; quoted in Packwood, p. 19.

  When white congressmen seemed unable to grasp: Congressional Record, 44th Cong., 1st sess., p. 4645.

  [>] Robert Smalls also worked to ensure that Hamburg: Uya, p. 95; see also Congressional Record, 44th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 4605–4607, 4641–44.

  In their correspondence, Chamberlain pointed out: Daniel Chamberlain to President Grant, July 22, 1876, quoted in Allen, p. 322.

  Grant responded that he too feared: President Grant to Daniel Chamberlain, July 26, 1876, quoted in Allen, p. 325.

  [>] "Waved the bloody shirt": Tillman, "The Struggles of '76,"Charleston Historical Society. The exact origin of the red shirt uniform used by Democrats during Reconstruction is unclear. Some scholars suspect it was inspired by the costume of the revolutionaries who rode with the famous Italian military leader of the 1860s, Giuseppe Garibaldi. See Zuczek, Encyclopedia of Reconstruction, vol. 2.

  [>] "There has been so much corruption": Bowers, p. 498.

  [>] Belknap also had much to fear from any further scrutiny: Nation, Mar. 9, 1876.

  "Showed symptoms of mental agony": New York Tribune, Mar. 6, 1876.

  "Considering the official rank of Mr. Belknap": The Nation, Mar. 9, 1876.

  [>] "The albatross of Reconstruction": Vicksburg Monitor, undated clipping in "Mississippi in 1875: Report of the Select Committee to Inquire into the Mississippi Election of 1875," Washington GPO, 1876.

  His precise, elegant manners and well-turned phrases: Martin, p. 202.

  Visiting the legislature one day: Avary, p. 357.

  [>] Among other steps, the expert suggested: Tillman, "The Struggles of '76."

  "Every Democrat must feel honor bound": Martin, p. 211.

  [>] Gary was the descendant: Sophie M. Fair, "Distinguished Confederate War Record of Ge. M. W. Gary," imprint of article from the Southern Herald and Working Man of New York and Columbia, South Carolina, Feb. 13, 1878, in "Martin Gary," vertical file, South Carolina Room, Charleston Public Library.

  "He goes off in conversation like a skyrocket": Bowers, pp. 502–3.

  [>] "They do not claim to be Americans": New York Times, Oct. 13, 1876.

  [>] "As a slave, he was faithful to us": "Wade Hampton" entry in Appleton's Cyclopedia, compiled 1887–89; see edited Appleton's Cyclopedia (2001) at Virtualology.com.

  "He was a big, powerful, athletic man": Williams, Alfred B., Hampton and His Red Shirts, p. 89.

  "Straightout-ism, with its threat and bluster": Charleston News & Courier, May 9, 1876.

  [>] Several whites, including Gary, challenged Dawson to duel: Clark, pp. 64–66. Francis Dawson engaged in a war of insults in print with both Gary and Journal of Commerce editor Robert Barnwell Rhett Jr., while he steadfastly refused to duel, on religious grounds. He was known to editorialize against the practice. However, for all his principled opposition to mindless bloodshed, Dawson met a violent and somewhat tawdry end in 1889. Helene Marie Burdayron, a young governess who lived in his home, had aroused his protective or perhaps amorous feelings, and when rumors reached him that she was being pursued by a neighbor, Dr. Thomas McDow, Dawson became incensed. He confronted McDow, who denied seeking the girl's favors; Dawson then allegedly rushed at McDow, who drew a gun. In a sensational murder trial, McDow was acquitted; the court ruled that he had killed

  Dawson in self-defense. See Clark, pp. 215–24.

  "An audacious, masterly somersault": Sass, pp. 42–43.

  Calling Rainey "a very light mulatto, of limited ability": Charleston News & Courier, Sept. 14, 1876.

  "Rest assured of this": Ullman, p. 444.

  [>] "I pledge my faith": Jarrell, p. 73.

  "Like a beet": New York Times, Dec. 27, 1876.

  The Hampton forces went out of their way: Avary, pp. 360–61.

  "The only way to bring about prosperity": Quoted in Bowers, p. 515.

  As early as 1868, the New York Times had warned: New York Times, Aug. 15, 1868.

  [>] "Never has there been so general an uprising": Charleston News & Courier, Sept. 18, 1876.

  [>] At one rally in Manning: "Recollections of a Red Shirter." Undated clipping from The State Magazine, Reconstruction vertical file, South Carolina Room, Charleston Public Library.

  This ostensibly fair: Uya, pp. 100–1; New York Times, Oct. 20, 1876; Select Committee on Recent Elections in South Carolina, House of Representatives, 44th Cong., 2nd sess., misc. document 31, part 3, pp. 197–99; also Allen, pp. 374–77. Political violence also flared that fall at Cainhoy and around Ellenville, South Carolina.

  12. A Dual House

  [>] "I often peeped into its spacious windows": Douglass, Life and Times, pp. 487–93, quoted in Fleming, p. 89.

  [>] "Patriotic and philanthropic citizens": "Report from the Select Committee on the Freedman's Savings and Trust Co.," Report No. 440, printed Apr. 2, 1880, 46th Cong., 2nd sess.

  "The need for such an institution": Resolution in the Senate of the United States, Apr. 2, 1880, Mr. Bruce, Chair, Select Committee on the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, quoted in St. Clair, p. 147.

  [>] "At Charle
ston, S.C., we have a choice property": New National Era, Mar. 10, 1870.

  [>] "Married to a corpse": Douglass, Life and Times, p. 493, quoted in Fleming, p. 93.

  On June 28, 1874, the day Douglass: Foner, Forever Free, p. 194.

  [>] The nearly yearlong Senate inquiry: Du Bois, p. 600.

  Many reports of corruption: Fleming, pp. 62–63.

  In other testimony, General Howard: Gilbert, "The Comptroller of the Currency and the Freedman's Savings Bank," Journal of Negro History.

  "Sane and honest men could so trifle": Resolution in the Senate of the United States, Apr. 2, 1880, Mr. Bruce, Chair, Select Committee on the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, quoted in St. Clair, pp. 291, 293.

  "Pleaded forgetfulness or ignorance": Ibid., p. 293.

  [>] As the historian James M. McPherson: McPherson, The Abolitionist Legacy, p. 75.

  In the wake of the bank's collapse: Smith, p. 37.

  The deal itself soon became infamous: Morris, Fraud of the Century, pp. 1–5.

  [>] "By God, sir, I'll not do it": Burton, "Race and Reconstruction," Journal of Social History.

  [>] On November 30, the Democrats: Charleston News & Courier, Dec. 4, 1876.

  [>] "We have just seen a brave, honest, patriotic man": Charleston News & Courier, Dec. 2, 1876.

  "A defeated administration that has to be upheld": Charleston News & Courier, Dec. 1, 1876.

  "The scene in the House ... is picturesque": Charleston News & Courier, Dec. 2, 1876.

  William A. Wheeler, an upstate New York congressman, was Hayes's running mate.

  [>] "The Mackey house members": Guignard, "How the Wallace House Met in Carolina Hall," Charleston Public Library.