Studies in the South

V.

ONE thing that I learned during my Southern journey was the fact that everywhere in the South I could talk freely with people of all classes and of both races, upon every possible subject, without producing any manifestation of irritation, hostility, or distrust. Everybody appeared to speak frankly and without concealment, and, so far as I could judge, to express his real opinions and feelings in conversing with me regarding Southern interests and affairs. I also heard much talk of such subjects between Southern men when they were not aware that I was an interested listener, or that a Northern man was present. I traveled much of the time without finding it necessary to use my letters of introduction, or to acquaint any person with the objects of my journey. Very few men in the South learned that I was a writer, or “ correspondent for the press.” It may be that some persons would have been less frank if they had known what use would be made of the information which they so freely and courteously aided me to obtain; but I dealt fairly with every one, and incurred no obligation of secrecy ; but, of course, I do not use names, nor in any way designate individuals. I think I really heard what Southern men were in the habit of saying among themselves and to each other. I traveled and lived among the people of the middle and poorer classes in the roughest ways, and as if I were one of their number, which usually appeared to prevent or overcome any feeling of restraint or distrust on their part. I had plenty of reasons for my journey, but it was not often necessary to account for it at all.

FACE TO FACE.

The Southern people, of all classes, are generally so social, so fond of conversation, that I rarely had any need of special effort, or means of introduction, to enable me to obtain access to any one whom I wished to see. Commonly the mere declaration that I was a stranger, desiring to learn about the industries and resources of the country, was all that was required. Most of the gentlemen upon whom I thus called appeared to regard my having sought information from them as a highly respectful compliment, and they always received me with the utmost courtesy and kindness. Having thus effected a meeting, and in the first few moments of it established pleasant relations, I could talk of everything, and could learn all that I wished to know of the opinions, feelings, and character of the man who was talking to me. When I first reached a place I was often taken for a man who wished to buy land, and some most extraordinary bargains were offered to me. At times it was difficult to avoid a feeling of obligation for the munificent kindness which afforded to a stranger such opportunities for the rapid acquisition of wealth. On other occasions I was supposed to be “ looking for a place ” as a laborer, or for land to farm on shares, or to be in quest of cotton or cattle, and I did not usually at once correct such errors. The method which I often followed was to talk as little as possible myself until I had obtained from Southern men the fullest expression of their views and ideas, and then to mention the fact that I had been in the South during the war as a Union soldier; that at that time I was an enthusiastic young abolitionist, and entered the army chiefly because I believed the war would destroy slavery. I did this in order to learn whether such an announcement would produce any change of feeling or utterance, but I was never able to observe any diminution of interest or frankness on the part of my Southern acquaintances.

TALK ABOUT THE WAR.

At other times, when entering the circle of men around the stove in a hotel, I began by saying, in answer to the question whether that was my first visit to the town, that I had never been there, but had explored other portions of the South with the soldiers of such or such a Union commander. Usually this only led to a general telling of war stories. Nobody would say anything against the North. A few things were everywhere endlessly repeated : “ This country will never do nothin’ till we have some Northern men and Northern capital. There would n’t be any trouble between the North and the South if it was n’t for the politicians and a few editors on both sides. Politics won't do us any good ; the South needs more money and more enterprise.” These are the expressions which I heard oftenest among the common people, and from nearly everybody, indeed, in answer to the usual Southern inquiry, among the masses, “ Well, how are ye makin’ it in this part of the country ? ” Whenever I spoke of being a Northern man, and of having been in the Union army, all classes of persons appeared to feel a new interest in me in a social way. The common people never tired of stories of the struggle, and they were entirely indifferent as to which side was concerned; they cared only for the stories. So they always asked me where I was during the war, and what I saw in the way of adventures, either tragical or amusing. I thought it an encouraging sign of progress that the Southern people had everywhere reached this story-telling stage in their change of feeling regarding the conflict and the memory of its antagonisms. It was common in these conversations for the Southern soldiers present to mention instances of brave or chivalrous action on the part of Union soldiers and officers, which had come under their observation, or were well known to the Southern people generally. They seemed to take pleasure in recalling whatever was honorable and generous in the conduct and character of the Northern men whom they had met on the battle-field.

“ GO EVERYWHERE.”

Whenever I expressed my desire to see the South and the people, the answer, accompanied by an eager earnestness of manner, was, “ That’s right. That’s just what we want. If the Northern people would only come down here and see for themselves, there would be no more trouble.” When I would add that I wished to see the negroes also, and to talk with them about political affairs, so as to obtain some real acquaintance with their feelings and ideas, the answer was always, “ Go everywhere. Talk with everybody. Talk with the negroes. Get everything out of them you can ; and then tell the people at home what you hear.” Leading Southern men and democrats appeared to feel sincerely desirous that I should see the negroes and the poor white people under such conditions as would be most favorable to my purpose of studying directly and carefully their life and thought. They often said, “ You ought to take us all as unexpectedly as possible. Better look at cattle or at cotton, or travel as a business man, or go to a house late in the evening, and ask to be allowed to stay all night. Then you can set people to talking.” There was evidently no reluctance or sensitiveness anywhere in regard to my conversing with the negroes. Nobody appeared to have a thought of the possibility of anything incendiary or explosive in this direction. I was always urged to see them, and was advised to use all possible means to obtain from them a full and free utterance of all their ideas, sentiments, and desires. I did talk much with them, in all the principal regions in which they are most numerous, going among them in different characters at different times ; and I conversed with hundreds of colored men in the great " black districts ” without any white man knowing anything about it, or giving the matter the slightest attention.

POPULAR FEELING.

Another feature in the condition of the South, which appeared to be almost universal, and which made a decided impression upon my mind, was the apathy or indifference regarding politics which prevailed among people of all classes (except the office-holders and a very few others) and of both races. In Virginia there was of course much interest in politics, as the struggle of the “ readjusters ” for the control of the State was then in progress. I talked much with prominent men of all parties there at that time, and soon learned, as did all impartial observers of the contest, that there was no honest reason for the State’s refusing to pay her debts in full, as she could without difficulty satisiy all her creditors ; and that the claim that she was unable to do so was merely a pretense on the part of selfish and unscrupulous politicians, who wished to obtain power in the State for the sake of the offices and the control of the “ patronage ” or “ spoils.” There was no oppression of the negroes at that time in Virginia, nor any interference with their exercise of the right of suffrage ; and, while there were good reasons for the existence and activity of the republican party in the State, there was nothing of great importance to the nation involved in the contest of that party with the democrats or “ Bourbons.” To a person not a partisan it was plain that no great calamity to the State, or to the country, would have been likely to result from the success of either of these two parties. But of course Northern republicans should, properly or as a matter of consistency, have sympathized with such men as General Williams C. Wickham, and have given them all proper aid and “ moral support,” There was no reason for sympathy, on the part of good men in the Northern States, with the “ readjuster” movement, and no ground for any expectation of benefits to the colored people to result from its success.

THE TALK OF CROWDS.

In all other parts of the South I found that the most intelligent and public-spirited citizens were not greatly interested in politics. They were hopeful regarding the administration of President Garfield, and almost universally expressed the conviction that the true course for the Southern people would be to let national politics alone in great measure, and to give all their strength to work, education, the development of Southern resources, and the improvement of the condition of the laboring classes. I heard such ideas and feelings expressed everywhere in a very earnest and decided manner, especially by the men who are known as Bourbons, and Southern men of the better classes appeared very generally to share these sentiments. I saw many young men, from twenty-four to twenty-eight years of age, who had never voted, and they were among the best and most intelligent of the young men whom I met in the South. Outside of the State of Virginia there appeared to be but slight interest in politics, except on the part of politicians and office-seekers. The people commonly talked but little on political topics, and did not seem interested in hearing about public affairs from politicians of any party or class. Conversation was devoted to cotton raising and picking, horse-trading, and “ experience in sheep; ” to fights, personal adventures, apparitions, mysterious or Supernatural occurrences, — everything else rather than politics. Of course the approach of an election in any of the States which I visited would have the effect of arousing the people in some measure from this apathy, and from their absorption in business and social interests ; but I was impressed by the fact that throughout the South the people of all classes evidently felt much more interest in other affairs than in politics, and that this comparative indifference had, as was plain, existed for some time, — long enough, indeed, to become habitual. While everybody talked freely of the “ troubled times ” after the war, I could not find anywhere indications of existing or recent irritation or antagonism between the white people and the negroes. The colored people had no appearance of being “ cowed ” or terrorized, and to a person expecting to find evidences of excited struggle or bitter antagonisms, of recent outrages or impending collisions, the whole country, when I saw it, would have seemed not only very quiet, but extremely dull.

POLITICAL ABUSES.

But I shall now describe particularly “ the political condition of the South ” as I saw it last year. I did not visit that portion of our country in the interest of any party, or of any theory of things. The journey was undertaken with the sole purpose of seeing as much as possible of the Southern people, of all classes and both races, and of reporting with colorless accuracy whatever I might observe, as it appeared to me ; and with the conviction that a just and truthful account of the condition of the South would be far more important and useful than any partisan presentation could be.

I have not seen an election in the South, — though I should like to be an observer on such an occasion in some regions which I visited,—and I can therefore only report what I heard, from men of all classes and opinions, regarding the methods of action which are pursued during “ political campaigns ” and in the management of elections.

THE NEGROES KEPT FROM THE POLLS.

In Mississippi, in Southern Alabama, and in Louisiana the negroes are not permitted to vote without illegal interference ; or, if they are allowed to vote, their vote is not fully registered and returned. They are hindered from voting ; and in making records and returns their vote is to a considerable and effectual extent neutralized or excluded. I do not say that this is done everywhere, or at every election, in the States I have just named, but it has been done widely, frequently, and recently. I conclude that the negro vote is thus restricted or interfered with in those regions, because the leading citizens there, democrats, themselves told me that it was done, — that they themselves did and managed the work; and they have again and again, in conversation with me, described the methods by which it was accomplished.

CHALLENGING A NEGRO VOTER.

In Southern Alabama, prominent leaders in democratic politics said that in the “ black districts ” it was common to have, at each place of holding elections, two ballot-boxes, one for white voters, and the other for the negroes. The approach to each ballot-box is by a long, narrow passage or “ gangway,” inclosed by a railing on each side. If the blacks are present, and likely to vote in such numbers as to “ threaten the overthrow of society,” or give cause of alarm to the leading white citizens, the offered vote of some ignorant negro is challenged. The gangway is filled behind him by a long line of negroes, pressing forward in single file, and impatient to vote. The negro selected to be challenged is always one who lives in a distant part of the township or district. Somebody is dispatched to summon witnesses from his neighborhood, or some other cause of delay is discovered. Everything is conducted with judicial quietness, dignity, and deliberateness. Of course the other negroes cannot vote until this case is decided. It comes to an end by and by, and the conclusion which is at last reached is, usually, that the challenged negro has the right to vote, and his ballot is accepted. It is not according to the plan of action to refuse the right or opportunity of voting to any individual negro. That would irritate the men of his race, and would cause “ the guardians of society ” to appear at a disadvantage. The challenged negro’s vote is taken, and the voting goes on quietly and peaceably, until it is necessary to repeat the performance described above. When the hour for the closing of the polls arrives there has not been sufficient time for the full negro republican vote to be polled, and the counting of the ballot shows that there is an adequate democratic majority, and that the intelligence of the country has again been successful in the effort to prevent the overthrow of society by ignorance and incapacity.

“ But,” I often inquired, “ what if the negroes should become tired of this enforced waiting, and, understanding its purpose, should push forward, and demand that their votes shall be received ? ”

“ Then,” answered my informants, significantly, “ there is a collision. The negroes are the attacking party, and of course they will be worsted.”

FALSE ELECTION RETURNS.

In some parts of Mississippi the methods employed to prevent the overthrow of society were described by the principal actors, in talking to me, as being similar, in essential features, to those used in Alabama, though the particular arrangements by which the object is accomplished are varied to suit the circumstances. Sometimes the negroes are permitted to vote without hindrance or restriction of any kind, and society is saved by judicious elimination and substitution in making up the returns of the election. This is the method now most commonly followed in Louisiana, or in important portions of that State, as I was informed by prominent citizens and business men, democrats.

All other classes of citizens say that these accounts are true ; that these are the methods which have been for some time employed for suppressing or neutralizing the negro republican vote. All agree, too, that for some years past there has been a very general desire on the part of democratic managers and citizens, nearly everywhere in the South, to avoid collisions and disturbances at elections and political meetings; it being thought best to depend upon more quiet and less objectionable methods for managing or neutralizing the political power of the negro republicans, where they are in a majority.

“ WHAT IS THE GOOD OF LYING ? ”

In Southern Alabama and in Mississippi influential and prominent democrats said to me, “ Some of our people, some editors especially, deny that the negroes are hindered from voting ; but what is the good of lying ? They are interfered with, and we are obliged to do it, and we may as well tell the truth.”

As it is my purpose to be altogether fair and accurate, I shall now allow these gentlemen to state their own case, to present the grounds and reason of their course of action in dealing with the negro in politics, as they everywhere did this in frank and kindly conversation with me. In speaking of this subject, the relation of the negroes to the politics of the Southern States, intelligent men in the South always begin with emphatic praise of the remarkable loyalty and kindly faithfulness of the slaves during the great civil war. Almost throughout the South the whole able-bodied white population was in the army. The homes, the property, the women and children, of the Southerners were all in the power of the negroes and at their mercy. Had they been disposed to evil or injury they could have filled the country with horrors not surpassed in history. But they worked diligently, and affectionately guarded, almost without exception, the homes and interests left to their care. Southern men everywhere say they feel lovingly grateful for all this, and with good reason. (Many Northern people were surprised when it was found that the slaves were not aroused to insurrection by the progress of the conflict which was to liberate them from oppression. An examination of this feature of the struggle might throw some light on the relations between the two races in connection with slavery and the organization of society in the South before the war, as well as upon the character of the Southern people, both white and black.)

“ DRUNK WITH FREEDOM.”

When the war ended, and slavery was abolished, there was a rush of events and crowding changes. The negroes were generally greatly excited, and felt uncertain about the reality and security of their new freedom. Many of them moved about in troops, expecting some great dramatic or spectacular intervention of the Yankees or of Providence, for their benefit. But many soon went to work, and things connected with the condition of the negroes were becoming settled and orderly in some portions of the country ; while in others the intoxication of the emancipated people, caused by their first taste of liberty and the absence of all means of restraint, inflamed by incitements from base white men in some cases, led to the commission of horrible and indescribable outrages. I have been assured by many of the best people of the Southern States, men and women, and by both whites and blacks, that in many cases women were subjected to public insult and outrage, and the most dreadful excesses and enormities were committed. The negroes everywhere say that these accounts are true. There was almost everywhere more or less of crime and disorder among white men, which often made property and life in whole districts insecure. There was then no law; there were no courts, no officers. Society had been in great measure dissolved, and the functions of civil government suspended. In this time of peril and powerlessness the Confederate officers in many places requested the Union officers who were still in command in the South to aid them in maintaining order, until the machinery of government could be developed or created and put in operation. In many cases the reply was, “ Organize a company of good men, or retain your military organization, and the Union officers will supply you with needed arms and ammunition. Try criminals and punish them, or expel them from your communities, and you will be sustained by the military and civil authorities of the nation.” I have seen some of these letters from Union commanders, authorizing such action on the part of prominent Southerners, who had just laid down their arms.

THE “ KU-KLUX KLAN ” IS BORN.

Just here was the birth of the famous Ku-Klux Klan. What melodramatic fool first suggested the machinery of disguise, the masks, the silly emblems and pretenses, and whence he derived this grotesque idiocy, it is now too late to inquire. It seems to me there is a weakness of this kind in the character of many Southern men. They are too fond of posing. Even the leaders of the Confederacy sometimes attitudinized, for an awe-stricken world to see, more than thoroughly serious men ever do. Probably the inventor of these fripperies was some young editor, who had never seen service as a soldier. At any rate, the idea of disguise was a cowardly one, and its practical working proved in every way unfortunate. The testimony is universal in the South that what came to be called the Ku-Klux Klan was at first meant for good, and not for evil; for the suppression, and not the commission, of crimes of violence ; for the protection, and not the injury and destruction, of the weak and helpless. But here the fatal folly and mischief of the element of disguise becomes apparent. The opportunity which this masked movement and method afforded for the unrecognized and secure gratification of private personal spite and malice was too obvious and tempting not to be used and enjoyed. Old quarrels and grudges were revived, and new feuds arose out of slight reasons, because it was now so convenient and apparently so safe to quarrel. Masks were worn on both sides in such petty, miserable struggles, and the “ Ku-Klukers,” as the negroes call them, killed each other off in contests in which neither side had any real claim upon the sympathy of good men.

“ THE HUNTING OF MEN.”

For some time there was no political element, nor even any race element, in these outrages and retaliations. But acts of violence and bloodshed inflame those who commit them to a kind of insanity. The spirit of the chase was aroused by and by in large numbers of white men, of the lowest and worst class of those who had survived the war. Nothing else so exactly represents the feeling which was now developed in some regions of the South — judging from the accounts of this period which are given by all classes of those who were directly concerned — as the hunter’s excitement in the pursuit and capture or destruction of his game. The negroes became its chief objects, not, as it appears to me, so much because anybody hated the negro as because the negroes were the weakest, most helpless class,— the class that could most safely be hunted. “ The hunt was up,” and the effects of the blood-fury of the chase came mostly upon the negroes in many eases. I do not mean that this represents or describes a state of things which existed generally or throughout the South. It seems to be certain that the history of the “ Ku-Klux outrages,” as usually told and believed at the North, abounds in enormous exaggerations, as might be reasonably expected in any similar condition of society.

There was enough — there was much — of horrible wrong and outrage of the helpless and innocent. I could find nobody in the South who seemed to have the least disposition to deny, conceal, or excuse these outrages, or this part of the work of the Klan. It is generally admitted, and never defended. But everybody says alike, and intelligent negroes most emphatically of all, that the published stories and the general Northern idea of the Klan outrages were distorted and exaggerated; and it is plain that no statistics of these occurrences, or estimate of the number of victims of violence or murder, can be set forth with any serious claim to even approximate truth. No materials exist for statistics or estimates of this nature.

After some time the methods of the Klan came to be used in connection with politics and elections. It was a method of electioneering by terrorizing the voters of the opposite party. But it had some awkward features. Everywhere the hunted negroes gradually learned self-defense, and in many instances even retaliation ; and, as a negro told me in Alabama, “ it made the Ku-Klukers feel sorter solemn when the niggers tuck to Ku - Klukin’ them.” The disorder and violence in some regions became intolerable to the leading citizens, and democratic judges and juries and sheriffs used their power to break up the Klan, and to forbid its further activity.

THE SOUTHERN PLEA.

Now, to carry the analysis of the work of the Klan in politics a little farther and deeper, what are Southerners able to say for themselves in regard to it ? What was the object which they sought when they encouraged, or permitted, or committed assaults upon negroes, for the purpose of diminishing the republican vote, and why did they choose and employ such means, so unworthy of civilized people, for its accomplishment ? The nation can afford to hear patiently the Southern account of the matter ; can afford, at this late period, and as there is now no general political excitement, to allow the Southern people to speak for themselves. Intelligent Southern men say that it was a life-anddeath struggle for the destruction or preservation of civil government and of civilized society in the Southern States, and that the “ carpet-baggers,” — corrupt and unprincipled Northern men, — using the negroes as tools, were the aggressors. The negroes were in many places persuaded by these adventurers that the land now belonged to the freedmen ; that their former masters would be compelled to serve them, and that the white women of the country were to belong to the negroes. It is plainly to be seen to-day that there was, some years ago, a genuine “scare,”or panic, throughout the South, on account of the peril which was believed to threaten the Southern women, and there is abundant evidence that the intense and desperate feeling which was thus aroused was not without adequate reason.

A DARK PERIOD.

In many cases the negroes, as they themselves now say, attempted to put in practice the teaching of their “ Northern friends ” regarding this matter of the social relations between the two races. Southern men say that the South was in a hard place during “ the reconstruction period ; ” that the carpet-baggers were — not all, but very generally — such men as would not be trusted or respected in any Northern community; that they had, by means of their power over the negroes and the support of the Federal government, almost absolute sway in important and extensive regions of the South ; and that they committed with impunity the most monstrous crimes, and loaded peaceable and inoffensive individuals and communities with continual insult and intolerable injuries. They point to the enormous systems of theft, fraud, and corruption that flourished in the States which came completely under the joint dominion of the carpet-bagger and the negro, and they say that any people on earth would have resisted, and that the people of the North would not have borne a tithe of the indignities and wrongs which were heaped upon the people of the Southern States. They always lay special stress on the peril of the subversion of the social and family life of the white race in the South, and of the degradation of the white women under the power of the negroes.

THE VERGE OF RUIN.

Whatever may have been the real condition of things, intelligent Southern men evidently believe that everything that makes up civilized life, society, and government was in danger of destruction in large portions of the South, and that there was nobody to hear their appeal, or to give them relief or sympathy. The carpet-baggers, employing the negroes as instruments, set out to punish the Southern people with merciless severity and vindictiveness for having been in rebellion, and they alone had the ear of the North and of the national government. They wrote to Northern newspapers whatever fictions were convenient, or seemed necessary for their own justification, and did not scruple to create a whole literature of falsehood for the purpose of inspiring public sentiment in the North with increasing hatred of the Southern people.

GRATITUDE TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

Southern men everywhere insist that at the close of the war they all accepted the verdict of battle as final; that they were unspeakably grateful for the magnanimity of the Union generals and of Mr. Lincoln ; that the South was exhausted, and was in an agony of weariness of the war ; that the conclusion of it brought a feeling of universal relief ; and that it would have been “ the easiest thing in the world ” to inspire the Southern people generally, in the time of this great reaction, with a feeling of intense loyalty to the national government. It was the carpet-baggers, the political adventurers and thieves from the North, who brought a new war “ and all our woe ” into the South, by their efforts to establish negro supremacy there for the profit and behoof of the adventurers and thieves aforesaid. The South never believed that the North wished to oppress and ruin the Southern people, but they found it impossible to acquaint the people of the North with the true condition of things in the South.

THE NEGRO VOTE TO BE QUIETLY NEUTRALIZED.

The best and least objectionable method of counteracting these evils, and of warding off the perils which thus threatened to engulf the South in financial, social, and moral ruin, has seemed to Southern men to be the obstruction or “ management ” for the time being of the right of suffrage in the hands of the negroes. So the blacks are in various ways hindered from voting the republican ticket, or their vote is in some way, neutralized after it has been cast. This may not be done at every election, but it has been done recently in several parts of the South, and it is likely to be done again. Whatever may have been true in former times, all the leading citizens of the States I have named, democrats, and actors in the management of the political power of the negroes, now appear to be sincerely desirous of accomplishing this object— the neutralization of the negro vote — without violence or bloodshed. I gave special attention everywhere to this subject of political disturbances or outrages, and I was unable to find any evidence or indication whatever of such disturbances having occurred during recent years, or of violence in connection with politics in which white men were actors.

I investigated as thoroughly as possible several accounts of important outrages, which, during the last few years, had excited our indignation in the North, and I found that the occurrences upon which these accounts were based had taken place many years before, in that almost mythical period of the first few years after the war, about which it is now safe to say almost anything; that the story of these events had been brought down to later times ; and that, in some instances, a single disturbance had been utilized as the basis of stories of three or four separate outrages, located in different States. About all these matters I learned some things which interested me much, and which I could not have understood so well by any other means as by visiting the scenes of the outrages, and talking with the people of all classes about them.

Of course I cannot speak from direct observation or with positive knowledge, and say that no disturbances or outrages had occurred recently in connection with politics in the regions which I visited last year. I mean merely that after talking with the people of all parties and political sentiments and opinions, and especially with the negroes everywhere, the impression made upon my mind was very strong that little or nothing of the kind had taken place for several years. What may have happened in out-of-theway corners or portions of the South I do not pretend to say, but I explored all the great black districts.

THEIR REASONS.

The feeling of the leading citizens of these Southern States, who thus suppress the negro republican vote, and their reason for doing it, appear to be simply that it is necessary ; that it is the only means known to them or available for preserving the life of the State. They say, and seem to believe sincerely enough, that while the negro vote is controlled by the unscrupulous politicians, who are now, for the most part, the local leaders and managers of the republican party in the States spoken of, if this vote were not in some way suppressed or neutralized these States would pass at once under the control of an organized system of brigandage, of theft under the forms of law, which would soon almost entirely destroy the whole property or wealth of the people. They say that dishonest appropriations and excessive taxation would soon be carried to such an extent that not only would all enterprise and industry be paralyzed, but the state debt would soon exceed the value of all the taxable property in the State. They say that they have nothing against the negro, nor against his enjoyment of the right of suffrage, although they think there are difficulties connected with this matter of negro suffrage which would be regarded as grave and trying by any Northern State. They have no wish to oppress anybody, and they feel that the methods which I am describing are objectionable. They do not like to employ them, and if anybody can suggest ways or means by which honest government can be maintained, and the difficulties connected with negro suffrage overcome, without interference with the negro’s voting, they would be glad to adopt them.

“ OLD WHIGS ” WHO HATE THE NAME OF DEMOCRAT.

These men say further, everywhere, that they do not care at all for the democratic party; that they do not care what party controls the South, if these difficulties can be overcome, and property and industry can be made secure ; that anybody is welcome to hold the offices and govern their States who will do so honestly. “ We simply want such state governments as you usually have in the North.” This was said to me many times in the States of which I am now writing. I was somewhat surprised to find large numbers of men who are leaders in the democratic party in the South who said, as they said to me repeatedly, “Weare no democrats.” In meeting men of this class I constantly heard such utterances as this : “ I am no democrat. For my part, my political education was that of a whig. My father was a whig, and I grew up with his ideas and sentiments regarding political matters. I despise the very name of democrat. There is not a principle or a tradition belonging to the organization which I approve, I wish to God we might have an administration party, a republican party, in our State, that a gentleman could belong to without the sacrifice of all honesty and self-respect. What in the name of Heaven is the reason that the republican party in the South is left in the hands of such men as its local managers usually are ? ”

DO NOT WISH TO BE “ SOLID.”

They go on to say, as in Alabama, in Mississippi, and in Louisiana many of them said to me, that it is a misfortune to the South and to the nation to have the South solid ; that the South does not wish to be solid, but that it really seems to be the interest or the wish of most of the local republican politicians in the Southern States to keep the South solid as long as possible. I was told of several cases in which democrats had offered to support honest republicans for office if the republican managers would allow them to be nominated, but the proposition was rejected with scorn. Some of the republican leaders spoke to me of these offers from the democrats, and said that such propositions were equivalent to Saying that if the republican party in that county or district would “ abandon its organization ” the democrats would abandon theirs. “ But,” said the republicans, “ we shall never relinquish our organization, nor sacrifice our principles, till the democratic party is entirely broken up.”

LONGING FOR CHANGE.

There appeared to be but little partisan feeling among the democratic leaders. I could not help observing everywhere that they seemed tired of the long antagonism over the peculiar elements in Southern politics, and I think many of them would welcome any change which should not involve dishonor, or the sacrifice of what is essential to the maintenance of society and civilization. I could discover no evidence of evil feelings or designs among these men, or of the peculiar depravity which has so often been attributed to them by Northern politicians and journalists. They are such men as, in Massachusetts and Ohio, we expect to find in the highest places in the republican party. But there is a great deal of the feeling among them that almost anything would be justifiable if it were the necessary or only means of keeping their States out of the control of the present local managers of the republican party in the South ; this feeling arising from their conviction that such control would result, wherever it might be established, in the complete prostration and ruin of all the interests and institutions of civilized society.

THE NEGROES.

In the towns and near them, and wherever the white people greatly outnumber the negroes, there are some colored men who are as intelligent in regard to political matters as the average of the operatives in a New England factory town; but even in such places most of the negro voters are entirely incapable of forming opinions or judgments of their own in regard to political principles, doctrines, or activities. I met in various places a few negroes who are men of much intelligence, and who are probably not inferior, in any respect, to average members of our national legislature. There is a considerable number of colored men engaged in teaching in the Southern States, who are excellent and thoroughly competent workers in their important profession, and many of the clergymen of their race are making earnest and laborious efforts for selfimprovement and the elevation of their people. I find myself dwelling lingeringly on every particular feature and fact of the favorable side of this subject, — the condition of the colored people.

THE SAD TRUTH.

But I must come to the depressing truth of the general, almost the universal, condition and character of the negroes in the black districts. They have made some improvement in regard to industry or labor. A very few in these regions have an increasing desire for the acquisition of property, and are beginning to save their earnings, or at least to expend them less recklessly than formerly. But as to any knowledge, intelligence, or judgment, such as should equip a man, even in the lowest degree, for the exercise of the right or power of suffrage, I cannot see that they know anything about it, or possess it any more than sheep do. If by a vote we mean, according to the definition long ago enunciated by Horace Greeley, “ that by which the will, preference, or opinion of a person is expressed ; ” if we mean anything which is the voluntary and purposed act of a man, with the object of announcing a decision, choice, or judgment which he has formed or arrived at, then these negroes are not able to vote, and do not vote. They have the “ right ” to vote under the law, but they have no real power or ability to vote. They do not and cannot choose ; they have no knowledge of what is involved on one side or the other. They have no materials for an opinion or judgment, nor any ability to form a preference or decision regarding political matters. They know nothing of the position, doctrines, history, traditions, or aims of either party, and they have no idea or notion whatever of their respective merits or principles. They simply vote as they are told to vote by the local republican managers, and that is the whole matter. So far as I can learn, it seems probable that they would vote for anything or any man bearing the republican name. They attribute whatever is good or desirable in their present condition to the influence and agency of the republican party, and hope for impossible things from the same source in the future.