%images;]>LCRBMRP-T2802The Voice of the carpet bagger ... : Pub. for the Anti-lynching bureau.: a machine-readable transcription.Collection: African-American Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1820-1920; American Memory, Library of Congress.Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.

Washington, 1994.

Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.

This transcription intended to be 99.95% accurate.

For more information about this text and this American Memory collection, refer to accompanying matter.

21-000052Daniel Murray Pamphlet Collection, 1860-1920, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress.Copyright status not determined.
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RECONSTRUCTION REVIEW. The Voice of the Carpet Bagger.

I sing the hymn of the vanquished, who fell in the battle of life-The hymn of the wounded, the beaten, who died overborne in the strife,Not the jubilant song of the victors for whom the resounding acclaimOf nations was lifted in chorus, whose brows wore the chaplet of fame,But the hymn of the low, and the humble, the weary and broken in heart,Who strove and who failed, acting bravely a silent and desperate part;Whose youth bore no flower on its branches, whose hopes burned in ashes away.From whose hands slipped the prize they had grasped at, who stood at the dying of day,With the work of their life all around them, unpitied, unheeded, alone,With death swooping down o'er their failure and all but their faith overthrown.Address: No. 2939 Princeton Ave., Chicago, Illinois.Published for theANTI-LYNCHING BUREAU.1901

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INDEX.Introduction.3The Voice of the Carpet Bagger5Before Reconstruction5A Yankee Lumberman's Experience..8Gen. Longstreet's Experience11The Average Congressman12Barbarous14A Comparison15The Last Decade of the Nineteenth Century15An Experiment15False Witnesses16The Strong Arm of Force19The Final Settlement of the Southern Question28A South Carolina Gentleman30Tillman31South Carolina32Observe the Difference34How the Bloody Work Goes On37Christian Civilization of New Orleans38A Southern Sabbath44A Memory48An Object Lesson.48

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INTRODUCTION.

This is the first number of a series which the author intends to publish. It may be either an annual or a quarterly or a monthly, as the support given shall permit. The friends of Equal Rights--the American people who love Justice and hate lawless cruelty are earnestly called to help. All who feel that the horrible brutality of mobs is a disgrace to our country, all who would have the innocent protected and the guilty lawfully punished are called to the great conflict of Right against Wrong.

We are told that the memory of the evil days when Ku Klux and White Leaguers extinguished the free governments of the Reconstructed States in blood, should not be revived; that the past must not be recalled. But these advocates of oblivion of those lawless deeds make no protest when southern orators and organs exultingly boast of the achievements by which their party gained control.

The Times-Democrat of New Orleans, a leading organ of the Southern Democracy, on October 8th of the present year said: "It is clear to every intelligent observer that the direction and manipulation of the Republican party in the Southern States during the last thirty-five years has been one of the scarlet infamies of American politics. The record of the Republican party in the South since 1868. blazed as it has been by the subversion of every law of right and decency." "It is no exaggeration to state that no people were ever so cruelly subjected to the rule of ignorant, vicious and criminal classes as were the southern people in the awful days of reconstruction."

"It is both wise and right that the new generation should keep that splendid though terrible picture vividly in mind, not for purposes of revenge, but as an object lesson which knaves and charlatans may read with terror."

That is the way the South forgets the past. The meaning of the last words is plain. It is a threat that whenever Republicans anywhere in the South attempt to exercise the rights of American citizens with prospect of success at the polls, the bloody methods of the White League will be revived to strike them with terror.

The author is prepared to prove that most of the charges made against Carpet-Baggers were false; that most of the men thus stigmatized were soldiers and officers who served in the Union army during the war with untarnished records. That they went South with abundant capital, and were financially ruined, many of them before the Reconstruction acts were adopted by Congress, and then took part in the great political struggle, moved thereto by the same unselfish, patriotic impulse which years before prompted them to enlist in their country's service.

He is prepared to show that southern witnesses made no attempt to prove the truth of the slanders invented for the purpose 0004of discrediting the Republican leaders, but depended upon repeated assertions instead of proof.

If the friends of Truth and Right give us sufficient support to pay the actual cost of publication, the series of pamphlets will be continued.

All readers who can furnish information of the events of the Reconstruction period or of the lynching now occurring in the South, are requested to write.

The facts stated in this work are found chiefly in official reports published by Congress, the results of investigations by committees sent South to learn the truth. The volume entitled, "Riots in New Orleans, 1866. Report No. 16. Second Session, 39th Congress."

Also report of committee that investigated the election of 1875 in Mississippi, and of the two committees that investigated the election of 1876 in the states of South Carolina and Louisiana.

The incidents of the New Orleans riot in 1900 are taken from the leading dailies of that city published at the time.

The author is anxious to avoid exaggeration and to write only the truth.

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The Voice of the Carpet Bagger.

The men called Carpet Baggers were brave soldiers or gallant officers of the Union army who went South immediately after the end of the war. They took with them abundant capital and engaged in legitimate business enterprises.

During the period of two years when Johnson's policy prevailed, they were financially ruined by the hostility of the former rebels. About the time that they found themselves bankrupt by the systematic persecution to which they were exposed, the congressional scheme of reconstruction was developed, and these loyal men attempted the tremendous task of Reconstruction. Without their help no state south of Virginia and Tennessee could have been organized under a loyal government. For this patriotic service they were blasted by the vilest slander that baffled traitors could invent, their reward was the contempt of friends, the distrust of comrades, and in many cases death by the hand of the assassin. And after that their names were blackened and their memory made infamous by the lies of their murderers. The work they so bravely wrought has been destroyed and the gigantic power for evil is now advancing step by step in its lawless march to victory.

BEFORE RECONSTRUCTION

Most people have been made to believe that the ill-will of the South was caused by the Carpet Baggers, whose misgovernment exasperated the white men of that section. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Read the proof:

In June, 1866, a congressional committee, appointed several months before, made a report on the existing conditions in the South. They said:

"The evidence of an intense hostility to the Federal union * * * is decisive. The bitterness and defiance exhibited towards the United States under such circumstances is without a parallel in the history of the world.

"Officers of the Union army on duty, and Northern men who go South to engage in business, are generally detested and proscribed. Southern men who adhered to the Union are bitterly hated and relentlessly persecuted."

In December, 1866, a committee appointed by the House of Representatives took testimony in Louisiana.

Rufus K. Cutler, who had lived in and near New Orleans twenty-two years, was a witness. He had been judge of a local court and United States senator- elect. He testified that:00066"In the city of New Orleans many societies have been formed by the rebels, such as the society among merchants not to employ a clerk except he be of rebel sentiments: a society among clerks not to be employed by any but rebel employers, and among steamboat captains and pilots not to be employed by any but rebels. These societies are formed in every department of business in the city of New Orleans."

Hon. R. K. Howell, then a judge in the highest court of the state, and had been district judge before the war, testified: "The feeling of enmity against the government and against Southern loyalists is, if possible, more intense than in was during the war."

Mr. Nat Paige was another witness. He said: "I went to New Orleans with Gen. Banks, when he took command of the department there, in the capacity of correspondent of the New York Tribune. I was at that time intimate with many of the officers, having been engaged with the army from the commencement of the war and coming in contact with all the leading citizens there. After the close of the war, from the time of Lee's surrender until the change of policy by Mr. Johnson--as it is called--or rather the time he commenced pardoning leading rebels, the sentiment was very favorable indeed. Northern men were not persecuted in any way. I traveled very extensively in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, on business, and I met with no annoyance or persecution, until the leaders had been pardoned, the large, wealthy planters, and those who had been leaders in the rebellion. After they had been pardoned and their plantations had gone back to them, then they commenced agitating political questions of state organization, etc. From that very moment Northern men began to be oppressed and annoyed excessively by the commencement of suits against them in the state courts, especially those who had been engaged in planting during the war on those plantations, which, in large numbers, had been in possession of the government and were leased by its agents. I think there was a concerted movement upon the part of the leading politicians of Louisiana and Alabama to drive out from the business of planting, all Northern men who had been there, and, not only that, but from all business avocations in New Orleans, for many Northern men had gone there upon the arrival of Gen. Banks, and had established large mercantile houses.

"They made no distinction between the Southern Yankee, as they termed him, and the Northern Yankee. They were all classed together as enemies of the Southern cause.

"I think it is almost impossible now" (Jan., 1867), continued Mr. Paige, "for Northern men to prosecute business successfully. It has been growing worse continually and is growing worse to-day. They are oppressed in every way. Parties who leased plantations there from private individuals, or from the government, have had suits brought against them in the courts for damages to the plantation, while they were lessees, many of them of the United States, and their plantations under the control of the military authorities, 00077suits of from $20,000 to $80,000 and $100,000, against the lessees. There is scarcely a lessee who has not had one or more of these suits brought against him."

Mr. Paige explained that the lessees and the owners, being residents of the same state, the defendants could not appeal to the national courts, and there was no hope of justice from Southern tribunals. Many of those abandoned plantations were owned by prominent rebels, who, on receiving a pardon from President Johnson, "commenced suits instantly against the lessees for the crops they had taken off during the war, and for the loss of personal property, stock and agricultural implements. And that system of oppression has been extended to those who leased from loyal owners and from those whose plantations were not seized."

Mr. Paige left the South before the close of the year 1866, and his examination before the committee was in the city of Washington. He added: "Many of the Northern men have already abandoned their enterprises and of those who remain nine-tenths would leave at once if they were not sustained by the hope that Congress would promptly enact laws for the protection of loyal men in the South."

Such was the condition of Union men in the South before the reconstruction acts were passed.

Col. Henry N. Frisbie was another witness. After leaving the army at the end of the war he engaged in planting in Rapides parish. Louisiana. In answer to a question as to the feeling towards Union men, he answered:

"It is very hostile towards army officers and those persons known and recognized in the community as Union men. I have had nothing to do with politics in any way, shape or manner." He explained that the hostile feeling was manifested: "By threats, by arrests, frivolous suits, by attempts to decoy and draw off my hands, by false stories and in almost every conceivable way wherein a community united, could and did try to break up, ruin and drive out a man.

"I went up there with a very large force of hands, some four hundred who had belonged to my regiment. I took with me a very large amount of capital, not less than ($25,000) a quarter of a million of dollars. I let everything alone that would interfere with my success in planting. I cultivated five of the largest plantations in the parish, successfully, made a crop, but the jealousy and hatred of those people have compelled me to abandon everything.

"I established a store there and stocked it with over $50,000 worth of goods. I erected a very large gin and other buildings." This was a man from Illinois who had served as captain and lieutenant-colonel in the Thirty- seventh Regiment from that state before he took command of the Ninety-second United States Colored Regiment in Louisiana. Be it noted that not the slightest attempt was made by the Democratic witnesses to contradict or impeach 00088his statements. And observe, also, that his experience was all included in the year 1866. There was then a white man's government in the state. Neither negro voter nor Carpet Bagger had the least political power or influence.

EXPERIENCES OF A YANKEE LUMBERMAN

Capt. A--of New England, after three years' service, was mustered out at New Orleans in 1864. He was familiar with the lumber business before he enlisted and seeing the opportunities for success in that line, he sent for his family and set to work. Along the northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain were vast tracts of wooded land, abounding with valuable timber, and sloops navigating that sheet of water came by means of the canals to the very heart of the city. Capt. A. invested $30,000 in the enterprise. His mill was soon running, his yard filled with good lumber and the business was vigorously prosecuted. From the first he prospered, for he possessed every requisite for success-sufficient capital, a thorough knowledge of the business, and the skill, energy and perseverance which his people seldom lack. His prosperity continued and increased, until the war ended. But soon after the return of peace, when he expected an enlarged trade and an extension of business to follow the removal of the restrictions upon intercourse with the interior, he found, instead, a strange and sudden blight. Orders for lumber fell off unaccountably; owners of the sailing craft on the lake began to demand unreasonable rates for freight; his white employees left him without any apparent cause, and in a few weeks his business was so crippled that it no longer paid expenses. At first he could not understand it. A silent, irresistible power had laid its invisible curse upon his enterprise. He soon found that his friends in all the various pursuits and occupations of business life, were in a like manner smitten by the blighting influence, which, like the evil eye of the old-time fable, made all human skill and energy of no avail. The secret cause became apparent, when those Northern men reflected that the return of the rebel soldiers to the city and the strange decay of business were almost simultaneous. And whispers of midnight gatherings, and of secret signs and cabalistic words, dimly seen or faintly heard by loyal men in certain quarters of the city began to be understood, while they waited idly for the customers who formerly sought their doors in crowds well pleased and friendly. But now they came no more, for men unknown to the waiting merchant paced up and down, not far away, and people who seemed inclined to enter, warned by some slight sign or unintelligible word, hesitated, looked about and passed on.

Reflecting on the subject, Capt. A. recalled to mind that New Orleans had been a center of disloyalty in the early days of the rebellion, a hot-bed of treason. He therefore concluded that prejudice and intolerance were naturally greater and fiercer there than 00099in remote rural districts. He knew that vast tracts of splendid forest extended along the Red river and its many branches; so he determined to go into that region and continue his efforts. He sold his property in the city and vicinity at a loss and set out on his new venture. A locality was soon found combining every natural advantage, affording facilities beyond anything he ever saw in his old Northern home:

Immense forests of pine and cypress stretching along tranquil streams and deep bayous, rivers never closed by ice, their navigation seldom interrupted by lack of water, unbroken communication by steam and sail with the greatest city of the gulf coast and with the boundless plains of Texas. Yet these dense forests of the most valuable timber on the continents, thus easy of access and convenient to the best markets in the world, could be bought at prices ranging from 25 cents to $1 per acre.

FOLLOWED INTO THE WILDERNESS

Encouraged by the prospect, he brought heavy machinery, boilers and engines, and in spite of enormous difficulties, lack of roads and bridges in the swamps, the work was done. All obstacles were conquered and his mill, giving employment either directly or indirectly to a hundred men, was soon running. Up to that time he met with no opposition. The people of the vicinity, mostly poor country farmers, seemed pleased to have him come among them. They understood that his enterprise was a benefit to them, marking a market for many things their little farms produced and which could not before be sold at any price. But even in that remote region the influence of the secret league made its way, and just as success seemed certain and the captain was writing to his distant friends that all was well, the change began. The chiefs of the conspiracy in the city had by that time extended the order over the whole state. They waited until the intruding Yankee had invested his money in permanent improvement and then--as it had been in the city so it was in the country--an invisible, irresistible power, enveloped him and his business and his friends.

But its methods were somewhat changed. As he shipped his lumber to distant markets, the secret order could not drive off the purchasers as in the city. First a bridge, which he had built over a deep, muddy stream, and across which his teams daily brought scores of huge cypress logs, was burned at night. Some of the neighbors said it was accidental; others said the "niggers" did it. Then his mules strangely escaped from the yard on a dark, stormy night, and only a part of them could be found after an expensive search. Then the colored men at work for him, cutting pine logs in the hills, were threatened by armed whites and shot at till they were frightened away. Along with these annoyances came vexatious legal proceedings, by which the captain was compelled to go to the court-house town, more than twenty miles away, to answer the 001010charge. But no prosecutor appeared, or else the case was abandoned or withdrawn. The charges were always for minor offenses, trespass, or enticing a negro from his employer, or hiring one who had left a former employer, and were always utterly baseless. As soon as the captain was again at home, trying by exhausting efforts to make up for lost time, another writ or summons would be served by which he was forced to leave his work and spend one or two days at court, only to find the case abandoned or postponed.

And when he again returned to his mill it was to find some new vexation awaiting him--loss of stock, negroes driven from their work or their cabins, white men leaving his service without visible cause or warning. Steamers bringing his freight from the city made the most unaccountable mistakes, left it at the wrong landing or failed to bring it at all. Rafts of logs and lumber, floating down the river to market, were wrecked on snags or bars, which never caused loss to others.

AND FINALLY RUINED

Such was the welcome he received from the people whose country he wished to improve and in which he had made his home. Finally, in just one year from the commencement of his enterprise he was reduced to the necessity of selling his watch to pay the passage of himself and family back to the city, where he landed in absolute poverty. Not one dollar remained of the $30,000 with which he so hopefully entered into business in 1864. In all this time he had taken no part in politics. There was no Republican party in the state, the legislature was composed of old citizens, most of whom had been active rebels. There was then no voting negro, nor office-seeking carpetbagger to rouse the indignation of the South.

All the loyal men who were witnesses before that committee testified that this intense hatred existed in the South. General Conway of the Freedmen's Bureau; Hon. Hugh Kennedy, mayor of New Orleans from March, 1865, to March, 1866; John Burke, chief of police during Kennedy's administration, and Governor Wells, all affirmed the same.

And it may be observed that not one of the Democrats called as witnesses, by a committee of eminent citizens appointed for that purpose, attempted to impeach them or deny the facts they stated.

It was in evidence that all the Union men were dismissed from the police of New Orleans early in 1866, and all the Union teachers removed from the public schools. All this array of proof shows that it was not "Carpet Bag and Nigger" rule that embittered the people of the South against the North.

All this was before the Reconstruction acts were passed by Congress, before any negro in the South could vote, or any Northern man could be elected to office.

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LONGSTREET'S EXPERIENCE

When the war ended, no man in the Southern army stood higher than Longstreet, except General Lee. His popularity was unbounded. And he was respected by all who knew him in the North. General Grant requested President Johnson to pardon him in November, 1865. Johnson refused, but Congress at its next session removed his political disabilities. General Longstreet thus describes his experience as to Reconstruction:

"In January, 1866, I engaged in business in New Orleans with the Owens Brothers, old soldiers of the Washington Artillery, as cotton factors, and speedily found fair prosperity. Before the year was out I was asked to take position in an insurance company.* * I accepted the place with a salary of five thousand dollars, and my affairs were more than prosperous until I was asked an opinion upon the political crisis of 1867.

"President Johnson after the war adopted a reconstruction policy of his own and some of the states were reorganized under it with Democratic governors, and legislatures, and all would have followed. But Congress being largely Republican, was not satisfied and enacted that the states could not be accepted unless they provided in their new constitutions for negro suffrage. One of the city papers of New Orleans called upon the generals of Confederate service to advise the people of the course they should persue-- naming the officers."

On June 3, 1867, General Longstreet wrote to J. M. G. Parker a very moderate statement of his views. He thought the South should accept the Reconstruction plan of Congress--as it was the best they could do, and give it a fair trial, trusting that Congress would make such changes as experience might show to be needed. The general continues:

"The afternoon of the day upon which my letter was published, the paper that had called for advice published a column of editorial, calling me a traitor! deserter of my friends, and accused me of joining the enemy, but did not publish a line of the letter upon which it based the charges. Other papers of the Democracy took up the garbled representations of this journal and spread it broadcast, not even giving the letter upon which they based their evil attacks upon me.

"The day after the announcement, old comrades passed me on the street without speaking. Business began to grow dull * * and in a few weeks I found myself at leisure."

Of all his old comrades only one, General Hood, continued to visit him. Ladies refused to ride in the same car with him, and he found himself an outcast in the land of his birth. This incident alone is enough to show the savage, malignant temper of the South before the first of the Reconstructed governments was organized. Nearly two years after this occurred, General Grant, having 001212become president, appointed Longstreet surveyor of customs for the port of New Orleans.

Immediately the Southern malignant asserted that Longstreet had sold his honor for an office and a systematic effort was made to blacken his reputation as a soldier, and make the world believe he had failed to do his duty when a general in the Confederate army.

THE AVERAGE CONGRESSMAN-WHAT HE DON'T KNOW

No man is fit to make laws for a great nation, like ours, and help shape its policy and direct its destiny, unless he is familiar with history. Especially familiar with the political history of the nation for which he assumes to legislate. It is an astounding fact that many, we might even say the most of our congressmen are ignorant of the very subject which they should understand most thoroughly.

At the end of the war, which saved the Union from disruption, began the most important period in our national history.

After two years of uncertainty, the Reconstruction Acts were adopted by Congress--in March, 1867. Under those acts the states that had waged war against the Union were reorganized.

But in April, 1877, the last of all those reconstructed governments were swept away and the Faction which divided the Union in 1861, and fought desperately for secession, again resumed undisputed sway over all the vast region that sixteen years before lay under the Rebel flag. That period--that single decade in which this double transformation was wrought, is the most important in our history. The work of Reconstruction began in 1867 was delayed by the persistent opposition of the white people. If they had taken the advice of General Longstreet--had accepted the conditions honestly, neither negroes nor Carpet Baggers could have found place in the new governments. All the important positions would have been filled by competent Southern men. In many cases they were urged to accept nominations, but almost to a man refused. If they had shown a willingness to treat the negroes with fairness and justice, they might have controlled the whole policy of the new South.

But the laws that had been enacted by the legislatures elected under Johnson's scheme, made the emancipated negroes mere serfs. Mississippi forbid them to own land--and they were not allowed to rent land for cultivation. Louisiana made it impossible for a negro to leave, even for an hour, the plantation on which he worked without a written permit. And he was subject to arrest if he set foot on any white man's land in his walk, unless the owner's permission was previously obtained. Everywhere in the South he was hedged about with intolerable legal restrictions. Is it strange that the negro welcomed the men of the North who believed in liberty, justice and Equal Rights? The moment the reconstructed 001313governments were formed, the work of destruction was begun by the malignant enemies of freedom. From every Democratic press--from every Democratic speaker--a torrent of slander burst forth and continued day after day till their object was attained.

The work of murder was begun even before the first election in the Reconstructed states and nothing but the presence of the United States soldiers made it possible to have an election.

The statesmen at Washington failed to understand the conditions, and struggling Republicans who formed the new governments received but slight assistance from the Nation. They and the entire people of the North were half paralyzed by the flood of Southern lies--they hesitated and finally allowed the former rebels to work their will and destroy the only free governments ever known in the South. Congress looked tamely on while the revolution was in progress and thousands of citizens were brutally slaughtered by political assassins. While "Wrath and Hate And sordid selfishness and cruel lust. Leagued their base bands to crush out Light and Truth."The revolution was thus accomplished, not by open, honorable war, but by secret conspiracies, assassinations, midnight raids, murders, fraud, perjury, by every crime that ever blackened the annals of the world.

And it is this important period of our history of which Mr. Average is grossly ignorant. He has never spent a single hour in its study. To him the story of those ten eventful years is a sealed book. More than fifty volumes of evidence taken by congressional committees during that wonderful period are lying in the national capital. He knows nothing of them. Scores of reports written by the most distinguished statesmen--leaders in our national councils who helped to guide the ship of state through the storm of war. the statesmen who gathered around Lincoln and Grant--are there at his hand, but he has never seen them.

Those reports set forth most plainly the true condition of the South at that time, and recount the horrid crimes committed to gain power.

Ask Mr. Average Congressman about Reconstruction and he will reply in the flippant style of his tribe: "Oh, that is ancient history! All is well no. It was a mistake to make the negroes citizens. Adventurers rushed down South and by misleading the colored voters got themselves elected to office. They were after the money and robbed the unfortunate people for their own benefit. It was this horde of unprincipled wretches made all the trouble. They openly boasted that whenever the whites killed a few negroes it helped them to carry the election. They kept the South in constant turmoil till the Better Element--the Respectable citizens sent them home. Since then peace and quiet prevails. The South is 001414prosperous, we are now a reunited people. All is well. Let us forget the past and think of the future."

All is well? When nearly a million of American citizens are deprived of the most sacred rights of Free men? All well, when men and women are lynched almost daily without the slightest proof of guilt; when human beings are burned alive-without trial-without the slightest opportunity for defence. It will never be well till all such. "Average Congressmen" are retired to the obscurity in which such shameful ignorance should be buried.

BARBEROUS, BRUTAL, DISGUSTING

On several occasions when Southern papers have described the burning alive of a negro, they also told how the spectators scrambled for fragments of the mutilated body, many of the fragments cut from the living victim after he is chained to the stake and while the flames are kindling around him. Ears, toes, fingers are among the trophies thus secured and highly prized by the chivalry! Half burned bones raked from the bloody ashes, and pieces of scorched human flesh are carried away and proudly shown in the streets of Southern cities.

When Samuel Hase was burned on Sunday, April 23, 1900. a leading journal of Atlanta, Ga., described "The eagerness with which the people grabbed after souvenirs. They almost fought over the ashes of the dead criminal. Large pieces of his flesh were carried away, and persons were seen walking through the streets carrying bones in their hands. When all the larger bones, together with the flesh had been carried away by the early comers, others scraped in the ashes, etc." What a picture of refinement! How it must impress the world with astonishment and wonder as the "High standard of Southern civilization," is thus displayed, and illustrated by this object lesson on a Christian Sabbath within a few miles of the capital of Georgia. Early that day the news spread through Atlanta that a negro would be burned at Newnan. A special excursion train was promptly engaged to take people to the show. "All aboard for the burning-special train to Newnan," was the cry of the promoters of the excursion. And the cars were soon filled. After this train moved out another was made up to accommodate those people who had been at church. In this way some 2,000 citizens of Atlanta were conveyed to the burning. Among them were many prominent leading men, not one of whom protested against this most horrible murder of an American citizen, without trail, without proof of his guilt. And his disjointed members, his fire-blackened bones and his half-roasted flesh was borne far and wide in the hands of the superior race into the refined christian homes of Georgia! What could be more shameful, what more loathsome? And be it noted that the story of this brutality and loathsome savagery is not told by outsiders, but published 001515in the papers which approve and encourage the horrible scenes they describe.

A COMPARISON

The parish of Ouachita (Washitaw), Louisiana, was under Republican rule eight years, from 1868 to the end of 1876. During that time several Republicans were murdered because they were Republicans. But no case of lynching occurred or was attempted in all those years. At the beginning of 1877, the Democrats regained control; from that time every official was an old citizen, a white Democrat. In the next period of eight years, eleven men were lynched--two white and nine colored. These lynchings occurred at intervals, one in 1877, four in 1878, one in 1879, two in 1881, and three in 1884. These were for common crimes, having no connection with politics whatever. Here we have the singular fact that during the whole period of Radical government--when our enemies asserted that corrupt, incompetent officers filled every position, the "Better Element," "The Oldest and Best," did not find it needful to lynch anybody or even attempt to lynch, yet when all political power was in the hands of this same "Better Element," a resort to mob law was necessary. Who will explain?

"IS IT WELL THAT AN OLD AGE IS OUT AND TIME TO BEGIN A NEW

In the period of ten years ending with the year 1900. in the last decade of the nineteenth century, more than 1,600 American citizens were lynched. Not one of all that number had a legal trial. Not one of them was proved guilty of any crime. They were suspected or accused, and then murdered by mobs. Fifteen of them were deliberately burned alive.

Our nation stands before the world at the beginning of the twentieth century stained with this horrid record! All christendom may well point fingers of scorn and cry in the words of the Hebrew prophet:

"O, NATION THAT HATH NO SHAME"

And the disgraceful stain grows broader and darker as every month of the new century adds to the number of these monstrous crimes.

In the eight months of this new century ending August 31, fully one hundred persons were lynched--three of them burned at the stake.

WHICH SHALL IT BE?

This issue of the Carpet Bagger is an experiment. It may prove to be only:"A cry of shipwreck on a shoreless sea."

001616

A voice speaking for the Right and against the Wrong, but speaking in vain. It may be a voice overborne by the howling of brutal mobs. A voice crying for justice, but silenced by the shouts of lawless lynchers, who in their turn shall be silenced by the roar of battle which will follow if the American people permit the fast growing evil to continue.

The blood of the victims shed by the crowds of murderers whose feet haste to do evil will not always sink in the ground unavenged, but its appeal will rise to the Judge of all the earth and the day of Recompense will surely come at last.

But our experiment may succeed. The feeble voice may wax stronger and stronger till the American people give heed and crush the horrible monster whom southern assassins fatten upon the blood of the innocent.

FALSE WITNESSES-ASSERTION

The people of the North have believed Southern assertion without proof- without asking for proof. They have believed the vilest slanders against their own comrades who went South after the war. Malignant rebels who called Lincoln a "Tyrant," "A Nero," were believed when they traduced the loyal men who supported Lincoln. The Southerner who called Grant "A drunken Butcher" was believed when he cursed Grant's brave soldiers who sought to make homes in the region over which they upheld the national flag.

Such credulity is unaccountable, yet it existed in the Reconstruction period, and exists to-day.

Why the man who asserted that Jeff Davis was a nobler character than Lincoln, should be implicitly believed when he said our comrades were penniless adventurers, unworthy to live among the Southern chivalry whom they had defeated in battle, is a question not yet answered.

None of the monstrous charges made against Carpet Baggers were ever proved. Who ever saw any proof? Open any volume of the reports of congressional committees--and those volumes number more than fifty--and what do we find? Assertions, page after page of assertions--and scarcely a line of proof.

The witnesses whose sworn statements fill thousands of pages were lawyers, judges, editors, doctors, planters. All honorable men. "The Better Element," "The Intelligence of the South," "The Chivalry."

Here is a sample: A judge in East Feliciana, Louisiana, the Hon. Thomas B. Lyons, was a witness in 1877. He gave the congressional committee the Democratic version of the political troubles in his parish. He said the trouble began in June, 1875--that the White League Clubs were organized at that time.

Please remember the date, June, 1875. Some of his friends, 001717prominent citizens, said it was "mid-summer of 1875" they organized.

Judge Lyons said: "To make as short a story as possible, there has been very great mal-administration in the affairs of the parish ever since 1868. We have had officers who were incompetent and venal, especially magistrates, justices of the peace, who had criminal jurisdiction, to make arrests in all cases, and who had civil jurisdiction up to the amount of one hundred dollars. They were generally men of gross ignorance and venality and they exercised their offices with great oppression and extortion. The whole government of the parish was bad in the extreme. People began to lose confidence and respect for the government. They lost respect for every kind of government because of the management of our affairs. The district courts failed more than half the time to be held according to law.

It was almost possible to be acquitted of any crime for the paltry costs--the district attorney's fees included.

Numerous instances have come under my observation where for fifteen dollars, payment of the district attorney's fees, the most heinous crimes were nol-prossed.

That continued for years. The prosperity of the parish waned-declined. People lost all respect for the law and spoke of it with contempt and held a great many of the legal officers in contempt. "The parish court was presided over for four years by men utterly incompetent. One was a foreigner who had recently come to the country, another was a man who had been a blacksmith."

"He was an honest man, but utterly incompetent to fill the office. The criminals went unpunished and people began to think that the only way in the world to protect their property was to do it with the strong arm of force."

Such was the stump speech made by Judge Lyons from the witness stand. A wild harangue, in which not a single fact is mentioned. He did not cite a single instance of incompetence or of fraud--did not name a single criminal who escaped punishment. When asked as to names and dates, he said:

"The first parish judge we had was Boedecker, a German, elected in 1868, for two years. He was an intelligent man. A man of education. He spoke our language, but with an accent."

That was all this wordy witness could say against the first Republican judge.

The next was L. N. Pitkin, a white lawyer of Southern birth. In answer to questions. Judge Lyons said:

"I can't say he was incompetent. He was a lawyer and did very well."

After him came Hughes, the man who had been a blacksmith.

"An honest man," Lyons said, "but not cultivated by education."

Hughes died, and the unexpired term was filled by Hon. J. G. 001818Kilbourne, a Democrat appointed by the Republican governor, Kellogg. He served from June, 1874, to the end of the year. Judge Lyons approved him as:

"A lawyer. Perfectly competent."

Then the witness continued:

"I was elected in 1874, and succeeded Kilbourne," and he filled the bench two full years, 1875 and 1876. Now compare the assertions in his direct testimony with the facts extorted by cross-examination:

"Our parish court was presided over for four years by men utterly incompetent."

Yet all he could urge against Boedecker was that "he spoke our language with an accent."

"He was intelligent. Educated," but he had an accent;

Then pitkin served two years, a native-born white man, acknowledged by Lyons to be competent.

After him came the man who had been a blacksmith. Judge Lyons, an aristocratic contemner of labor, thought that was enough. He was a blacksmith, not a gentleman, and former slave-owner. But he admitted Hughes was an honest man, and he failed to mention any act or ruling of his while on the bench which showed him unfit for the position.

When Hughes died, a Democrat, "perfectly competent," was appointed. This was in June, 1874. When Judge Kilbourne retired, the witness, Thomas B. Lyons, was installed, having gained his election in that strong Republican parish by the aid of the colored voters.

He presided two years, or until the end of 1876. Where do we find the four years of utterly incompetent judges? Remember that the "Strong Arm of Force" first appeared in June. 1875, or "mid-summer" of that year, as some Democratic friends of Judge Lyons expressed it, when perfectly competent Democrats, Kilbourne and Lyons, had presided a full year.

Was it not somewhat late for the "Strong Arm of Force" to begin the work of reform with the shotgun? Take another assertion:

"Numerous instances have come under my observation where for fifteen dollars, payment of district attorney's fees, the most heinous crimes were nol-prossed.

When asked to name the officials who did this he said:

"Mr. Fisk, I am told, practiced it. I am satisfiedthat Mr. De Lee practiced it."

He had sworn that "numerous instances" came "under my observation." Yet could not mention a single case--could only say he had been told of one and was satisfied as to another! That Mr. Fisk, of whom he had been told, went out of office at the end of the year 1872, and De Lee was a white Democrat, as Lyons reluctantly admitted. Further questions forced him to confess that A. E. Reed, a white Democrat, was then district attorney and had been for 001919nearly four years from his appointment, in 1873. Reed had filled that position more than two years before "The Strong Arm of Force" began its campaign of murder. But Lyons said of Reed: "I do not make any charges against him."

De Lee, whom he had accused, was Reed's assistant! Look at another assertion:

"We have had officers who were incompetent and venal, justices of the peace * * generally men of gross ignorance and venality and they exercised their office with great oppression and extortion."

To illustrate this matter, he repeated a long tale about a colored justice-Jefferson--who imprisoned negroes in an old shop and extorted money without warrant of law. But Lyons omitted to mention the date of these enormities. He was asked when those things happened, and he haltingly replied:

"That was a good while ago. That was along in the beginning of his official existence. It was a good long while ago. I think it has been six or seven years, anyhow."

Another question brought out the fact that Jefferson had been prosecuted for his official misconduct, convicted and punished! "He was fined and imprisoned," Judge Lyons said. And this was the only case he gave to show that the justices were generally venal, oppressive and extortionate.

Observe his attempt to mislead when he said: "It was along in the beginning of his official existence," thus implying that he was still in office, whereas the judge knew that this same Jefferson was then serving out a two years' term in prison for larceny of which he was convicted after his punishment for illegal acts when justice of the peace.

We now present a brief and truthful account of the events in East Feliciana, by which the Republican majority had been extinguished in 1876:

"THE STRONG ARM OF FORCE." HOW IT PROTECTED THE WHITE MAN'S PROPERTY.

East Feliciana, a large and populous parish of Louisiana, lies on the line which divides that state from Mississippi. It was one of the Republican strongholds, and previous to 1875 had suffered less from political troubles than most of the other Republican communities in the Creole state. In 1868, when the horrible massacres of Bosier, St. Landry, Caddo and St. Bernard occurred, and the White Camelia, aided by the Ku-Klux, gave Seymour a majority of 47,000 in the state, East Feliciana was comparatively quiet. By a display of force, by systematic intimidation, emphasized by whipping a few stubborn negroes, twelve hundred of the legal voters were kept from the polls at the November election. The local 002020officials had been chosen by the Republicans at the state election of April, 1868. The succeeding elections of 1870 and 1872 were comparatively peaceful and fair, and even in 1874, the year in which the White League entered upon its bloody career in many parts of the state, East Feliciana was but slightly disturbed. But at midsummer of 1875 the revolutionary work of the league began there. The Republicans had adopted the liberal policy of electing moderate Democrats to certain important positions, judicial and clerical, instead of filling them with men from their party who were not thoroughly competent. In such cases no political pledges were required, no bargains made.

In 1870, L. N. Pitkins, a Democratic lawyer, was elected parish judge and served a full term of two years. A Republican, a white man and an old citizen, succeeded him, but he died in office, and then Governor Kellogg appointed a prominent Democratic lawyer, J. G. Kilbourn, to fill the vacancy. His commission was issued in June, 1874, and he held the office until succeeded by his personal and political friend. T. B. Lyons, who was elected by Republican votes in November, 1874, and entered upon his two years' term early in January, 1875. Governor Kellogg, in 1873, also appointed A. E. Reed district attorney, with a Mr. De Lee as attorney pro-tem, usually styled parish attorney; both of these gentlemen were old, white citizens and Democrats. About the same time another prominent Democrat was appointed clerk of court, J. S. Laniere. Thus this strong Republican parish had a Democratic judge, Democratic district and parish attorney, and Democratic clerk of court, continuously from June, 1874, to the end of the year 1876, and it was in that period that all the political violence and outrage occurred.

JOHN GAIR, THE COLORED LEADER.

John Gair was the boldest and most ambitious of the colored leaders. In April, 1868, he was elected to the house in the first reconstructed legislature, but offended his people by voting with the Democrats on a bill to pay some claim for money spent during the war. This prevented his re- election in 1870, but he regained his popularity sufficiently to be again sent to the house. In 1874 a split occurred in the Republican party of East Feliciana and Gair was not elected.

There was no election in Louisiana in 1875, but the neighboring state of Mississippi was a vast battlefield whereon the White League was testing its power and skill in overthrowing the government of the majority and effecting, in time of peace, a forcible revolution more complete and lasting than that attempted by open war in 1861.

The Republicans of East Feliciana felt no fear of immediate trouble, had no apprehension of the coming storm, for always heretofore political violence had occurred during the campaign immediately before the election. But the White League was organized 002121very quietly and secretly, in June, and the Republicans knew nothing of its existence in their parish until several large clubs had been formed and armed. Then a report suddenly spread through the parish that one of the colored Republicans--Ray--a member of the legislature and ex-sheriff, living in Clinton, the courthouse town, had used violent and threatening language. Several negroes in that vicinity had lately been assaulted and beaten by white men, and their efforts to secure redress and protection by legal methods were unsuccessful. Speaking of this matter, the ex-sheriff said that if he were thus attacked by white men he would defend himself. Such words spoken by "a nigger" were denounced as "incendiary" by the law-loving leaguers, and not to be tolerated. By way of rebuking his insolence some scores of mounted men rode into Clinton the next Saturday afternoon, all of them armed and cursing Ray furiously. And not only Ray but Gair and other leading Republicans, including Capt. De Gray, a white man, late of the Union army, and a citizen of the parish since the end of the war. The wildest excitement prevailed that evening--the armed riders dashed recklessly up and down the streets yelling. cursing and threatening--but no actual violence or outrage was committed beyond frightening the peaceful colored people in the town. Next morning the armed crowd increased and the threats against the colored leaders grew louder. The sheriff, also a colored man, but, like Gair, nearer white than black, appealed to the prominent white citizens to help preserve the peace. He did not attempt to summon a posse or arrest the leaguers, but begged Judge Lyons and other citizens of influence to exert themselves to allay the excitement. They did nothing. About the same time couriers were sent out with the fearful tidings that Ray and Gair had called upon the plantation negroes in the surrounding country to come in armed, and the cry soon resounded through the town that vast hordes of brutal niggers were marching in line of battle, coming to burn the town and murder the whites. The country leagues, knowing the whole plan as prearranged by their chiefs, were already assembled under arms and ready to march the moment the couriers reached them, Before sunset fully 500 armed white men occupied the town of Clinton. Guards were posted at every street corner, and pickets and patrols on all the roads. The threats against Ray, Gair, Smith, the sheriff and Clark, the recorder, were heard everywhere. Night came, but the "invading hordes of niggers marching in line of battle" never came. As soon as darkness concealed their movements, the four colored loaders quietly stole from their homes and fled by unfrequented paths for their lives. Then quiet fell upon the excited town, the clubs so lately summoned from the country for its protection rode homeward, and the noisy farce was ended.

While the tumult was at its worst, some of the leaguers seized Captain De Gray and proposed to hang him. The chiefs interfered and saved his life. He was allowed to remain, but he was 002222effectually silenced. The flight of the colored leaders and this removal of De Gray from political activity left the negroes without local organizers and managers. This was the object of the furious demonstration.

The White League chiefs had decreed the removal of the Republican leaders and thus accomplished it. And it was done without giving them written orders or warnings, as in the Ku-Klux times, without sending committees to give formal notice to leave. Such proofs of their action had been found troublesome heretofore when congressional investigations were made. By assembling 500 armed men under the pretense of defending the town threatened by the negro hordes, and making hostile demonstrations against the Republican leaders, they forced them to fly as the only way to save their lives. And they knew it was the only way. Had they remained, certain "persons or parties unknown " would have killed them that night. This was done in an off year, when there was no political excitement, no election pending, and the chiefs of the league boldly testified that they and their friends assembled merely to protect their homes and families, nothing else, and if Ray, Gair and others took fright and fled it only showed their guilt-proved, in fact, that they had ordered their ignorant followers from the country to come in and destroy the town. Thus, without bloodshed or open violence, the colored people were deprived of their leaders and the first step in redeeming East Feliciana was accomplished.

The leaguers by this method avoided bloodshed and direct violence in strict obedience to the rule of the order to "do whatever is necessary to carry the election and nothing more." Gair went to New Orleans to see Governor Kellogg, and urge that the state should at least try to give protection to its citizens. He remained at the capital of the state, and the chiefs of the league in Clinton began to be troubled. They suspected that Gair might secure some appointment which would require his presence in East Feliciana. It would make their task of expelling or silencing him much more difficult if he returned holding a commission from the governor as tax- collector; or, worse yet, they feared he might, through the governor's influence, obtain an appointment from the president, and Gair, the oldest of the Radicals, with a commission as an officer of the United States, would be a greater obstacle in their way than ever before.

Not knowing that Gair had the faintest prospect of such appointment, they imagined it possible-even probable-and the chiefs resolved by one bold stroke to sweep him from their path at once, when no political excitement prevailed, and in a time of profound quiet, which would give additional force to their assertion that his removal was non-political and caused only by his personal offenses. The regular term of the district court would begin early in October, and the plot formed against Gair made its indefinite postponement necessary for the convenience and safety of the 002323plotters. Just before court time, Sheriff Smith was requested to return and perform his duties, their chief object being to induce him to appoint certain of their own men deputies, who could act in his absence. Judge Dewing arrived at Clinton and opened court on the 7th of October, but the leaguers assembled in crowds--though not armed with guns. The sheriff, having appointed the white deputies, was attacked, shot at near the courthouse door, wounded and forced to fly for his life. Then the lawyers, all of them in the conspiracy, urged the judge to adjourn court sine die, as the only way by which a bloody race conflict could be prevented. "If the session continues," said the lawyers, "hundreds of men of both races will rush into town and bloodshed will be inevitable." They gave no reason, but added: "If the news goes out that court has adjourned the people will remain quiet." The deputy sheriff was thereupon ordered to announce the adjournment. Having thus cleared the ground for future operations the impending tragedy soon followed.

ALLEGED POISONING OF DR. SANDERS.

Dr. J. W. Sanders. of Clinton, was the captain of the first league formed in the parish, and was noted for his violent and intense partisanship. He was a hard drinker and had often been seen intoxicated, and more than once raging in delirium tremens. But these afflictions did not impair his value and usefulness as a thorough-going bull-dozer. John Gair was still in New Orleans, and his wife, having left their home in Clinton, awaited him at Baton Rouge, a large town on the Mississippi, thirty miles from Clinton. A younger sister of Gair's wife, a colored girl 18 years old, more white than black, sprightly, intelligent and fairly educated, was a nurse in the Sanders' household, a favorite with her mistress, to whom the girl was devotedly attached. A few days before the enforced adjournment of the court, this girl, Catharine Matthews, usually called by the name of "Babe", visited her sister in Baton Rouge, and, after a brief absence, had returned to her duties in Dr. Sanders' family. A little after noon on the 11th of October, the report went out through the streets of Clinton, that Dr. Sanders was dying from the effects of poison administered by Babe Matthews. Messengers rushed through the village calling physicians and proclaiming on every hand "A Radical plot! Poisoned by Babe Matthews, instigated by Gair and Ray! One of our oldest and best citizens murdered." While these fearful tidings were spreading, several doctors gathered at the bedside of the dying man. They found him somewhat ill, but able to give them a full and minute account of all the circumstances attending the pretended crime. He said that he returned home after spending a few hours in the village, entered his house just after noon, and, according to his invariable habit, stopped at the water pail to drink. He found the pail filled with fresh water, and the gourd lying ready. 002424As he drink, Babe Matthews stood near, looking angry and savage.

He noticed her look, but said nothing--only asked his wife when he met her in the next room, if she had had a row with the girl. The wife said "no," and then the doctor told her that Babe was about to leave. He also told the attending physicians that the instant he swallowed the water he felt intense heat, burning pain, and other symptoms of poisoning. Lest a tender- hearted reader feel needless distress, let us here mention the fact that Sanders did not die, but early next morning he was walking the street and telling everybody of his awful agonies, how intensely he suffered the previous evening, and urging them to avenge this dastarly attempt of the Radical leaders, Ray and Gair, to murder an old and respectable citizen.

From the moment when Sanders said he saw Babe looking angry while he drank, until after sunset, a period of six hours, not one of the numerous witnesses, the doctor's personal and political friends, could give any account of her. The first trace of her is found in the testimony of J. S. Laniere, clerk of the court, who said: "I came for my mail after dark, I saw several parties with the girl in charge, was stopped and told that she wanted to make an affidavit. Don't know whether that was the way I was accosted, because the affidavit was written out anyhow. I went to my office and it was read to her, Then I remarked that I would prefer that the affidavit be made before Judge Lyons."

For this strange preference Laniere gives no reason. It was night and Judge Lyons was at his residence, half a mile from the courthouse, in which the parties were assembled. An important part of the clerk's duties was to administer oaths in such cases. He expressed his preference immediately after the reading of the affidavit in the presence of the prisoner, but he neglects to say what the girl told him; does not even mention that she uttered a word. Several hours before this scene in his office. a party of men, without legal authority, had seized Babe Matthews, dragged her into the market-house and by threats and torture continued most of the afternoon, forced her to make the confession they demanded. A lawyer, Captain Hardee, wrote out the affidavit, and, when at last the unhappy girl consented to sign it, they took her along the darkening street to the clerk's office. Then she tried to tell him the truth. She knew that he held his position by the appointment of the Republican governor, on the recommendation of her friends, and she appealed to him for help. He heard enough before the guards could stop her to make him unwilling to perform the part assigned him. He continues his statement under oath before a congressional committee: "I started off with the girl and the parties who had her in charge, and on our way to Judge Lyons she seemed very much disposed to talk with me. I told her that when she got to Judge Lyons to tell him the whole occurrence, and if she did it, I told her I wanted the whole responsibility to lay on Judge 002525Lyons. I did not care about listening to any of her complaints." Such is this official's account of his part in the proceedings. He does not explain what responsibility must lay on Judge Lyons, but one of his words indicates the character of the appeal made to him by the prisoner. He did not care about listening to her "complaints." It was not a confession of crime that she made, but complaints of injustice, and he refused to listen. And by the time he had convinced Babe that he would not listen to her complaints, the party had reached the house and entered the judge's presence.

Then the clerk goes on with his statement. He says that the affidavit already prepared by Colonel Hardee was read by Judge Lyons, but when asked if it was read to the girl he gives an evasive answer and merely repeats that Lyons read it. He does not say that the prisoner was allowed to speak, that the judge asked her any question, or that she tried to tell him anything. She was carefully watched by the party and was helpless in their hands. The affidavit was re-written, and it is said that she signed it with her own hand. It sets forth:

"Catharine Matthews doth depose and say that one week ago, or more, she was in the town of Baton Rouge on a visit to her sister, the wife of John Gair, that while there a young colored man, John George, who formerly resided in this parish, gave her some poison in a small vial and requested her to poison Dr. Sanders, saying that John George told her it was a made-up thing between her brother-in-law, John Gair, and Bob Ray, to use the poison to kill Dr. Sanders; that he told her to put it in the water for him; that she used said poison as directed and that she is sorry for what she has done; that she committed the act because John George told her that Gair and Ray wanted her to do it." "CATHARINE MATTHEWS."

Having thus laid the responsibility upon Judge Lyons, Clerk Laniere returned to his office with the prisoner and the parties having her in charge. On the way "Babe again tried to talk with me." he testified, and added that he finally told her that "I didn't want her to speak to me in any way." And thus he left her, not in custody of a legal officer, but watched and guarded by a party of gentlemen, a committee of citizens, though he could not tell by what authority they held her. No legal arrest was made, no warrant was ever issued for her apprehension; she was not lodged in jail, but from the hour of her illegal seizure to the hour of her death the respectable gentlemen of Clinton watched her in the courthouse, relieving each other at intervals, and keeping her under constant restraint. Not one of her own people or personal friends were allowed to see her or to communicate with her. It was to prevent this that she was not put in jail. The jailer was a colored man, and if she had been placed in his care, she could not fail to find an opportunity to communicate with her friends, opportunity to tell the truth and expose the fraud and cruelty of which she was 002626the victim. All through Thursday night, Friday, Friday night, and all through Saturday, the gentlemen, lawyers, clerks, doctors, took their successive tours of duty in watching that hapless girl, keeping her cut off from every friendly voice, separating her from every person of her own race, until the hour of doom arrived. Among the witnesses who came before the congressional committee were several of those gentlemen. Captain Laniere and Dr. Monyhan both told the committee that they guarded Babe during the first night, and that she talked with them at intervals. But neither of them could recall to memory what she said. The doctor would only say: "Her remarks impressed me as a confession of guilt," and the captain, who was also the clerk, could only remember that she said: "She didn't think Gair had anything to do with it." Besides this, they could only give vague expressions about John George being the cause of the trouble.

Leaving Babe thus guarded, the chiefs of the conspiracy went on with their work. A deputy sheriff, with a posse of seven men, was sent off to Baton Rouge to arrest John George, the colored lad whom it was charged gave Babe the poison and told her Gair and Ray sent it. No reason could be found why those two men should entrust a mere boy with that dangerous secret, but the plotters hoped to get him in their power and then extort such a confession as they wanted. But he could not be found at Baton Rouge, and while the posse sought him John Gair arrived on a steamer from the city.

The deputy sheriff, Woodward, promptly telegraphed this information to Clinton and received instructions to wait until a warrant could be issued for Gair. Then Dr. Sanders went before a magistrate in Clinton and swore "That on the 11th of October, instant, he and family were poisoned by the administration to him of arsenic, or other poison, in water, by the hands of one Catharine Matthews; that from information of said Catharine Matthews, and by circumstances connected with said poisoning, he has reason to believe, and it is believed, that John Gair did instigate the said Catharine Matthews to administer said poison; and therefore he prayed for the arrest of the said John Gair." A warrant was issued and another deputy sent to Baton Rouge, who delivered it to Woodward on the morning of the 18th of October. Gair was arrested before noon, and a telegram was immediately sent to Clinton announcing the arrest and also the time when the posse would leave Baton Rouge. After noon the two deputies and the posse of seven men started with their prisoner, who was furnished with a horse and rode among them. About sunset they crossed the line of the parish of Baton Rouge and entered East Feliciana.

The narrow road ran through the lonely pine forest, with neither house nor field in sight. As the twilight was fading away, and the shadows of the dark pines grew darker, two prominent citizens of Clinton met them. The two gentlemen rode together in a buggy, 002727and passed by without speaking- then stopped in the rear, turned about, and followed slowly behind the posse, Presently a long line of armed men, mounted, and sitting motionless in their saddles, was seen extending along the roadside in the shadowy gloom of the fast-coming night. As the posse and prisoner advanced along the road in front of this array, the two extremities of the line moved forward, and bending inwards enclosed them as in a net. At the same moment several men rode inside the ring thus formed, disarmed the posse, seized the prisoner, and then ordered Woodward and his party to move on. The order was obeyed, and the posse, guarded by a squad of armed men, was taken outside the encircling line and halted. About that moment a volley of a hundred guns was heard, the captive posse was dismissed, and the formidable battalion disappeared in the darkness, leaving Gair, mangled by scores of bullets, lying lifeless and bloody in the edge of the dark pine forest. This happened about ten miles from Clinton, and an hour or two later, when the deputies and posse had just reached the town, citizens saw the dead body of Babe Matthews hanging on one of the trees in the courthouse yard, and there it remained all night and until the sun rose bringing in the peaceful Sabbath day.

It was before 8 o'clock, in the light of an unclouded moon, when this murder was committed in the center of a town of 1,500 people, yet all the witnesses testified that the murderers were utterly unknown-unsuspected-that no citizen saw the deed done. Neither could they remember who had charge of the girl on the last day of her life, or on that evening. They remembered that on the first night of her detention, Captain Laniere and Drs. Monyhan and Hall guarded her, and that other equally respectable gentlemen took their places next morning; but they could not remember anything later. So several citizens said under oath. Babe Matthews was thus deliberately murdered, the moment that the conspirators knew that Gair was killed, murdered to prevent the exposure of their fiendish cruelty and falsehood. For, if she lived, she would tell the truth, and the world would know that whatever confession she made was extorted by violence and torture. To make this exposure impossible, they kept her closely guarded until they effected their most important design, the killing on Gair, and then finished their work by hanging the girl, who, according to their own store, was the only witness against him.

Let the reader observe the strange use made of the "Strong Arm of Force" which Lyons said was for the protection of property. Not one of the magistrates whom he denounced as ignorant and corrupt were removed, the venal district and parish attorneys were not dislodged, but John Gair, a private citizen, and a servant girl were killed. A strange way indeed to reform the local government. The murder of a nurse girl and a colored man who held no office! And Judge Lyons made his wild harangue,"A lie in every other word," to excuse these inhuman crimes.

002828
THE FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE SOUTHERN QUESTION. HAYES DID IT IN 1877

In the spring of 1877, President Hayes withdrew the national troops stationed in the states of Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida. Those were the only states in the South Which the Ku-Klux and White League had not redeemed by the "Strong Arm of Force." The Republicans in those states had bravely struggled against the assassins and gave their electoral votes for Hayes. It was their courage and devotion made him president. But he, when thus elected, withdrew the slight protection the presence of the soldiers afforded and allowed their enemies to resume absolute control.

This was announced as a triumph of statesmanship. It was said that the final restoration of peace was accomplished. Henceforth, the whole administration of public affairs being in the hands of the intelligent class- -the property owners, the responsible citizens, all would be well. Our Northern statesmen, willing to be deceived, exhausted the language of Optimania in extolling the wonderful discovery in politics: "That statesmanship wholly consists In yielding whenever opponents insist."

Grand and glorious results were promised to flow from this policy.

1. Peace, good government, the reign of law and order and prosperity.

2. The colored man no longer aspiring to control the South would be protected in all his rights, there would be free schools for his children and he should vote without intimidation or fear of harm.

3. The dread of Radical--Carpet Bag--nigger rule being removed, the white citizens would soon form new political parties, one of which, if not both, would be a party of progress, improvement, liberality and all good things generally.

4. This party might be called "Whig," or the "Administration Party," or the "Liberal Democracy," or the "Haves Do as you please Party," And under the benign influence of this policy, all old things in the South would be forgotten, the bloody chasm closed, the wounds of war fully healed forever.

PROVIDED. ALWAYS: That the loyal people who saved the Union would be silent and wait quietly till all these good things came to pass.

All depended upon that. A word of doubt, or reproach, even a hint or suspicious look might so wound the sensitive souls of our Southern brethren as to spoil everything. Consequently the North was implored, whatever might happen, to remain silent. And the 002929wearied Nation, perplexed and sad, laid its hand upon its lips and was still.

And immediately a new series of political murders began, James Law, an intelligent colored man, believing it was peace indeed, returned to his home in East Feliciana, from New orleans, where he had remained after he was called as a witness and truthfully described the methods of the White League. On the very evening of his return, six gentlemen rode up to his door and shot him dead as he stood beside his mother's chair.

Weber, a German citizen of Baton Rouge, where he had been tax-collector, also hoped for peace and went home from New Orleans.

During the previous year a committee of Democratic lawyers, appointed by a public meeting, examined his office and reported everything correct. One of them said openly that Weber was the best tax-collector they ever had in that parish.