Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-08-05


their private pursuits, and leave the
work of rebuilding State governments
in the rebel States to those who had
been true to their obligations of chi-
zenship. aided by those not conspicuous
in the rebellion, who might choose to
do so. Accordingly, they entered
upon that work but the old slave
holders, renewing their party assocla-
ton with the Democrats, if, indeed,
they had been at any time actually
suspended, were not willing to accept
the situation, and allow the negro to
have the ballot To exclude him was
TO give them control Not to exclude
him was to exclude them from control.
Exclusive of the negroes who with
their ancestors had been slaves, and
who were unable to read, Gas were also
many of TIE native whites, } the ex-
rebel element was in the majority in
those States The negroes were Re.
publicans-trne to the party that gave
them their freedom Ignorant as
slavery had left and freedom had
found them, they could not be coaxed
or driven to vote at the bidding of
their former oppressors It was not
difficult, however, for the educated
classes who had formerly ruled, even
though some of them were actually
disfranchised for participation in rebel
lion, to obtain practical control of their
State governments, if permitted to
have their own way without interior
ence by the Federal authority By
means of their own peculiar methods
they did terrorize and override the
uneducated majority, and actually de-
termined the policy of their States
AS result, and showing determina-
ton not to accept the practical freedom
of the negro, system of legislation
and local tself-government" was
adopted, prescribing unreasonable and
unauthorized rules of conduct for him
which had no application to white men,
and imposing outrageous and oppres-
i've fines upon him for violations which
he could not avoid, and payment of
which was known to be impossible,
and in default of which he was sold
to service to the highest bidder-and
none but Democrats could or would
bid-and thus policy was inaugural
ed which would have speedily returned
every negro in the South to a bondage
more Infamous, if possible, than that
from which he had been emancipated.
If negroes or white Republicans OBJ
jected to this at the South, they did so
at the peril, and often at the cost Of
their lives. This was the way that
the Democrats then accepted the stu
alton the abolition of slavery, and
the political equality of both races !;
and this was Democratic ''home rule"
in the South, which was hailed by the
Democratic party of the entire country
as happy deliverance from Republi-
can "nigger and carpet bag rule. :"
The details Of individual outrages at
the South were often denied at the
North, but they were openly justified
at the South, and to give the ex-rebels
control of the Southern States to the
exclusion of loyal whites and blacks,
and to deny practical freedom to the
blacks, became the deliberate POLICY
of the Democratic party. In this
they were encouraged and powerfully
aided by President johnson, south
ern man elected as a Republican,
whose great personal ambition, blinded
by supreme arrogance and deceived by
Democratic false pretenses, led him to
desert the party which elected him,
and join them. This condition of
things existing, the Republican party
determined to rescue the Union men
Of the South from the dangers which
threatened them, to see to it that the
provisions of the amendment abolish
ing slavery were enforced, and that
the friends and supporters of the Union
in the period of its darkest trial, hum
bic and uneducated though they were,
should be protected in their manhood
when the government was strong. In
this just spirit was enacted the legisla-
ton Of 1867, known as the "act to
provide for the more efficient govern
ment of the Rebel States" and the
acts supplementary thereto, the scope
and purpose Of which was to divide
the late rebel States into military dis
tricts, each district to be under the