The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1901-09-27

ihoh. AAiS gave ~ IuS SASASLhiSASii
the North their opportunity against
the South, which they hated. Then
came the brutal treatment of Jeffer-
son Davis and the indignities heaped
upon him in prison, which the South
ern people construed as intended to
humiliate them all. Thus the bloody
chasm which was beginning to close
reopened and remained open for the
next ten years.
After a visit to Virginia and South
Carolina, Daniel Webster said of the
Southern men: "They have an apt
ness for command which makes the
Southern gentleman, wherever he
goes, not peer only, but prince"
These men had returned from the war
their spirits unconquered, their pride
of race, always intense, unirnpaired
and masterful in their ways. In
stead of being broken in spirit by the
result of the war their courage was
heightened and their self-reliance, if
possible, more pronounced than ever.
The sentiments of the two races
toward each other were of the most
kindly nature. Then the Freedmen's
Bureau was established land the work
of humiliating the whites and chang
ing the negro from the industrious,
law-abiding worker into a worthless
drone or an insolent politician went
forward. Rations were distributed
to them lavishly, and it was no long
er necessary for them to work. Their
only thought was holding office
and obtaining 40 acres of land and a
mule from the Government. In his
article in the ATLANTIC MONTHLY
Governor Chamberlain says that
when he became Governor of South
Carolina he found 200 trial justices
in the State, appointed by his pre-
decessor, who could neither read nor
write. White men were disfranchised
and the negroes put over them. This
would have been intolerable enough,
but worse happened. The carcass of
the South attracted vultures from
far and wide. Camp followers, suffers
and the very outcasts of society
flocked from the North and became
the teachers and political leaders of
the negroes. The worst of the lot
being more INSCRIPTIONS in what
they promised the credulous negroes,
were always the most successful. A
period of disorder, outrage and rob-
berry ensued which has not been
equaled in modern times. ANorthern
clergyman who had then a church in
the South said that when he went to
his night services he had to 60 armed.
Even funerals were liable to interrupt
ton and attack from the negroes.
Leaving out of consideration the de-
struction of life during the Civil War.
that great ordeal was a mercifql dis
pensation of Providence compared
with reconstruction. The State
Treasury of Louisiana was, in effect,
robbed of more than $1O6,OOO,OOO.
In Mississippi the horde increased
taxation fourteenfold, and one-ffth
of all the land in the State was con-
6scated for non-payment ofexcessive
taxes and distributed among the
negroes. In South Carolina the an
nual tax levy increased from
5000, 900 to So, 900, 900 and the value
ofproperty decreased in proportion
to the increase oftaxes. Ofthe other
States there is the same story to be
told. In Louisiana candidate for
Governor who had to collect aims to
pay his way to Washington after
being in Office one year had accumu-
lated $225, 1000. In 1876 Wade
Hampton made campaign and set
up a State government in South
Carolina by the people of the State.
The carpetbag government held on,
the continued support Of
the troops. A small detachment of
soldiers stood guard over it. By
order of President Hayes this guard
was removed, and in twenty-four
hours, without a clash or a blow
being struck, this government, which
had hectored the people for twelve
years, melted away and disappeared.
This was the final scene of carpet
oagism. The native people were left
to govern themselves. But the evils
IF reconstruction had taken deep root
n the soil. The people were ruined,
n debt and imbittered. Property |