The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-06-11
THE CLANSnAN''A TRUE PICTURE
OF RECONSTRUCTION CONDITIONS.
BY James Galloway.

De amused ana tnat ne was the king.
His favorite amusement was to spend
his evenings at Hall & Pemberton's
faro BANK on Pennsylvania avenue.
Stevens was never a heavy player"
His admirer. Jane M. Scovel, also
relates this: During the last thirty
years of his life it's unwritten romance
was the unselfish and tender devotion
with which Stevens was attended by
Lydia Smith, mulatto, who in her
youth had great beauty of person. Her
fidelity to his interests as housekeeper
ended only with his death. He left
her large sum of money in his will
with which she purchased his old
home in Lancaster, a two-story brick
house, finer than that on Capitol Hill,
where she lived until her DEATH
This Lydia Smith is 1.-The First Lady
of the Land" after Lincoln's death
when the statesmen and Jacobins Wis
tied Stevens for consultation, discard
ing Andrew Johnson, whose effort was
to carry out the views of Lincoln.
No negro woman ever had such in
luence on affairs of government
Thad. Stevens dominated Congress;
she ruled Stevens; she had the king
under her influence. This romance"
with Lydia and the burning of his iron
works by Confederates cost the South
more than the war itself. Indeed, the
war was nothing compared to recon-
struction. Few know what was done.
Thomas Nelson Page and Dixon have
given a peep into those days-but
merely a glimpse.
Thad. Stevens passed his recon-
struction bill, but lost two sections of
it. viz, confiscation of property of
shareholders, dividing it into farms of
forty acres and a mule to each family,
and his demand for miscegenation,
losing those two however, by only five
votes.
He was the mind that conceived the
plan of organizing all negroes into
secret loyal leagues which were
everywhere, from Virginia to Texas.
These leagues were ubiquitous. Here
the negroes were harangued by carpet
baggers and Federal officials and all
things done to organize negroes into a
party unto themselves. Here in these
leagues negroes were educated against
us, alienated, separated; old ties
broken and distrust taught. Oh, the
teachings of those leagues. They were
schoolmasters right in the art of de-
stroying confidence and alternating ne
groe5
But the most cruel thing of the plan
to organize negroes against us was the
Exodus Order. issued through these
loyal leagues" which tore negroes
from old homes, old farms, the old as
sociates, old influences. and forced
them to seek homes elsewhere. This
dispersion was a crime; it was an up
heaval. 1t was done, they said, as a
political necessity SO as to speedily
wean and estrange negroes from old
owners. The influence of whites must
be destroyed. And it was done. Ne
groes were scattered-no two families
going to the same place. The result
was that young negroes grew up with
out restraint without influence of old
negroes on the farm. and grew up to
respect no one. These loyal leagues
and their teachings and the Exodus
Order are responsible for the negro
problem of today. 1t is now the white
woman's problem. No white woman
dares travel public highways without
escort The farmers wife lives in dread
and fear, and her life reaches not the
content of old age. Her wrecked
nerves battle the physicians skill All
Southern people recognize the losses
and calamities of the Stevens plan of
reconstruction and grieye that Lincoln
was not spared to carry out not up
heaval reconstruction. but peace, fra
ternity harmony, restoration
The animus of the Jacobins of shat
day is revealed in the speeches in Con-
gress demanding Thad Stevens plan
instead of Lincoln's. Wendell Phillips
and Horace Greeley when emancipa-
ton became fact we're satisfied and
advocated restoration. Bat Thad Ste
vens renewed his activity when the
South had laid down her arms. In his
speech advocating negro suffrage and
reconstruction he said: Il favor negro
suffrage because the blacks have rs
good right to choose rulers and make
laws as rebel whites. Under my bill
the loyal whites and blacks can act in
a body and the two united would
form a majority and control the South
ern States
Adding another reason, Stevens said:
my bill for division of the South
would insure the permanent ascend
ancy of the Republican party in the
South"
do you avow the party purpose 2"
inquired a Democratic member
Yes, l do. If negro suffrage is ex-
Guided in the Southern States. then
every one of them is sure to send d
rebel electoral vote. They, with their
kindred copperheads and Democrats of
the North. would elect the President
and control Congress- Now
we must divide the South into loyalists
and disloyalists without regard to
color; otherwise we will be perpetually
annoyed by these Southern people
seeking influence in the government.
Here we have a key to the cause of