The Plain Story of American History

haunted. When the negroes saw the windows of this house filled with light at midnight and heard sounds of laughter coming from it, they were terrified, and it was noticed that they were subdued in appearance. This gave the members of the society the idea of increasing the terror of the negroes. They adopted ghostly costumes, draped their horses in white sheets, and rode silently through the streets at night. They gave it out that they were the spirits of confederate soldiers who, having observed that the negroes were inclined to misbehave, were come back as a warning of what might happen if there was not better conduct.

Its visits

After a short time the effects of this wore away. The negroes soon ceased to fear ghosts they saw so frequently. Then the Ku Klux resorted to more forceful methods. A negro supposed to be a leader in disorders would be visited in the night, taken from his house, and whipped in the way in which the unmanageable slaves were whipped before the war. This kind of treatment, it is said, had a very quieting effect on the state of society around Pulaski. When the rumor of what had occurred here went abroad, many adjoining communities organized Ku Klux Klans of their own.

At first the Klan was satisfied to investigate each case before punishment, and it is probable that most of the men who were whipped, or otherwise dealt with, had been doing Its severity the things they were charged with doing. But there was a tendency to act with increasing severity. Not only negroes, but white men who were supposed to aid them, were whipped or tarred and feathered. So bad did this become that the best of the members of the Klan began to withdraw, which only left the harsher men inside the Klan to do as they wished. Things went so far that the men at the head of the organization decided to disband it; but their orders were not obeyed in all localities. It was not until congress appointed a committee to inquire into the reported outrages in the South that the remnant of the Ku Klux Klan was finally disbanded. It undoubtedly did some good in its

day, but it was a dangerous example, and it is to be hoped that we shall never have another such organization. It disappeared about 1873.

Two words of contempt were freely used in these years in the South in these days. They were carpet-bagger and scalawag. The former was a Northern man who came South after the Carpetwar and took part in politics. A carpet bag was a baggers and valise made of carpet. It was cheap, and the term scalawags carpet-bagger implied that these Northern men were only seeking to line their pockets at the expense of the South. Many of these men were adventurers, and they deserved all that was said about them. But we must not forget that there were others who came with the best intentions. Some of them were lawyers, some were business men, and some were teachers and ministers; and it was natural that they should be republicans. But the Southern people were not much disposed to distinguish between the good and bad carpet-baggers. The same thing was true of the scalawags, who were Southern-born men who joined the republican party after the war. Some of them were thoroughly convinced that the best interest of the South was to accept the republican party. Undoubtedly others were as ready to use their political power to make money for themselves as any of the carpet-baggers. Many republicans thought that their party would gain a strong position in the South when the negroes were allowed to vote; but they were to be disappointed. By 1870 all the Southern states had been readmitted to the union. of the When one of them came in, the former confederates negro voters within it were allowed to vote, with the exception of a small number who had been very prominent, and these were gradually restored to their old privileges. But the white men generally went into the democratic party, whose cry was the recovery of the state from the party of the negro, the carpet-bagger, and the scalawag. This cry made a strong appeal to the whites, who did all they could to overcome the votes of the negroes. They worked

Overthrow

so hard that in 1877 the last Southern state passed out of the hands of the republicans, although for many years afterwards a small number of republican congressmen continued to be elected in the South.

About twenty-five years after the overthrow of carpet-bag governments the Southern states passed amendments to their constitutions providing that no one should vote who could not read and write or did not own certain property. Most of the negroes thus lost the right to vote. This, it was held, did not conflict with the fifteenth amendment to the federal constitution, since that amendment says that no man shall be kept from voting on account of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." One result is that the large majority of the republican party in the South is now composed of white men, another is that election frauds are no longer alleged to exist as common occur

rences.

QUESTIONS

I. What was reconstruction? What two steps were there in reconstruction? Why was the second-named step important? In what way might a Southern state limit the freedom of the negro? What was the demand of the North on this point? In what special form did this demand finally take shape? Why was it thought that the negro should have the ballot? How did the Southerners feel about the capacity of the negro? What was the reply of the Northern men?

Where was it first

II. What was Lincoln's plan of reconstruction? put into operation? What were Johnson's ideas on reconstruction? How did he proceed to carry them out? Describe the laws now passed in the South in regard to the negroes. How did the North interpret these laws?

III. What political party controlled congress? What was its position in regard to the negro? What was the Freedmen's bureau? What was the Freedmen's bureau bill of 1866? On what ground did the president veto it? Describe the first civil rights act. What happened to its veto by the president? To what did his opponents attribute the veto?

IV. How did the fourteenth amendment guard the rights of the negroes? What did it say about denying the ballot to a portion of the

inhabitants of a state?

What would have been the result if the South had accepted this amendment? Why did it refuse to accept?

V. What was the effect in the North of the refusal of the South to accept the amendment? For what purpose were the reconstruction acts of 1867 passed? What did these acts provide? When was reconstruction to be complete? Show how this plan was put into execution. How was the fifteenth amendment adopted? What did it provide?

VI. What was the most important charge against Johnson in the impeachment trial? What was his reply to it? Why did he think his constitutional power was imperiled by the act regarding the dismissal of a cabinet member? Describe the trial. What was the result?

How did

VII. How did the Southern whites look upon reconstruction under the acts of 1867? What determination was made by the whites? the negro show that he did not know how to vote properly? the effect on Southern politics? Explain the term "solid South."

What was

VIII. What was the Ku Klux Klan? How was it defended by the Southerners? Describe the attitude of the negroes. How did the Ku Klux originate? What was its original purpose? How did it become a society to keep order? Describe its visits. Show how it became too severe. How did it end?

IX. Who were called carpet-baggers? How did the term originate? Who were the scalawags? Distinguish between good and bad men of each class.

X. How were the republicans disappointed about the negro vote in the South? What was the main object of the democrats when the Southern states were readmitted? What was the nature of the suffrage amendments later passed by the Southern states? Why did they not violate the fifteenth amendment? What two results have followed?

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