USA > Alabama > Madison County > Huntsville > Early history of Huntsville, Alabama 1804 to 1870 > Part 11
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28 Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama, page 426.
29 Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama, page 557.
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Early History of Huntsville, Ala.
Fearn in the Confederate Provisional Congress, and had com- manded a battalion in the war for a short while; only for a short while, however, as his loyalty to his State and his people. was of equally short duration. He went over to the enemy and after the war, embraced with alacrity the "carpet-bag" government and its principles and returned among his people to aid in the oppressions of reconstruction, and garner his share of its rich harvest.30
FREEDMAN'S BANKS
Allied with the Freedman's Bureau were savings banks, authorized by act of Congress and styled "The Freedman's Savings & Trust Company." This act received Mr. Lincoln's approval on March 5, 1865. The main office of the bank was at Washington. During the early part of the Reconstruction period three branches were established in Alabama, at, Hunts- ville, Mobile and Montgomery. Throughout the South many of the bureau agents were placed in charge of the branches. The fact that Lincoln had approved the plan and that it had the sanction of the federal government, made the banks at once popular among the negroes.
A pass book was issued each negro depositor upon which was printed the rules and regulations governing. Also they were decorated with catchy, high sounding phrases, as: "Step by step we walk miles and we sew stitch by stitch. Word by word we read books, and cent by cent we grow rich."
Six per cent interest was paid time depositors. This benefit was featured by printed matter on the pass book, illustrating how a saving of ten cents a day would amount to $489.31 at the end of ten years.
Only those negroes in and around Huntsville became deposi- tors. Those in more remote sections of the county lived in ignorance of the existence of the bank. The Huntsville and Mobile branches were the largest and most prominent in the State. The amount of business done by the local branch,-as shown by the following table,-during the first three years of its existence, is surprising.
The interest paid on long time deposits in 1868-the first year-was $38.02. In May, 1869, the total deposits amounted to $17,603.29. The statement of the condition of the bank on March 31, 1870, reveals :
80 Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama.
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Early History of Huntsville, Ala.
Total deposits to March 31, 1870 $89,445.10
Total number of depositors 500
Average amount deposited by each 17.89
Drawn out to March 31, 1870
70,586.60
Balance to March 31, 1870 18,858.50
Average balance due to each depositor.
47.114
Spent for land-known
1,900.00
Dwelling houses
800.00
Seeds, teams, and agricultural implements. 5,000.00
Education, books, etc.
1,200.00
The affairs of the local branch during the month of August, 1872, were in splendid shape, and indicate rapid growth :
Deposits for the month.
$ 7,343.50
Drafts for the month 10,127.61
Total deposits
416,617.72
Total drafts 364,382.51
Total due depositors.
52,235.21
Though the system continued to prosper, and its business increased, in 1874 it failed, through the fraud of its managers and employees ; entailing upon the negroes of the South a total loss of $3,299,201.00, and upon those at Huntsville a loss of $35,963.00. Lafayette Robinson, a negro, was cashier of the local branch when the system failed.
Through the collapse of this monumental fraud, the work of the federal government in gaining the trust and confidence of the negro race was largely undone. He believed the Freed- man's Bureau had cheated him; and he became suspicious of all offers or efforts to aid him coming from the North, there- after.31
RECONSTRUCTION
To no Southern reader of this chapter does the term here used, as the caption of this sub-division, convey the idea, that, beneficent processes of the orderly rebuilding of its material resources and the re-assembling and adjustment of its social and governmental functions, were now in operation in the South. To him the term is the perfect personification of all that is infamous, re-destruction rather than re-construction proper.
81 Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama, page 451-456.
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Early History of Huntsville, Ala.
After the close of the war, and military discipline was re- laxed, conditions became unspeakably depraved. Huntsville and her citizens suffered "depredation, robbery, murder, arson and rapine" at the hands of marauding hordes of "tories," "scala- wags" and federal and Confederate "deserters." The county was overrun with this scum of humanity, the flotsom and jet- sam of ignominy itself. For a great while the local traffic in whiskey was enormous. The streets were crowded with the drunken and debauched, and lawlessness stalked abroad un- bridled. These conditions were accentuated by the presence, in large numbers, of ladies of easy virtue; who by their inde- cent demeanor in all places, and especially public thorough- fares, lent an air of degredation to the entire community.
There can be little doubt that lawlessness had reached dan- gerous proportions, when we learn that the Provisional Gov- ernor Parsons, a "loyal" Union man, deemed it necessary to invest the mayor of Huntsville with special and extraordinary powers to suppress violence. These deplorable conditions were not confined to the town alone but existed throughout the county.
Former citizens of the county, who had become "tories" dur- ing the war and through fear had left the country, now returned to vent their hate and avenge their own self-imposed dishonor, upon the defenseless, who had lain down the weapons of war and taken up those of peace. Their lust for blood and in- satiable desire for revenge knew no bounds and recognized no ties. Confederate veterans now pursuing the arts of peace, were deliberately shot and killed while seated with the remnants of their families around their firesides, and while at work in the fields.32
These general conditions and special influences co-operated to make the seven years of reconstruction infinitely and inesti- mably more harsh, cruel and inhuman than the four years of bloody war itself. In addition thereto there was another spe- cific factor more potent than all these and wider in scope which threatened the very existence of civilization at the South; the Reconstruction Acts, passed by Congress, aided by Constitu- tional Amednment.
The administration of these acts was largely entrusted to the illiterate and unknowing "carpet-bagger," who was aided in his persecutions by that most unprincipled of all men, the
32 Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama, pages 262-266.
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Early History of Huntsville, Ala.
"scalawag," a coward by nature and a thug and grafter by preferment. These latter poisoned the already hostile mind of the "carpet-bagger." The author is wanting in ability to define either the genus "carpet-bagger," or "scalawag." This task has been undertaken by many worthy scribes but with less suc- cess than attended the efforts of Ryland Randolph, editor of the (Tuscaloosa) Independent Monitor ; who, upon the appear- ance at Tuscaloosa of the "carpet-bagger," Lakin, (accom- panied by the "scalawag," Cloud), to take his seat as president of the University ; published in his paper of September 1, 1868, a warning from the Ku-Klux to both these men; which con- sisted of a wood cut depicting two men hanging from the limb of a tree; one holding in his hand a carpet-bag with "Ohio" on it-the native state of Lakin-the other without even this meagre possession, representing the "scalawag," Cloud, and entitled, "A Prospective Scene in the City of Oaks, 4th of March, 1869." This cut was followed by this inscription :
"Hang curs, hang ! * * * Their complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast good fate, to their hanging. * * If they be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable.
"The above cut represents the fate in store for those great pests of Southern Society-the 'carpet-bagger and scalawag'- if found in Dixie's land after the break of day on the 4th of March, next.
"The genus 'carpet-bagger' is a man with a lank head of dry hair, a lank stomach, and long legs, club knees, and splay feet, dried legs and lank jaws, with eyes like a fish and mouth like a shark. Add to this a habit of sneaking and dodging about in unknown places, habiting with negroes in dark dens and back streets, a look like a hound and the smell of a polecat.
"Words are wanting to do full justice to the genus, 'scala- wag.' He is a cur with a contracted head, downward look, slinking and uneasy gait; sleeps in the woods like old Cross- land, at the bare idea of a Ku-Klux raid. 'Our 'scalawag' is the local leper of the community. Unlike the 'carpet-bagger,' he is native, which is so much the worse. Once he was respected in his circles ; his head was level; he would look his neighbor in the face. Now, possessed of the itch of office and the salt rheum of radicalism, he is a mangy dog, slinking through the alleys, hunting the governor's office, defiling with tobacco juice the steps of the capitol, stretching his lazy carcass in the sun, on the square or on the bench of the mayor's court. He wait- eth for the troubling of the political waters, to the end that he
.
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may step in and be healed of the itch by the ointment of office. For office he 'bums,' as a toper 'bums' for the satisfying dram. For office yet in prospective, he hath bartered respectability ; hath abandoned business and ceased to labor with his hands, but employs his feet kicking out boot heels against lamp-post and corner curb, while discussing the question of office."38
If either of the types here depicted is even remotely true to life there can be little wonder that neither was in good standing at the South, nor at the North for that matter, for there were many level heads and honest minds and hearts there who did not believe in the re-destruction policies of "re-construction."
KU-KLUX-KLAN AND CAUSE THEREFOR
We have already learned that the bureau at Huntsville had projected "Union or Loyal Leagues," among the negroes for political purposes. As these leagues became stronger, after the ballot was given the negro, many negroes were elected to office through its influence. The higher and more important offices were preempted by the "carpet-baggers" and held at the hands of the "Black Man's Party." Of the two it was little less offensive, and less dangerous to society that a negro should be in authority.
These leagues having become strong in membership and powerful in politics, under the protection of the Union troops garrisoned here, became very disorderly and obnoxious. The conduct of the members was offensive to the last degree.
Upon emancipation from slavery every negro man acquired a dog and a gun. The dog, as evidence of the owning of prop- erty, and the gun, of freedom. As slaves, they were usually not permitted to have dogs about the quarters. Nor were they allowed to have firearms, owing to the danger of violence among themselves, and for the further good and sufficient rea- son that as slaves they had no use for them.
It is interesting to surmise whether or not the desire on the part of the negro of today to own a dog and a gun, is the progeny of this primal instinct.
The league meetings were held at night. Going to and from the meetings the negroes would march through the streets, armed, in military formation, and execute drills about the court house. The meeting over, they would loiter about the streets, acting boisterously ; using abusive and obscene language, dis-
83 Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama, page 612.
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Early History of Huntsville, Ala.
charging firearms and making threats of violence against the whites ; taking particular care to make themselves most offen- sive to those they especially disliked. In short, the "carpet- baggers" contrived every conceivable means of intimidating the Southern whites into submission to negro domination and social equality. But little did he, in his narrow and poisoned brain, comprehend the spirit of the man he sought to subjugate and crush.
More or less encouragement was given these disreputable bodies and their policies, by the waning opposition of a certain element of the whites; who were beginning to organize them- selves into "loyal" bands, proclaiming the North; renouncing and denouncing the Confederacy and all it had stood and fought for.
Nicholas Davis presided at one of these "unconditional union mass meetings," held at Moulton, in Lawrence county. This meeting was very thinly attended and represented no consid- erable portion of the sentiment of North Alabama, though eleven counties sent delegates. A little later such a meeting was held at Huntsville, with no better attendance.
Prior to the election of 1868, the Ku-Klux, were not active, locally. Though from time to time individual corrections were administered by small bands of Ku-Klux.
With the result of the election of 1868, came a realization of the enormity of the danger to the white man and his social institutions, and the extent of his dilemma. After this election Huntsville and surrounding country had well organized Klans of Ku-Klux.
The Ghouls, or privates of the Klans in Madison county, when in active service, in addition to the regulation disguise and mask, wore red flannel trousers with white stripes down the sides, and around the waist a brace of revolvers.
Prior to the election of 1868, few deeds of violence were committed by the Klan; for, up to that time, the superstitious blacks and the timid and credulous "carpet-baggers" were easily subdued and held in check by mere threats of violence or warnings from the Klan. But, later when the detestable and more knowing "scalawag" began to get in his work, the warnings from the Klan were less effective. The "carpet- bagger" was encouraged to stand his ground, and the negro was relieved of his superstition, in a large measure, by the slowly percolating realization that the Klan was not composed of spirits, "hants," but flesh and blood.
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Early History of Huntsville, Ala.
The negroes at first believed that the Ku-Klux were the outraged "spirits" of their departed masters, returning to "hant" them for their erring ways. They believed that "Hell froze over" to allow these spirits to pass on their way back to earth. This superstitious belief was the chief asset of the Ku-Klux as is shown by the following posted warning from the Klan :
Ku-Klux.
Hell-a-Bulloo Hole-Den of Skulls.
Bloody Bones, Headquarters of the Great Ku-Klux Klan, No. 1000.
Windy Month-New Moon.
Cloudy Night-Thirteenth Hour.
General Orders No. 2.
The great chief Simulacre summons you !
Be ready! Crawl slowly! Strike hard !
Fire around the pot !
Sweltered venom, sleeping got
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot !
Like a hell broth boil and bubble!
The Great High Priest Cyclop! C. J. F. Y.
Grim Death calls for one, two, three !
Varnish, Tar, Turpentine !
The fifth Ghost sounds his Trumpet !
The mighty Genii wants two black wethers!
Make them, make them, make them ! Presto !
The Great Giantess must have a white barrow.
Make him, make him, make him! Presto!
Meet at once-the den of Snakes-the Giant's !
Jungles-the hole of Hell! The second hobgoblin !
Will be there, a mighty Ghost of valor. His eyes of fire, his voice of thunder ! Clean the streets-
Clean the serpents' dens.
Red hot pinchers ! Bastinado !! Cut Clean !!!
No more to be born. Fire and Brimstone.
Leave us, leave us, leave us! one, two, and three tonight ! Others soon.
Hell freezes! On with skates-glide on. Twenty from Atlanta. Call the roll.
Bene dicte! The Great Ogre orders it !
By order of the Great Blufustin. G. S. Κ. Κ. Κ.34
34 Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama, page 680.
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Early History of Huntsville, Ala.
The childlike credulity of the black man was not only taken advantage of by the Southern whites, but by the Northern whites, as well. His ostensible new friend capitalized his friendship to the detriment and financial loss of the negro. The fraudulent schemes devised by sharpers from the North to separate the negro from his money, were novel, numerous and varied. The most pretentious and lucrative of all these frauds was the sale of four painted sticks. The negro was told by the faker from the North-(in whom, hailing from these parts, till the Freedman's Bank failed in 1874, he had the ut- most faith and trust and believed implicitly), that the land upon which these sticks were set up, wheresoever it might be, became his, ipso facto. A document purporting to be a deed accompanied each set of sticks, which read in part as follows:
"Know all men by these presents: That a naught is a naught ; and a figure is a figure; all for the white man and none for the nigure. And, whereas, Moses lifted up the ser- pent in the wilderness, so also have I lifted this d -- d old nigger out of four dollars and six bits. Amen. Selah."35
After the spring of 1868, the newspapers frequently car- ried Klan warnings and threats. Printed warnings were posted in prominent places. These public documents dealt with con- ditions and obnoxious persons, generally. Individuals, who by their conduct and associations had become undesirable and were deemed a menace to the peace and welfare of the com- munity, received notices and warnings in person, and some times by posting on their premises in conspicuous places. These offenders were given a limited and fixed time to depart. Failing to take heed, they were captured and severely thrashed and ordered, and in some instances, made to leave. Be it said, however, it was not often necessary to administer a thrashing; for as a general thing the first notice received by an individual, signed "Ku-Klux-Klan" was obeyed without undue loss of time and without argument. These warnings were frequently ludicrously misspelled and always written in a disguised hand.
The Klan at Huntsville, deeming I. D. Sibley an undesirable citizen, sent the following warning, written mostly in "plain English," to him, which explains itself :
"Mr. Sibley, you had better leave here. You are a thief and you know it. If you do not leave in ten days we will cut your throat. . We ain't after the negroes; but we intend for you
35 Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama, page 447.
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damn carpet-bagger men to go back to your homes. You are stealing everything you can find. We mean what we say. Mind your eye."
James Howsy. William Whereatnehr.
(Here was rudely drawn a coffin.)
John Mixemuhh. Soliman Wilson. P. J. Solon.
Get away !
We ain't no Cu-Cluxes, but if you don't go we will make you."36
This notice to a "carpet-bagger" illustrates the view-point of the South with clearness; namely, the negro himself was not primarily to blame for his misbehavior, but the "carpet- bagger" and "scalawag" were. It was the latter that the South held responsible for the continued disordered state of affairs ; and to the adjustment of these conditions, set about ridding society of these pests. Under the administration of State and local affairs by the "carpet-baggers," they and the negroes became more and more aggressive. A good portion of the best land in the county was in possession of negroes, who · asserted false claims to it. The activities of the Ku-Klux be- came more strenuous and purposeful as the oppression of the "carpet-bag" regime grew. During this time, additional troops were sent to Huntsville to suppress the Ku-Klux, but to no avail. Later, martial law was declared over Madison county. Even this did not seriously impede the work of the Klan as a social regulator. It had inaugurated an "Invisible Empire," which had grown in strength until its decrees were far more potent and its power more dreaded than that of the visible commonwealth which it either dominated or terrorized. It is said, too, no doubt with truth, that many of the federal soldiers, stationed here, looked leniently upon the activities of the Klan, so evidently inaugurated in sheer self-defense and decency, by an oppressed and downtrodden people.
During the reconstruction period there were elected, from Huntsville, three State senators, "carpet-baggers," Spencer, Hinds and Sibley. The self-interest which governed the activi- ties of these unworthy solons, and the manner in which they
36 Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama, page 678. This warning is not in the ordinary Ku-Klux form, though the meaning is clear.
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were willing to wreck the county to further their political ends, is revealed very clearly and unmistakably by their opposi- tion as senators to any legislation which might emasculate the Ku-Klux-Klan of power. Though the Ku-Klux had them marked, and they dreaded the power of the Klan, they desired the existence rather than the extinction of the Klan. For the reasons, as stated by them, in moments of rare candor, that the continued strife between the whites and blacks enabled them to make effective speeches against the former and thereby ob- tain the negro vote.
The most famous parade and "riot" of the Ku-Klux-Klan occurred at Huntsville just before the presidential election of 1868. A body of Ku-Klux 1,500 strong rode into the city and paraded the streets. Both men and horses were disguised with masks and sheets. All of their evolutions were executed with the greatest precision, skill and silence. The negroes were in a frenzy of fear. One of them fired a shot; immediately a riot was on. The negroes fired at themselves and the unmasked whites indiscriminately. The unmasked whites returned the fire. The Ku-Klux fired not a shot, but formed a line and looked on silently. Several negroes were wounded. Judge Thurlow, a "scalawag" of Limestone county, was accidently shot and killed by a stray bullet from a negro's pistol. The whites who participated received only slight wounds. The military authorities arrested some of the Ghouls, who were released later. This was known throughout the North as one of the greatest "outrages" committed by the Ku-Klux.
This is only one of many similar "negro riots" enacted in the South, and accredited to the Ku-Klux-Klan, as "outrages."
By the year 1870, the mission of the Klan had been accom- plished in a large measure. So nearly re-adjusted and normal had conditions become, that the need of its protection practi- cally had ceased.
In 1871 Congress appointed a sub-committed, composed of a joint committee from both houses, to investigate the Ku- Klux-Klan and its activities in Alabama. A meeting of the committee was held at Huntsville, October 6th to 16th, 1871. Senators Pratt and Price, and Representatives Beck, Buckley and Blair, formed the committee. For practical and political purposes the committee was composed of three Republicans and one Democrat, as Blair and Beck were seldom ever pres- ent at the same time. Many of Huntsville's most prominent citizens were called before this inquisitorial body for examina-
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Early History of Huntsville, Ala.
tion. Among those summoned were Ex-Governor Reuben Chapman, P. M. Dox, and William Richardson. After the committee had completed its labors and reported to Congress, the following "official" table of crimes alleged to have been committeed by the Ku-Klux Klan, was published :
"Killed 6
Outrages 19
Shootings 5
Whippings 19
Total 3749"
According to this report, Madison's Ku-Klux committed ten more crimes than those of any other county. However, a further comparison reveals that the excess lies in the whip- pings and not in the killings.
So far as is known no one in Madison county was ever pun- ished for participation in the activities of the Ku-Klux-Klan.
This brings us to a close of our consideration of the Ku- Klu-Klan, locally, without having explained its enlarged ob- jects and purposes, and the spirit of the moving cause for its being.
Judge Albion W. Tourgee, a "carpet-bagger," in his book, "A Fool's Errand," renders us his views on the Ku-Klux- Klan, which are intensely interesting and enlightening. Speak- ing to the subject, he says :
"Yet it was a magnificent sentiment that underlay it all, an unfaltering determination, an invincible defiance to all that had the seeming of compulsion or tyranny. One can but re- gard with pride and sympathy the indomitable men who, being conquered in war, yet resisted every effort of the conquerer to change their laws, their customs, or even the personnel of their ruling class, and this, too, not only with unyielding stub- bornness, but with success. One can but admire the arrogant boldness with which they charged the nation which had over- powered them, even in the teeth of her legislators, with per- fidy, malice, and a spirit of unworthy and contemptible revenge. How they laughed to scorn the Reconstruction Acts of which the wise men boasted! How boldly they declared the conflict to be irrepressible and that white and black could not and should not live together as co-ordinate ruling elements !
37 Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama, page 705.
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Early History of Huntsville, Ala.
"And then the organization itself, so complete and yet so portable and elastic! So perfect in disguise that, of the thou- sands of victims, scarce a score could identify one of their persecutors ! In it we may recognize the elements that go to make up a grand and kingly people. They felt themselves insulted and oppressed. No matter whether they were or not, be the fact one way or another, it does not affect their con- duct. If the Reconstruction which the wise men ordained was unjust; if the North was the aggressor and wrongful assailant of the South in war; if to degrade and humiliate her enemy the terms of the surrender were falsified and new and irritating conditions imposed; if the outcasts of Northern life were sent or went thither to encourage or induce the former slave to act against his former master-if all this were true, it would be no more an excuse or justification for the course pursued than would the honest belief that these facts were true by the masses who formed the rank and file of this grotesquely uniformed body of partisan cavalry. In any case, it must be counted as the desperate effort of a proud, brave, and determined people to secure and hold what they deemed to be their rights."
Judge Tourgee had that breadth of view which permits him to appreciate and respect the objects of the Ku-Klux Klan, though failing to comprehend the necessities for its existence. Even he might have come to know of these and have applauded its work, had he retained his residence at the South sufficiently long
The war over, the Confederate soldier returned home to find his labor system, the primary leverage of rehabilitation, not demoralized but utterly destroyed. Impoverished to the last degree, broken in health, with head bowed in unutterable dejec- tion, he looked out upon the vast sea of his desolation. For a moment he stood dazed; reeled, recovered himself, girded up his loins, put on the armor of peace, and double-quicked into action, with that indomitable determination that had made of him such a formidable foe.
A splendid new empire was builded with marvelous rapidity out of the hot ashes of the old, as a harmonious part of the common whole our reunited and beloved nation. Happy and at peace with itself and the world, this new South has become strong and trusted in the councils of the nation. The halls of Congress again resound with the fervid eloquence and forceful logic of her statesmen. Along the Potomac and the Tennessee
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peace and quiet, happiness and hope reign now, and shall reign forever.
Nothing contained in this volume must be taken as indicating the author's approval of slavery. Far from it. He has spoken of things as he found them, where he found them and when he found them. The South was not the original importer of the slave, but became a slave section naturally and logically. It was not to be expected that a factor which had become so deeply embedded in its economic life could be eliminated in the twinkling of an eye.
Before the war began, the index finger of fate-the "signs of the times"-pointed inexorably toward a final and just solu- tion of this difficult problem. However, if the slave gave much, he received in return liberally of the best. No savage race the world has ever known, had conferred upon it so speedily, the blessings of civilization and christianity, as that portion of this African people which thus came into immediate and continuous contact with the splendid civilization of the Old South.
"The North thinks Reconstruction was the salvation of the South and is the cause of its present progressiveness, but, in destroying all that was old, Reconstruction probably removed some abuses; from the new order of things some permanent good must have resulted. But the credit for neither can right- fully be claimed until it can be shown that those results were impossible under the regime destroyed."
References :- Fleming's Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama; kindness of many older citizens ; files of the Confed- erate Veteran."
END.
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