USA > Kentucky > The story of Kentucky > Part 12
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To the right of the Petersons' lived a Confederate colonel who had come home and gone to work to redeem the losses induced by his rebellion - little heavier to him than were those of the Union general on the left. Colonel Marston's uniform was a trifle more dilapidated than General Farlie's; that was about all. Mr. Peterson went over to call on the old general, and found him trying to plow with one of his carriage horses, which, on account of its venerable age, had escaped military service. The old horse who knew as little of the business as the general, and had as little liking for it, was prancing about in high disgust, sometimes jerking the plow over the surface of the ground, sometimes sticking it fast into the soil; and the general, clinging desperately to the handles of the plow, found himself un- able to manage both horse and plow at the same time.
Mr. Peterson did not feel called upon to pay a welcoming call to his Confederate neighbor, but his son did. The colonel had two accom.
IN THE POST-OFFICE.
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plished daughters ; perhaps it was the remembrance of certain pleasant evenings spent in the society of the two young ladies which induced his forgiy- ing frame of mind. He deserted his office of afternoon and went over rather early, thinking to. have a game of croquet.
On one side of the drive, that led up to the house, was a rustic spring-house. Here Harry found the two young ladies, with two tubs, trying to do the family wash. " Aunt Ailsie" had fallen ill and Dinah with prospect of double duty
had "resigned." The young ladies received him with heightened color, not on account of their occupation, but on account of the rather dishevelled condition of their toilette. Sleeves were tucked up, dresses were pinned back milk-maid fashion, and the abundant tresses were huddled rather wildly on top of the shapely heads.
He asked if the colonel was at home; and the colonel, when found, glowered at him so suspi- ciously that Harry pretended to be in search of sheep to buy. As the colonel was in sad need of funds and quite anxious to sell all the sheep he had. he immediately became quite friendly. Harry bought the sheep - which he did not want - and drove them home, in a vague effort at placing him- self on a footing with the laundry maids.
Harry's efforts at friendliness were not lost on
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the colonel's family. The young ladies were quite gracious when, one evening a week or two after- ward, he called again ; especially Aimee. Alice was more reserved.
" I would like to bring my friend, Lieutenant Scoville, some evening, if you have no objection," he said as he was leaving; " I think you would like him."
Lieutenant Scoville was a New Yorker who had purchased the confiscated estate of a rebel neigh- bor, and was rather too prosperous a man to be popular in this war-scarred community. He had lost nothing ; indeed, it was whispered that he had made money out of the "great trouble." There was dignity and distinction in having suffered for one's country -or at least for one's principles. The man who had dared to make money out of his country's calamities was altogether despicable.
" Excuse me," said Alice haughtily, "I would rather not know him."
" Alice," exclaimed Aimee, "it isn't fair to blame him for fighting the South. Everybody can't see alike. If you had been brought up in the North you would have believed that the Union was a great thing, too."
"I know I should have had better sense. It seems to me any one might see the corruption and tyranny that are at the bottom of the Federal Gov-
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ernment. It was only to humiliate and impoverish the South that they fought. And I would a thou- sand times rather be the defeated South than the cruel, bigoted North."
" There is no stronger Union man than your. great favorite, Dr. Breckinridge; and two of hi- sons fought in the Union Army," said Aimee.
"Yes; but the other two fought on the Southern side; Dr. Breckinridge himself lost a good deal by the war; and I don't believe but he was sorry enough about it. Besides we all know that Dr. Breckinridge is a good and noble man."
When Mr. Harry Peterson next called at Colonel Marston's he was not accompanied by Lieutenant Scoville. But subsequently Alice met him else- where, and on further acquaintance her opinion of him was modified to that extent that when Harry and Aimee were married, there was a double wed- ding, in which the other contracting parties were Alice Marston and Lieutenant Scoville.
CHAPTER XI.
WITHOUT SLAVERY.
HE war was over. That is, Kentucky thought it was over. She settled down 2. to resume her plow- shares and pruning hooks in a very peace- ful frame of mind. It apitol . had not been her war; she had kept out of it, and fought against it, until all. the country began to cry out, " Coward !" Until all her young, high- spirited sons had slipped away into one army or the other. Until the great storm rushed in upon her, banishing peace and tranquillity, and filling her ears with the cries and groans of her children and her countrymen. Assailed on every hand, had she not held fast to the Union ? And when she found that the fearful contest was inevitable what other State had given more freely of her substance and her service ? Had she not, from the very first,
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shown herself honorable, equitable, in the highest degree trustworthy ?
Then, upon what ground could it be declared that, in this land of peace and good-will, a " Freed- men's Bureau " was necessary to secure the ex- slaves their just rights ? And, worse still, that the presence of negro troops was required to enforce the laws? But these were only fair examples of the indignities which, from the very beginning, had been inflicted upon Kentucky; a mere instance of the political tyranny she had been, habitually, called upon to endure. Was she not eminently a loyal State? Had she ever- even under the most ex- asperating circumstances - rebelled against the Government? No !
Very well, then. When this meddlesome Bureau - this expensive, unwise, utterly useless " Freed- men's Bureau," which sometimes even drew down official rebuke for its "abuse of power" - was entirely abolished; when the negro troops were withdrawn: when justice was really done the State - then should colored citizens be admitted to the civil courts on equal terms with their white fellow-countrymen; not an instant before. Thus Kentucky reasoned. Through the seven years of the Bureau's continuance this contest between its officers and those of the civil courts continued.
In February, 1866, the Legislature passed an act
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rendering invalid any election decided by military interference, and the seats of members so elected were declared vacant. It also politely requested President Johnson to remove the Freedmen's Bureau, claiming to have enacted laws for the colored population "characterized by justice and humanity, suited to their present condition and necessary and proper for their welfare." Further- more, it petitioned for a revocation of the presi- dential order suspending the privilege of the habeas corpus writ.
The President declared Kentucky free from mar- tial law, but the Freedmen's Bureau was retained ; and the writ of habeas corpus, which had been sus- pended by Lincoln in 1863, was still withheld, though Kentucky was the only "border State " to which it was yet denied.
The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were both rejected by the Kentucky Legislature, which resolved that the people of Kentucky were unalterably opposed to negro suffrage, "whether limited or special, general or qualified;" and it "most earnestly opposed the extension of such suffrage in any State or territory." The general opinion was that the ballot should be withheld from the present generation of freedmen - who in their helpless ignorance would become mere tools in the hands of unprincipled office-seekers - and
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given to their sons, who would be taught and trained for the high privilege and power of suffrage.
During the seven years which the obnoxious Bureau continued its unwelcome interference between the colored people and their employers,
1
mong the Mountains. From aPicture by Patty Thum.
(2) View Near the
35 of the
Ford Cumberland over which all
the early settlers 1 fromVirginia Passedwo
the State retained her laws limiting the testimony of the negro in the courts, repealing them as soon as the Bureau was abolished. The years brought their changes - in feeling as well as in circumstances -- and the real affection existing between the two races dwelling in such close
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juxtaposition acted as a strong force in lifting the freedman to a higher spiritual plane.
The expenses of the "Freedmen's Bureau " for 1869 are given as one hundred and ten thousand dollars, forty-one thousand dollars of which repre- sented salaries. It secured employment for the shiftless and improvident, and in some portions of the impoverished South, served greatly to lighten the sore burden of educating the illiterate mass of new-made voters, by selling public lands, and appropriating the proceeds to colored schools.
Kentucky's system of securing a fund for colored schools was by appropriating all the taxes paid by them to the education of their children. At the State Educational Convention of colored people, February, 1873, the following resolutions were passed, which speak for themselves:
RESOLVED- First : "That we most earnestly request there be no special legislation in the State of Kentucky for colored people : since it is humiliating to us, detrimental to the finance of the State, and contrary to sound policy.
Second : That we sincerely believe that citizens in general of Kentucky are as ready to accord equal school privileges to the colored people of the State, as colored people are to receive those privileges.
Third : That it is our aim ever to labor honestly, earnestly. and amicably, to secure equal educational privileges in common with citizens of Kentucky, and with citizens of the United States, and to show ourselves worthy of the same."
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In the Southern Educational Convention, in 1877, the following resolution was passed - which also speaks for itself :
RESOLVED, "That, as the educational laws of the several States represented by us make no discrimination in favor of, of against, the children of any class of citizens ; and as those charged with the administration of these laws have endeavored, in the past, to have them carried into effect impartially, so do we pledge ourselves to use our influence to secure even-handed justice to all classes of citizens in the application of any educa- tional funds provided by the National Government."
Meantime, as an off-set to the " Freedmen's Bureau," a band of would-be "regulators " calling itself the " Ku-Klux Klan" had sprung up in the South. It was a sort of residuum, or dregs, left behind from the great upheaval and was ostensibly designed for the intimidation of lawless negroes. who, in some localities, had organized a regular system of marauding, which the civil authorities were unable to restrain. At first these " regula- tors," as they styled themselves, restricted their operations to the negro thieves and incendiaric- whom their mysterious mummeries were designed to terrorize. But the morals of the white as well as the colored people had become relaxed by their experience of war, and when the evil committed by these self-elected regulators came to over-balance the good they accomplished, the law laid its heavy
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hand upon them, and swept away this last vestige of the ills resulting from the war. In September, 1867, these "regulators " were warned by Governor Stevenson that " the Executive could not tolerate any such association of men, but would see that they were brought to condign punishment."
The officers of the law and the grand juries were not long in unravelling the Ku-Klux mysteries when once they set about it; and soon these organized bands of outlaws - the natural product of lawless processes for extinguishing evil - were broken up and dispersed.
Although Kentucky spent several years in adapt- ing herself to her changed circumstances, making little progress in material prosperity, she recuper- ated more readily than did any other slave State. At no time had she been too poor to help others who were in need of assistance. This the Legisla- tive "resolutions of thanks " from various other States will amply attest.
Many of the great farms were cut up into smaller ones and sold, or let " on the shares"; frequently to the slaves who had. formerly tilled them for nothing. The country gentleman no longer lived like an English lord. A Kentucky farmer was no better now than a lawyer, a doctor, or a merchant.
War, like the duello, has fallen into disrepute, in Kentucky as well as in other portions of the
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civilized world. Those who saw the war on their own lands have no desire to see it again ; having discovered that its "pomp and circumstance exist more in the imagination than in the reality. But national politics is still a subject of living interest to the average Kentuckian. Many a plain farmer might astonish Mr. Gladstone with his knowledge of the Irish question and his intel- ligent appreciation of the problem of Home Rule : or perhaps amaze the great Prince Bismarck with his clear apprehension of the forces required in hi- manipulation of the German Empire.
An easy and convenient method of accounting for everything that is large and national in the tone of Kentucky politics is to ascribe all to the influence of Henry Clay. It is true the influence of that vivid mind endures even to the present day. not only in Kentucky, but throughout the United States. But had the atmosphere and environ- ments of the Kentucky home nothing to do with the moulding and directing of his large and generous nature? Even the pioneers in thei brief respites from fighting the Indians and " subduing the earth " managed to keep watch not only upon the movements of their far-away Legislature, but also of Congress; turning as interested eye now and then upon England. whom they had forgiven; upon Spain, whom
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they distrusted ; and upon France, whom they admired.
Indeed, a little deeper study of local politics - which is far more likely to be corrupt than are the national - would doubtless tend greatly to purify and ennoble American politics. The social South- ern custom, always prevalent, of discussing every- thing tends to promote a healthy mental vitality which the mere book-student lacks ; and, now that large libraries are becoming common, there is no reason why Kentucky should not take her turn in literary supremacy as she has in pioneering, in statesmanship and in material productions. It has been said that Kentuckians buy very few American copyright books; the truth is, however, that she purchases from Eastern booksellers and con- tributes comparatively little to the support of first-class book-stores within her own pleasant boundaries.
As a repetition of the commendations of others is not so reprehensible as complimenting one's self, it may be pardonable to make copious extracts from Mr. Charles Dudley Warner's very interest- ing article on Kentucky in Harper's Magazine for January, ISS9. He describes the State as "a great self-sustaining empire lying midway in the Union, and between the North and the South - never having yet exactly made up its mind whether
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it is North or South." " In this empire," he tells us, "prodigal nature has brought together near !: everything that a highly civilized society need- the most fertile soil, capable of producing almost every variety of product for food or for textil fabrics ; mountains of coal and iron ores and lime stone; streams and springs everywhere ; almost al sorts of hard wood timber in abundance. Nearly half the State is still virgin forest of the nobles; trees, oaks, sugar-maple, ash, poplar, black walnut. linn, elm, hickory, beech, chestnut, red cedar. The climate may honestly be called temperate. . .
" Kentucky is loved of its rivers. It can be seen by their excessively zigzag courses how reluctant they are to leave the State, and if they do leave i: they are certain to return. Kentucky i. an old State with an old civilization. It was the pioneer in the great western movement of popula- tion after the Revolution. When the Stat . came into the Union in 1792 - the second admitted - it was the equal in population and agricultura wealth of some of the original States that had been settled one hundred and fifty years. . Civiliza tion made a great leap over nearly a thousand milc- into the open garden spot of Central Kentucky, an the exploit is a unique chapter in our frontier de- velopment. Either no other land ever lent itself :. easily to civilization as the blue-grass region, or i'
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263 + 264
In The umberland Mountains.
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was exceptionally fortunate in its occupants. They formed, almost immediately, a society distinguished for its amenities, for its political influence, pros- perous beyond precedent in farming, venturesome and active in trade, developing large manufactures, especially from hemp, of such articles as could be transported by river, and sending annually through the wilderness road to the East and South immense droves of cattle, horses and swine."
Of the blue-grass country he says: " I must confess that all I had read of it, all the pictures I had seen, gave me an inadequate idea of its beauty and richness. So far as I know, there is nothing like it in the world. One may drive a hundred miles north or south over the splendid macadam turnpikes, behind blooded roadsters, at an easy, ten-mile gait, and see always the same sight - a smiling agricultural paradise with scarcely a foot in fence corners, by the roadside, or in low grounds, of uncultivated, uncared-for land."
Western Kentucky is very little behind the famous central portion. Bowling Green, Paducah, Owensboro, Hopkinsville and Henderson have each almost doubled in population since the war, increasing with equal rapidity in wealth. The best lands of Kentucky are, of course, high-priced, but in the southeastern portions there were large tracts of indifferent land which the Swiss and
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German dairy-farmers, cheese-makers and grape. culturists have bought, at from one dollar to five dollars per acre, and transformed into neat, cheer. ful, thrifty settlements.
In the eastern, mountainous region, there are a . few rich valleys; but the larger portion of thi- rugged section of the State, though exceeding !: picturesque, with its lovely, wild ravines, glowing with many-hued blossoms, its vast forests of huge. broad-leaved trees, and winding, crystal streams. is of indifferent soil and hard to cultivate. Here two classes are growing up side by side. The larger and better class are of English, Scotch-Irish and German origin ; honest, courageous, kindly. A sombre-minded, liberty-loving people, they kept retreating before advancing civilization, until a: last they lodged among the least accessible lands of the country, where they have continued to vege- tate in solemn, self-respecting ignorance, even until the present day ; a hospitable, gentle-mannered pce- ple, yet fierce and reckless when thoroughly aroused. " Many of them," so says Mr. Gilmore (" Edmund Kirke ") - and he knows them well - " bear the names, and have in their veins the blood of statesmen and heroes who will be forever hon- ored in border history; but, alas! the fine gold has become dim, and all their great qualities have been smothered under a mass of ignorance and
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superstition that is painful to contemplate. But the greatness is still there. Latent in them are all the materials of a magnificent manhood." Only religious and literary culture are needed, we are assured, to call it forth.
The second class, of which there are only a few in the Kentucky mountains, are a sallow, gypsy- like people, of unknown origin ; idle, vicious, thor- oughly conscienceless, and "far more incorrigible " than either the Indian or the negro. "Whenever you read in the newspapers about those terrible vendettas which have disgraced the country," says Mr. Andrew Ewing (for many years one of the most eminent lawyers of Tennessee), "you will, on inquiry, find that nine out of every ten of them are traceable to this class or race of men." It was from these that the guerrilla companies which in- fested the country during the war, were composed.
" The two classes," to quote again from Mr. Gilmore, " are of very marked and decidedly oppo- site characteristics. One labors; is industrious, hardy, enterprising ; a law-abiding and useful citi- zen; the other does not labor; is thieving, vicious. law-breaking, and of 'no sort of account' to his family or to society."
Of the first class Boone, Kenton, Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, Andrew Johnson, Calhoun, Lincoln, and many other famous men, were descended.
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Judge Hargis, formerly Chief-Justice of Kentucky was one of them. "Education, and the opportuni. ties of civilization," says Judge Hargis, "are the pressing wants of the mountain people. They are truthful and personally honest. In the United States courts they do equivocate; but even there they do not lie outright. They will not perjure themselves as people elsewhere often do. The try to conceal a fact, perhaps, and talk around d question, but even in a moonshine case, a witness will tell the truth in the main."
In the civil war this sturdy, honest people fought for the Union; previous to that time they knew nothing of pistols and bowie-knives. The local war between themselves and the guerrillas which raged at that time, first accustomed them to blood-shed : and the feuds then created by outrages perpetrated in the name of patriotism, endure even to the pres- ent day.
Mr. Warner's method of accounting for their choleric, contentious disposition is both novel and kindly. He says: "In a considerable part of East ern Kentucky (not, I hear, in all) good wholesome cooking is unknown, and civilization is not possib! without that. . . . I have no doubt that the abom- inable cookery of the region has much to do with the lawlessness, as it visibly has to do with the poor physical condition."
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Kentucky has not been indifferent to the fact that these neglected people are helping to make her history. The question of their uplifting and enlightenment has long been one of serious and earnest consideration with her statesmen and her Christian people. Much good has already been done by missionaries and teachers. But these few mountain counties of Kentucky are only a very small part of an extensive field extending all along the Cumberland and Alleghany mountains, including two million souls, of which not a fiftieth part are Kentuckians.
Recent developments of rich mineral resources in this eastern portion of Kentucky - the opening of mines, the establishing of manufactories, and the pushing through of railroads, bringing in enterprise and civilization - are already changing the character of its inhabitants. Yet, without the refining, en- nobling influences of true Christianity, the change can bring them little permanent spiritual good.
The value of the coal deposit in Eastern Ken- tucky is exceeded only by that of Pennsylvania. It is easily mined, and the supply equals that of Great Britain. The cannel coal is proved, by ex- perts, to excel in purity and richness the best in Great Britain. A bed of excellent coking coal of one thousand six hundred square miles stretches over Letcher, Pike and Harlan Counties, its pro-
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duct being superior, it is said, to the far-famed coke of Connellsville. As valuable iron ore is found in the vicinity of the coal beds the smelting is dot on the spot.
The State stretches out in gentle undulation>. forming a natural system of drainage, until it reaches the eastern border, where it breaks into the rugged upheaval called, by one of the early adventurers into Kentucky, the Cumberland Mount- ains, in honor of the English Duke of Cumberland. The fertility of the soil, in the richer portions of the State, is inexhaustible; but a good deal of the land has been worn by careless tillage, though not exhausted beyond redemption.
As an example of the State's various agricultura! capacities, Prof. N. S. Shaler has given, in his valu- able book, The Commonwealth of Kentucky, a table showing the varied products in which Ken- tucky has, in successive decades, been foremost among the States. In 1840 she was first in wheat : in 1850 first in maize, flax and hemp ; in 1860 first only in hemp, but second in many other things : in 1870 first in tobacco and hemp. " The death- rate," he adds, " is lower than in any other Stat from which goes forth each year a great tide of the younger people; and pauperism is almost unknown."
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