USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 4 > Part 52
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MASSACHUSETTS WORK FOR THE CONTRABANDS (1861-1863)
Among the first persons in the country to give serious at- tention to the problem of how to deal with the negroes sud- denly freed from slavery, was Edward L. Pierce of Boston. Immediately after that other son of Massachusetts, Major General Benjamin F. Butler, startled the country in 1861 by declaring slaves of persons engaged in rebellion to be "contra- band of war," Pierce, who was a private in Company L of the Third Massachusetts Regiment, stationed at Fortress Monroe, was specially detailed to "collect the contrabands, record their names, ages, and the names of their masters, provide their tools, superintend their labor, and procure their rations." In the Atlantic Monthly for November, 1861, appeared an article written by him, entitled "The Contrabands at Fortress Mon-
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roe," in which he described the employment of these former slaves in constructing fortifications and advocated the grant- ing of citizenship with all its privileges to "every one of these enrolled defenders of the Union."
In March, 1862, General Wool, commanding officer of the Fort Monroe Military District, appointed Charles B. Wilder, a Boston merchant, as Superintendent in charge of "these people"; and the admirable manner in which he discharged his responsible duties vindicated the wisdom of the choice.
As a result of the capture by the Navy of Hilton Head and Bay Point in November, 1861, the Sea Islands, situated off the coast of South Carolina and noted for the production of a superior grade of cotton, came into the possession of the Union forces. The care of the slaves, formerly employed on the plantations and abandoned by their owners, became a press- ing problem. Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury, solicitous for the welfare of these unfortunate people, appointed Edward L. Pierce to make an investigation of conditions. In January, 1862, he sailed from New York, and spent a month in the islands. Upon his return he made a comprehensive report in which he recommended the appoint- ment of superintendents with power to act as local magis- trates, with an adequate supply of teachers to conduct the necessary educational work. He also recommended that the superintendents take charge of the abandoned plantations and cultivate them with the labor of the colored population. In his report, he made favorable mention of Rev. Samuel Peck, a Massachusetts Baptist clergyman, formerly a professor in Amherst College, who not only conducted religious services at Beaufort, but also established a negro school of over sixty pupils. "Of narrow means, and yet in the main defraying his own expenses, this man of apostolic faith and life, to whose labors both hemispheres bear witness, left his home to guide and comfort this poor and shepherdless flock; and to him belongs, and ever will belong, the distinguished honor of being the first minister of Christ to enter the field which our arms had opened."
As a result of the publicity given to Pierce's report, public meetings were held in the large cities of the North and associa- tions formed to furnish teachers, books, and supplies for work
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among the Negroes, among them being the Educational Com- mission of Boston, and the New England Freedmen's Aid Society. President Lincoln's death in 1865, and the policy adopted by his successor of restoring the Sea Islands to their former owners and holding out the hope that old relations between master and servant might to all intents and purposes be restored, broke up the work which had been so auspiciously begun.
FREEDMEN'S BUREAU (1863-1866)
President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 greatly increased the magnitude of the problem of caring for the Negro, and the need of legislation became more and more apparent. Accordingly, in January, 1863, Eliot, of Massa- chusetts, introduced in the House of Representatives a bill for the establishment of a Bureau of Emancipation in the War Department, whose duty it should be to protect and assist the freedmen. This bill provoked bitter opposition, and finally passed the House with only two votes to spare. In the course of the debate, Brooks, of New York, referred sarcastically to Massachusetts as "the leading power in this country" and spoke of "her inexorable, inappeasable, demoniac energy." Alluding to the bill itself, he went on as follows: "It is written. It is ordained. It is a Massachusetts thunderbolt. I listen, I tremble before the decree, I hear now from the steeples, the spires, the pulpits of Massachusetts, 'there is but one God, and Massachusetts is His prophet'."
In the Senate, the bill was referred to the Special Committee on Slavery, of which Sumner was chairman. Although the bill which he reported passed the Senate, the matter was held up in conference between the two branches so that the measure (then entitled the Freedmen's Bureau Bill) did not become a law until March 3, 1865. Major General O. O. Howard was appointed by the President as the first commissioner of the Bureau, and James Redpath of Massachusetts was made superintendent of schools in the northern division of the Department of the South, and by November there had been established in the State of South Carolina alone 48 schools with six thousand pupils taught by 108 teachers, 80 of whom
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were from the North ; confirming the statement of Oberholtzer that "the Yankee school-teacher entered the South on the heels of the soldier."
Experience having demonstrated the necessity for further legislation, in February, 1866, Congress passed a bill extend- ing the Freedmen's Bureau and greatly enlarging its powers. Both Senator Wilson and Representative Eliot of Massachu- setts spoke in its favor ; but it was promptly vetoed by Presi- dent Johnson and failed of passage over the veto. The Boston Transcript in its issue of March 2, 1866, declared editorially that "the veto would be read with profound regret and dis- satisfaction by a vast majoity of the members of the Union party." Later in the same year, however, Eliot in the House and Wilson in the Senate introduced a similar bill extending the Bureau two years, which, although disapproved by the President, was finally passed over his veto by an overwhelm- ing vote.
A MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR OF SOUTH CAROLINA (1874-1876)
As a result of this legislation, supplemented by the work of the numerous private associations organized for the purpose, an immense amount of educational and philanthropic work was done for the Negro population of the South; a work in which many Massachusetts men and women took part. More- over, some Massachusetts men were chosen to elective office in States of the South during the reconstruction period, with creditable records. Among these was Horace Maynard, an Amherst graduate, born in Westboro, who was Attorney- General of Tennessee from 1863 to 1865, for seven years a Representative in Congress from the same State, and later Postmaster-General in the Cabinet of President Hayes.
One of the best "carpetbag" governors of the South was Daniel H. Chamberlain of Massachusetts, who in 1874 became governor of South Carolina. Born in West Brookfield, Massa- chusetts, he graduated from Yale and the Harvard Law School. When the Civil War broke out, he led a company of colored cavalry of the 5th Massachusetts Regiment into action. After the war he settled in South Carolina as a cotton planter and entered politics, still true to the radical policies of his na-
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tive State. Prior to 1872, he was attorney-general of South Carolina for four years. From 1874 to 1877 he was governor. He was renominated, declared by his own party elected, and even inaugurated for his second term. Wade Hampton, the Democratic candidate, contested the election. Federal troops were called upon to support Chamberlain, but on the eve of victory he withdrew.
Burgess, a Southern writer, describes him as "a man of great ability and undoubted honesty, who did everything in his power to redeem the State from the miserable condition into which the errors and crimes of his predecessors had brought it."
John F. Halsey says that Chamberlain was the "ablest and best of the reconstruction governors"; and Simms says of him : "His administration was the best of the Radical governors." He openly accused the legislature of corruption, warned the counties against further deficiencies in their treasuries, and instituted an investigation of the State treasury.
MASSACHUSETTS CARPETBAGGERS (1865-1876)
On the other hand, some of the Massachusetts "carpet- baggers" had no such creditable record. Oberholtzer makes mention of a former Massachusetts saloon keeper, Niles G. Parker by name, who, after failing in business, was chosen State treasurer of South Carolina and became suddenly wealthy. From the same State, B. F. Whittemore, of Massa- chusetts, was elected to Congress and later expelled for selling West Point cadetships. The Rev. S. S. Ashley, another "carpetbagger" from Massachusetts, was elected in 1868 superintendent of public instruction in North Carolina. "His administration of the office was costly and without any good results as far as public education was concerned."
Major General Adelbert Ames, of Lowell, Massachusetts, who had a most creditable military record, was United States Senator from Mississippi, and subsequently a governor. Taxes had risen so that the whole product of the soil was not sufficient to pay them. After Ames's election as governor in 1874, a petition for relief from the white tax- payers was laughed at by the Negro legislature. The whites
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THE NEGRO IN MASSACHUSETTS
organized; and through the Ku Klux Klan and the White Leaguers, the Negro voters of the State were intimidated in the election of 1875. Governor Ames, whom Don Seitz de- scribes as an "amiable well-meaning man, but who could not sustain himself on his uneasy chair," called on President Grant for Federal troops; but the President withheld them. At the election of 1876 the white Democratic candidate was declared elected by 30,000 votes. Ames declared the election to be one of violence and fraud, whereupon the white Demo- cratic legislature started impeachment proceedings against him. Disgusted, Ames resigned and returned to Massachusetts.
The attitude of Massachusetts in relation to the whole question of reconstruction is well illustrated by what occurred at the seating of a Negro named Revels as United States Sen- ator from Mississippi, the office formerly held by Jefferson Davis. Sumner, the senior Senator from the Bay State, de- clared it to be "an historic event marking the triumph of a great cause. The Declaration of Independence was made a reality. For a long time a word only, it now became a deed. What was being done was for mankind, for God himself." Wilson, the other Massachusetts Senator, when Southern Democratic Senators opposed the seating of Revels, asserted that "the slave power was dying in the last ditch," and that the seating of this black man in the halls of the federal gov- ernment would mark the close of the great struggle of forty years. "Now caste and privilege would be disowned forever," he declared; and he escorted Revels to the bar of the Senate to take the oath of office.
STATUS OF THE NEGRO IN MASSACHUSETTS (1865-1927)
While Negro slavery existed in Massachusetts during the colonial period, it ceased to exist from the adoption of the State Constitution of 1780; and as Judge Benjamin R. Curtis pointed out in his dissenting opinion in the famous Dred Scott Case, there were numerous instances not only in Massachu- setts but also in other Northern States of Negroes serving in the American Army and being recognized as citizens of their respective States.
With the immigration of freedmen from the South follow-
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ing the Emancipation Proclamation, the problem of preventing discrimination against persons of color naturally presented itself; and as early as May, 1865, the Massachusetts legis- lature passed an act providing that "no distinction, discrimina- tion, or restriction on account of color or race shall be lawful in any licensed inn, or in any public place of amusement, public conveyance, or public meeting." A maximum fine of fifty dollars was imposed for any violation. In the following year a similar act was passed, making it unlawful "to exclude persons from or restrict them" in any of the places already mentioned, "except for good cause."
In 1885, when the roller-skating craze was at its height, further legislation was enacted, specifically naming skating rinks, extending the provisions to both licensed and unlicensed places, and increasing the maximum fine for violation to one hundred dollars. In 1893, as a result of the refusal of a fashionable barber to shave a popular colored student of Harvard University, the legislature added the words, "barber's shop or other public place kept for hire, gain, or reward." And finally, in 1895, the former acts were repealed and a more comprehensive act was passed, providing not only for a criminal penalty but also for a civil forfeiture to the person aggrieved. The present Massachusetts statute upon the sub- ject, reads as follows :
"Whoever makes any distinction, discrimination, or re- striction on account of color or race, except for good cause applicable alike to all persons of every color or race, relative to the admission of any person to, or his treatment in, a theatre, skating rink, or other public place of amusement, li- censed or unlicensed, or in a public conveyance or public meeting, or in an inn, barber shop, or other public place kept for hire, gain, or reward, licensed or unlicensed, or whoever aids or incites such distinction, discrimination, or restriction, shall be punished by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, and shall forfeit to any person aggrieved thereby not less than twenty-five nor more than three hundred dollars ; but such person so aggrieved shall not recover against more than one person by reason of any one act of distinction, discrimina- tion, or restriction."
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Thus Massachusetts, so far as legislation can accomplish it, has accorded to the Negro the full and complete exercise of all the rights of citizenship, and has protected him against any discrimination on account of his race or color. Colored people ride side by side with white people in all public con- veyances, and colored children attend the public schools with white children. For a great many years a colored woman, Miss Maria Baldwin, was the beloved principal of a public school in Cambridge, most of the pupils in which were the children of well-to-do white parents. The right to vote and to hold office, for which Sumner fought so valiantly, has never been denied or abridged in the Commonwealth which he so ably represented. Colored men have sat in city councils and have ably represented constituencies in the State legislature. In fact a Massachustts city had the unique distinction of being the first city in the North to elect a colored man to its board of aldermen, when Cambridge elected to that office Clement G. Morgan, who had been orator of his class at Harvard College. Another colored citizen of the same city, William H. Lewis, represented a white constituency in the legislature, later became Assistant United States Attorney, and was appointed by President Roosevelt Assistant Attorney- General of the United States.
Although Massachusetts has practiced what its statesmen in both Houses of Congress preached during the reconstruction period, nevertheless, even in the home State of Sumner and Wilson, there exists a strong prejudice against the Negro and he is denied in many quarters that social equality' to which he aspires. Moreover, there are many occupations which are practically barred to persons of color, no matter how well fitted they may be, because of the supposed prejudice of the general public, or because of the unwillingness of white per- sons to work with them. Colored persons who enter the professions of law or medicine, no matter how highly educated or trained they may be, find that their clients and patients are confined for the most part to those of their own race.
This same prejudice exists, to a greater or less degree, in the case of persons of some other races and nationalities. While the time may never come when people will cease to choose those with whom they wish to associate, nevertheless,
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as time goes on, the freedom of opportunity to earn one's liv- ing will undoubtedly become wider to persons of all races. For this Commonwealth of Massachusetts, whatever its faults, has never denied or abridged to any of its citizens the equal protection of the laws.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS .- Richard Henry Dana, a biography (2 vols., Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1890)-Deals chiefly with the period before 1861.
Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events (N. Y., 1861 and later)-Vols. I-XIV had the title American Annual Cyclope- dia. A very useful contemporary compendium.
BLAINE, JAMES GILLESPIE .- Twenty Years of Congress (2 vols., Norwich, Conn., Bill, 1884-1886)-Chiefly on the period after 1871; by an actor in the historical drama.
BOUTWELL, GEORGE SEWALL .- Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Af- fairs (2 vols., N. Y., McClure, Phillips, 1902)-A man deeply con- cerned in reconstruction.
BURGESS, JOHN WILLIAM .- Reconstruction and the Constitution 1866-76 (N. Y., Scribner's, 1902).
BUTLER, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN .- Autobiography and Personal Reminiscen- ces of Major-General Benj. F. Butler; Butler's Book (Boston, Thayer, 1892)-A review of his legal, political, and military career; but by no means the whole story.
CHANNING, EDWARD .- A History of the United States (6 vols., N. Y., Macmillan, 1919-1925)-See Vol. VI.
CURTIS, BENJAMIN ROBBINS, editor .- A Memoir of Benjamin Robbins Curtis, LL.D., with Some of his Professional and miscellaneous Writ- ings (2 vols., Boston, Little, Brown, 1879)-See Vol. I for the im- peachment and trial of President Johnson.
DUNNING, WILLIAM ARCHIBALD .- Reconstruction, Political and Economic (N. Y., Harper, 1907).
GREELEY, HORACE .- The American Conflict 1860-'64 (2 vols., Hartford, Conn., Case, 1864-1866)-Editor of the New York Tribune and a part of the conflict.
HOLLIS, JOHN PORTER .- The Early Period of Reconstruction in South Carolina (Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies in Historical and Political Science, Series XXIII, Nos. 1-2, Balto., Johns Hopkins Press, 1905). MCCALL, SAMUEL WALKER .- Thaddeus Stevens (Boston, Houghton Mif- flin, 1899)-By a later governor of Massachusetts.
MERRIAM, GEORGE SPRING .- Life and Times of Samuel Bowles (2 vols., N. Y., Century, 1885)-The conservative sentiment of Massachusetts, as expressed in the editorials of the Springfield Republican, is set forth in the first part of Vol. II.
OBERHOLTZER, ELLIS PAXSON .- A History of the United States since the Civil War (53 vols., N. Y., Macmillan, 1917-1926)-Vol. I covers the period from 1865 to 1868, Vol. II the period from 1868 to 1872. Chap. x of Vol. II contains an excellent account of the impeachment and trial of President Johnson.
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SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
PEARSON, HENRY GREENLEAF .- The Life of John A. Andrew, Governor of Massachusetts, 1861-1865 (2 vols., Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1904)- The last part of Vol. II shows how one of the antislavery Republican leaders vainly opposed the reconstruction policy of his party.
PIERCE, EDWARD LILLIE .- Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner (4 vols., Boston, Roberts, 1877-1893)-See Vol. IV for a detailed account of Sumner's activities during the period from 1860 to 1874. The stand- ard life of Sumner, with many documents.
RHODES, JAMES FORD .- History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to 1896 (8 vols., N. Y., Macmillan, 1920)-A fair-minded study of the controversy by a man who lived through the period.
SCHOULER, JAMES .- History of the United States of America, under the Constitution, 1783-1877 (7 vols., N. Y., Dodd, Mead, 1895-1913)-See Vol. VII. An able and fair history.
SEITZ, DON CARLOS .- The Dreadful Decade (Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, 1926).
SIMMS, WILLIAM GILMORE .- History of South Carolina (Columbia, S. C., State Company, 1918)-Shows the southern side of the Reconstruction Period.
SMITH, WILLIAM HENRY .- A Political History of Slavery (2 vols., N. Y., Putnam's, 1903).
The South in the Building of the Nation (12 vols., Richmond, The South- ern Historical Publishing Society, 1909-1910)-Use Vol. I. A sort of semi-official vindication of the South.
STOREY, MOORFIELD .- Charles Sumner (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1900)-A scholarly and sympathetic biography of the great leader of the Senate. See particularly chaps. XIV to XIX for the events covered in this chapter. SUMNER, CHARLES .- Works (15 vols., Boston, Lee and Shepard, 1875- 1883)-Vols. VIII to XIII contain Sumner's speeches during the period covered by this chapter.
UNITED STATES-CONGRESS .- Congressional Globe (Washington, 1835- 1873)-37th Congress, 1st session, to 42nd Congress, 2nd session, in- clusive, contains the speeches of the Senators and Representatives from Massachusetts during the 37th to the 42nd Congresses, together with the record of the bills introduced and passed during the period March 4, 1861, to March 4, 1873. Most of these speeches have been edited by those who delivered them.
UNITED STATES-CONGRESS .- Congressional Record (March 4, 1873, and later)-Issues for the 47th Congress, 1st session (1883), and the 51st Congress, 1st session (1891), contain the official record of the last attempts to secure legislation enforcing the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments in the 47th and 51st Congresses.
WILSON, HENRY .- History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America (3 vols., Boston, Osgood, 1877)-Wilson was Senator from Massachusetts, and later Vice President. Contains a good account of the Civil War and the Reconstruction Period.
CHAPTER XX
POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL READJUSTMENTS (1865-1889)
BY WELLINGTON WELLS President of the Massachusetts Senate
POLITICAL SITUATION IN 1868
The political history of Massachusetts from 1865 to 1889 is an interesting story of important events. The great work of Lincoln had been done, and the abolition of slavery had practically been achieved early in the period; but the work of reconstruction, fixing the political status of the seceding States, and the Fifteenth Amendment, making the right of suffrage for the Negro effective, were yet to be accomplished. The history of this period in Massachusetts, therefore, deals with the readjustment of the Commonwealth to the new condi- tions created by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, and the accompanying political, governmental, social, and industrial development.
The people of the Commonwealth moved gradually for- ward, with the dominant political purpose of sustaining the government of the United States and supporting loyally all Federal policies. Both nationally and locally, the Republican party was very strong. It was the party in power when the Civil War ended. Having aided in bringing the war to a successful conclusion, the great majority of the people of the State felt it was a patriotic duty to give the administration complete support. Massachusetts during the war sustained the Federal Government whole-heartedly; and now, as an ex- pression of her loyalty, subordinated local to national issues.
Inasmuch as the Republican party was almost continuously in power during these twenty-five years, a knowledge of its composition and operation is essential to an understanding of the political history of the Commonwealth. Patriotic men of
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all parties during the war combined on the common pur- pose of preserving the Union. They felt that the federal bond, established by Washington and the patriots of the Revolution, could not be lightly broken asunder by combina- tions of citizens of the seceding States. With this aim in mind, duty toward the nation in the struggle assumed a place in the minds of patriotic citizens above that of party affilia- tions, which, for the duration of the war, were subordinated to the one main purpose of the preservation of the Union. This motive was the underlying force which bound together men of Massachusetts who loved their country, no matter what their previous political preferences. Since the Republican party had successfully held the Union together and set the Negro free, many who had been Democrats before entered the Re- publican ranks, and after the war were content to remain there. This attitude of carrying out the work throughout the period of reconstruction was perhaps the most important factor in the continued success of the Republican party for more than a decade.
REGROUPING IN MASSACHUSETTS (1868-1880)
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