USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina since 1860, Volume III > Part 14
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CHAPTER X THE END OF RECONSTRUCTION
Work as imperatively necessary as the impeachment con- fronted the legislature of 1870. Reform of the government in all departments, the checking of extravagance, the amend- ment of a sadly defective constitution, and the punishment of official criminals other than the governor remained to be done.
Accordingly, salaries were cut on all sides, those of the adjutant-general and the superintendent of public works be- ing reduced to $300 which virtually destroyed the offices. To strike Ashley, the same thing was proposed for the superin- tendent of public instruction, but wiser counsel prevailed and the salary was reduced to $1,500. The per diem of members of the legislature was cut to $5 and the fees of county officers were greatly reduced.
The hated Shoffner act was repealed and accompanying this was an act forbidding the existence of secret political so- cieties. Other legislation of importance followed. Contempt of court was defined and the power of the judges limited, residence in the township was required as a prerequisite for voting, judges were made strictly liable for refusal to grant and have executed the writ of habeas corpus, burglary and arson were made capital crimes, and the power of appoint- ing state proxies and state directors for the institutions and companies in which the state had an interest was taken from the governor. Under the provisions of this last act the presi- dent of the Senate and the speaker of the House appointed full boards, and, the old boards declining to yield, suits were brought to determine the constitutionality of the law. In every case the Supreme Court decided in favor of the old
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boards on the ground that the legislature could not deprive the governor of any constitutional power.
The impeachment of a number of officials was publicly demanded, but the legislature rather wisely did not wish to cheap'en impeachment even if deserved. Judge Watts prob- ably escaped for this reason. Judge Jones, however, was cer- tain of impeachment and only hastened it by making a brutal and murderous assault while drunk upon a negro strumpet in his room. He was indicted and before trial was impeached, only thirteen members, all of them republicans, voting against the resolution. The board of managers was headed by Sam- uel F. Phillips, the republican leader of the House. Jones was induced by party leaders to resign, but the governor refused to allow him to escape without the consent of the House, which, in order to avoid expense, withdrew the articles. The governor then accepted the resignation.
Abbott's term in the Senate was about to expire and the legislature was much interested in the choice of a successor. Many were mentioned for the place, but Vance most promi- nently. He was under disabilities but was confident of their removal and demanded the election. M. W. Ransom was his chief competitor and only Vance's great personal popularity won him the caucus nomination, and that only by a majority of two after twenty-seven ballots, and after he had pledged himself to resign if his disabilities were not removed. He was accordingly elected but was denied his seat and his dis- abilities were not removed. Abbott then laid claim to the seat on the remarkable ground that as Vance was banned, he as the recipient of the next highest vote was elected. The most interesting fact in connection with his claim was that he found two radical members of the Senate committee on elections to agree with him. As time passed and Vance did not resign, opposition to him came to the surface. Finally, a resolution requesting his resignation was introduced and debated at length in the conservative caucus and there de- feated. Press demands of the same sort were frequent, and finally, he wrote a public letter claiming that his pledge to resign had been made to his friends alone. He was urged in
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Washington by democratic senators to retire but still refused and thereby made many enemies.
Constitutional reform was a burning question, and a bill finally passed both houses, by a simple majority vote, submit- ting to the people the question of a convention which should be restricted by being forbidden to alter the homestead and personal property exemption clauses, to deprive colored per- sons of their rights, to compensate former owners of slaves, to recognize the war debt, to restore corporal punishment, to abolish public schools, to require an educational or property qualification for suffrage, to change the ratio between poll and property taxes, to pass ordinances of a legislative nature ex- cept concerning the public debt and to change in any way the mechanics and laborers' lien and the clauses denying the right of secession and declaring the paramount allegiance of every citizen due to the United States. All changes had to be ratified by the people. When the bill first came before the Senate, Lieutenant-Governor Caldwell claimed that a two- thirds vote was necessary because the constitution required that majority to call a convention. Precedents in the state were all on the other side when the question was to be re- ferred to the people, and the Senate persisted. By the time the House passed the bill, Caldwell had succeeded Holden and in spite of a former recorded opinion on the other side, after a conference of republican leaders was held, backed by four of the five justices of the Supreme Court who laid aside es- tablished precedents for a party purpose and gave an opinion on the subject, he declined to call the election on the ground that the act was not law. The conservatives were deeply angered and at once repassed the bill, altering it so as to ig- nore the governor and direct the sheriffs to hold the election.
A furious campaign followed. Most of the important re- publican leaders in former years had taken the conservative position, but they now declared the act invalid, defended the existing constitution, and threatened a new reconstruction of the state if the constitution was tampered with. President Grant even sent Attorney-General Akerman down to give warning of this. A number of republicans, however, includ- ing Nathaniel Boyden, who had now succeeded Thomas Settle
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on the Supreme Court, favored the call. There was really every reason for a change and the conservatives continued to appeal to reason with perfectly sound arguments on the need of reform, and the necessity of economy, but the republicans beat the bushes with threats of a new reconstruction and warn- ings that the homestead would be lost, the colored people de- prived of their new rights, and the state made bankrupt by the expense. Federal officials threatened violators of the revenue laws and those suspected of membership in the Ku Klux. Needless to say, the latter arguments were most effective, and the convention was defeated by more than 9,000 majority.
When the legislature met in the fall of 1871 amendment by legislative action was undertaken and a bill for that pur- pose received the necessary three-fifths of each house. It pro- vided for striking out the provisions relating to the state debt, the township system, the state census, the code commis- sion, the superintendent of public works, and for the reduction of the number of Superior and Supreme Court judges, for a biennial election of members of the legislature and biennial sessions with compensation of $300 for the entire term and 10 cents mileage, for placing county government in the hands of the legislature, and for a prohibition of holding a plural- ity of offices. The suggestions mentioned above were also in- cluded.
Much of the time of the session was given to the matter of the debt but no agreement could be reached, the views of the members being widely at variance: Some wanted flat repudia- tion and very few desired the payment of the whole debt.
Just before the close of the session, Vance, under great pressure and very unwillingly, resigned and Ransom was elected. Only then did the Senate committee report unfavor- ably upon Abbott's claim to the seat. A little later Vance's disabilities were removed.
In the meantime, the Ku Klux had once more come to the front. After their operations had ceased in the central part of the state, a period of activity began in several western counties, but chiefly in Cleveland and Rutherford. The In- visible Empire there had degenerated until it bore little re- semblance to its original. It served to cover partisan political
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activity, private vengeance, sheer lawlessness without further motive, and, even in a number of cases, the activities of cer- tain republicans in violation of the United States internal revenue laws in relation to the distillation of whiskey. One of these was for a time county chief of Rutherford. Three raids in Rutherford in 1871 attracted public attention, though
MATTHEW W. RANSOM
the most important-the whipping of Aaron Biggarstaff-was really part of a typical neighborhood feud. J. M. Justice, a republican lawyer and a member of the Legislature was whipped and ordered to abstain from politics, and the office of the Rutherford Star, a republican paper, was wrecked.
In December, 1870, President Grant, in reply to a Senate resolution, sent a message on the subject of the Ku Klux in North Carolina, accompanying it with a mass of documents.
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A special committee was appointed and examined fifty-three witnesses, thirty-three of whom were republicans and twenty conservatives. A large part of the testimony was hearsay, but from it, or rather with it, the majority succeeded in pro- ducing a report which declared the existence of the Ku Klux organization, composed of democrats, with a political purpose which it carried out by violence, at the same time protecting its members from punishment by secrecy and perjury, and that, in consequence, the authorities of the state were unable to secure to its citizens life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- piness. The minority framed a strong dissenting report in which they denounced the investigation as a conspiracy to restore republican rule in North Carolina-which in a sense it was-after it had been repudiated by the people. They did not deny the existence of the Ku Klux organizations but de- clared them a natural result of Reconstruction.
On March 23, 1871, the President sent a message to Con- gress on the subject of the Ku Klux and in response to his recommendation an act to enforce the provisions of the Four- teenth Amendment became law in April. This act, in which, as Professor Burgess says, "Congress simply threw to the winds the constitutional distribution of powers between the states and the United States Government in respect to civil. liberty, crime and punishment," ignored the fact that the Fourteenth Amendment gave Congress power only against state action, and provided for the arrest, trial, and punish- ment of individuals by the Federal courts, and made all per- sons depriving another of rights under the Constitution liable to the party injured in heavy damages. It prescribed penal- ties for conspiring against the United States or for the hin- drance of any of its laws. Penalties were imposed for going upon the highways in disguise with the intent to hinder any- one in the exercise of rights guaranteed by the Constitution. The President was authorized to take such measures as he might deem best to suppress the trouble, and was given power, when the civil authority was powerless to perform its func- tions, to proclaim any portion of a state or the entire state in a condition of insurrection and to suspend the writ of habeas corpus.
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Before the passage of this act, a joint committee was ap- pointed and began a prolonged investigation designed to fur- nish campaign material for the republican party. The results of the investigation were reported to the next session of Congress in thirteen volumes. Of it, William Garrott Brown says, "From these volumes, he who lives long enough to read it all, may learn much that is true, but not important ; much that is important, if true; and somewhat that is both true and important." Nineteen witnesses were examined for North Carolina, of whom nine were republicans, including three carpet-baggers and two negroes. The most notable wit- ness was William L. Saunders, head of the Invisible Empire, who appeared before the committee and declined to answer any question relating to the Ku Klux. He was bullied and threatened, but stood steadfast and quietly defiant until the end, when he was dismissed without any action being taken against him, though his case was referred to the Senate for action.
In North Carolina Judge Logan had become greatly ex- cited and had asked the President for Federal soldiers. The answer had naturally been that any such request must come from the governor. After the Biggarstaff affair, at his re- quest, the governor obtained Federal troops. When the Jus- tice raid occurred he declined to hold court in Cleveland Coun- ty, although the sheriff came for him with an escort and the solicitor, W. P. Bynum, also a republican, assured him there was no danger. A short time later, recovering from his fears in most suspicious haste, he began to issue bench warrants upon suspicion, and a large number of persons were arrested and confined in jail and denied trial or bail. With the passage of the Ku Klux act by Congress the United States deputy marshals became active and over one hundred persons were arrested by them, many without warrant, a number impris- oned without hearing or bail, and the rest examined before Nathan Scoggins, the United States commissioner, a recent re- publican acquisition and a man of evil life and character. That he was later removed from office for accepting bribes proves this, for bribe-taking in itself by a Federal official in North
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Carolina in the '70s carried no stigma. It was regarded merely as a customary and accepted prerequisite of office.
The officer most active in making arrests was Joseph G. Hester, another person of ill-fame, who was later to become notorious for his activities in Alabama. Like Scoggins, he had been a Ku Klux. Every possible indignity was heaped upon the prisoners who were almost starved in filthy prisons. Twenty-two were kept in jail and seventy-one bound over to court. Judge Bond of the United States Circuit Court re- fused to try them in June because he wanted a packed jury. This was secured through Samuel F. Phillips, now assistant district attorney, and the prisoners were tried at Raleigh in September. Forty persons were indicted for participation in the Justice and Biggarstaff raids. The indictments of eight were dropped, eleven were acquitted, twenty-seven were con- victed, and the cases of the others continued. The cases, through the partisan activity of the governor, Judge Bond, who presided, and Samuel F. Phillips, who prosecuted, as- sumed a political character. The chief efforts of the prosecu- tion were directed to securing the conviction of Randolph Shotwell who, as an editor in Asheville and in Rutherfordton, had been a source of much discomfort to the republicans. When it is remembered that criticism of the republican party was announced by S. F. Phillips in the trial to be an attack upon the United States Government, it can readily be seen that to secure Shotwell's removal from political life was in the eyes of the prosecution an act of the highest patriotism and altogether proper for "loyal" men. Shotwell was county chief of the Ku Klux in Rutherford County, having assumed the position at the request of a number of leading men in the hope of checking the movement. He had never been on a raid or ordered one and had sought to prevent the raid on Justice and on the Star office, but had been utterly unable to control the men, many of them entirely unknown to him, who were bent upon carrying out their plan. Most of his witnesses were out of the state and he knew that any others he might summon would at once be made parties defendant in the same case. Many of those who were tried upon the same indict- ment were seen by him then for the first time. Relying upon Vol. III-12
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his innocence, he stood his trial without much fear of convic- tion. The false evidence against him had been carefully pre- pared, and, upon it, he was convicted and sentenced to a fine of $5,000 and six years' imprisonment in Albany. As soon as sentence was passed upon him, he was tied with ropes in the presence of the court and carried in that condition through the streets of Raleigh, not because there was any fear of his escape, but simply to humiliate him and for the effect it would have upon the public. He was repeatedly offered pardon if he would implicate any leading conservative, but he of course refused and remained in prison for three years, at the end of which time he was pardoned.
In the meantime, in preparation for the elections of 1872, the operations of the deputy marshals, more lawless still by far than those of the Ku Klux and more dangerous to the spirit of free institutions, continued without cessation. Ar- rest without warrant, imprisonment without a hearing and with bail denied, were characteristic of their activities. D. S. Ramsour, a student at Wake Forest College, was arrested while attending a meeting of his literary society and dragged out forcibly, not because the time was particularly suitable, but because the officers had waited, knowing that it would at- tract attention and increase fear. Josiah Turner, who was an attorney at law, advised several persons, arrested without warrant and without cause, to indict the marshal. He was at once arrested on charge of obstructing the officers of the law in the discharge of their duties, and, through the efforts of republican politicians, notably S. F. Phillips, his trial was refused for several years. Dr. Brinton Smith, a Northern clergyman who was at the head of a negro school in Raleigh, was indicted for conspiracy under the Ku Klux Act because he told one of his students who was under age that he was not entitled to vote. The case was dismissed a year later without trial. Against many Ku Klux in the West were in- dictments for violation of the internal revenue laws. These were dismissed if a promise was made to give evidence against the Ku Klux. W. F. Henderson, the assessor of internal rev- enue, offered freedom to anyone who would give evidence implicating J. M. Leach, who in 1870, had defeated him for
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Congress. Hundreds of persons were imprisoned at one time or another, many of whom were treated with great cruelty, and all the safeguards of liberty disappeared. The Federal courts became instruments of oppression and wrong and have never since been popular in the state. The chief purpose of it all was political, although the officers reaped a rich harvest from fees and from the bribes which they did not refuse, pro- vided always that they were large enough. In pursuance of the plan, when the fears of the public had been sufficiently aroused, there came the promise of immunity on condition of support of the republican ticket at the next election. At the spring term of the Federal court in Raleigh in 1872, over fourteen hundred persons were indicted under the Ku Klux Act, of whom only six were tried. Between that time and the election, the activity of the officers continued. As soon as the campaign was over, the arrests stopped, and in Feb- ruary, 1873, the United States marshal ordered the suspen- sion of the processes. During 1873, all the prisoners in Al- bany were pardoned. The Ku Klux organization had long since disappeared never to reappear, but the republicans made its existence an issue in many campaigns thereafter and skill- fully attempted to intimidate by threats of renewed Federal activity.
The campaign of 1872 was made interesting not only by the desire of the conservatives to complete the redemption of the state, but also by the fact that North Carolina was the first state to hold a state election and was thus for once of great importance in a national election. Throughout the campaign the state was full of party leaders of both sides from all over the Union, including two members of the cabi- net.
The republicans nominated Governor Caldwell over Thomas Settle who was the candidate of the Holden wing of the party and who also had the backing of the President. The republican convention and the campaign were notable for the activity of Federal office-holders who were henceforth un- til 1912, with two brief intervals to control the destinies of the party. The platform denounced the Ku Klux and the pro-
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posed constitutional amendments and declared for general amnesty.
The conservatives had a difficult time finding a candidate. The leaders and the people alike wanted Vance who, however, declined to run, doubtless aware of what sort of methods would be used against him, and also because he wanted to be elected to the United States Senate by the coming legis- lature. Finally A. S. Merrimon was urged to take the nomi- nation. Unwilling, he was told that it was a party necessity and was promised that if defeated he should succeed Pool in the Senate. He then accepted and was nominated.
A joint canvass was arranged but Caldwell was no match for Merrimon on the stump, and after one speech he declined to continue it. The conservative campaign went swimmingly in spite of a lack of warmth at the democratic endorsement of Greeley for President. But the republicans were furnished almost unlimited funds and the officials of the departments of justice and of the treasury, vastly increased in number for the purpose, were very active. Probably there was never in any other state such wholesale political activity and interfer- ence by Federal officials, with the full approval of the admin- istration, as marked this campaign in North Carolina. United States commissioners issued blank warrants to deputy mar- shals who used them for campaign purposes or for blackmail. Just before election three thousand persons were under arrest by the Federal authorities and most of them were promised complete immunity if they voted right. The expenses of the Federal Court jumped from about $5,000 for the year to $250,- 000. Bribery and intimidation were relied on in the west where illicit distilling and the Ku Klux gave pretexts. In the East, reliance was placed on the heavy negro vote, and, in order to strengthen this negroes were imported into the state in large numbers just before the election from adjoining states. Nine hundred were also sent from Washington, a majority of whom were in the Government employ.
These things all had their effect, and, while Merrimon's election seemed assured at first, after a week of doubt, due to the holding back of returns in a number of republican coun- ties, it was apparent that on the face of the returns Caldwell
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had a majority of about 1,900. The conservatives, however, again carried the legislature.
With the loss of the state ticket, the conservatives lost heart and Grant carried the state in November by a majority
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AUGUSTUS S. MERRIMON
of almost twenty-five thousand, the conservatives electing five and the republicans three members of Congress.
Much interest was aroused in the senatorial election. Al- though Merrimon had been promised the seat by the party leaders, Vance was a candidate and by a persistent campaign had succeeded in pledging a majority of the conservative members before the legislature met. A number who favored Merrimon therefore refused to regard the caucus nomination as binding. The republicans, in the meantime made the of-
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fer that if Pool were re-elected Federal amnesty for the Ku Klux would be proclaimed and liberal appropriations would be made for internal improvements in the state. Threats of the arrest of members of the legislature were also made as an inducement.
When the election came eighteen conservatives, in spite of the caucus nomination, voted for Merrimon. A deadlock en- sued and after six days Vance and Merrimon both withdrew with the understanding that a third person should be chosen. The conservative caucus met and again nominated Vance, and on the next day the republicans, abandoning Pool, voted sol- idly for Merrimon, who, still supported by the bolters, was elected. The conservatives were very angry and the elated republicans sought to promote discord by an effort to create the impression that Merrimon had been bought and would act with the republicans. Merrimon, who had been entirely un- aware of the plan, by his course in the Senate, soon dispelled any doubt as to his fealty to his own party.
The bill for the amendment of the constitution, passed by the preceding session, came up and was divided into separate bills, eight of which were adopted. Those passed provided for striking out the clause requiring the legislature to levy a tax to pay interest on the public debt, for omitting the census, for abolishing the code commission and the office of superin- tendent of public works, for placing the trustees of the Uni- versity under the legislature, for extending the $300 exemp- tion to all property, for making Federal and state officers ineligible to the legislature, and for biennial sessions of the legislature. They were then submitted to the people and ratified at a special election in August. A bill was passed extending amnesty to any person who had committed any crime except rape, deliberate and wilful murder, arson, or burglary, while a member of the Heroes of America, Loyal Union League, Red Strings, Constitutional Union Guard, White Brotherhood, Invisible Empire, Ku Klux Klan, North Carolina State Troops, North Carolina Militia, Jay Hawkers, or any other association, whether secret, political, or other- wise, in obedience to the commands and decrees of such or- ganization, provided the offense was committed prior to Sep-
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