The Leopard's Spots (1902)/Book 1/Chapter 20
THE success of the Ku Klux Klan was so complete, its organisers were dazed. Its appeal to the ignorance and superstition of the Negro at once reduced the race to obedience and order. Its threat against the scalawag and carpet-bagger struck terror to their craven souls, and the "Union League," "Red Strings," and "Heroes of America" went to pieces with incredible rapidity.
Major Stuart Dameron, the chief of the Klan in Campbell county was holding a conference with the Rev. John Durham in his study.
"Doctor, our work has succeeded beyond our wildest dream."
"Yes, and I thank God we can breathe freely if only for a moment, Major. The danger now lies in our success. We are necessarily playing with fire."
"I know it, and it requires my time day and night to prevent reckless men from disgracing us."
"It will not be necessary to enforce the death penalty against any other man in this county, Major. The execution of Tim Shelby was absolutely necessary at the time and it has been sufficient."
"I agree with you. I've impressed this on the master of every lodge, but some of them are growing reckless."
"Who are they?"
"Young Allan McLeod for one. He is a dare devil and only eighteen years old.
"He's a troublesome boy. I don't seem to have any influence with him. But I think Mrs. Durham can manage him. He seems to think a great deal of her, and in spite of his wild habits, he comes regularly to her Sunday School class."
"I hope she can bring him to his senses."
"Leave him to me then a while. We will see what can be done." ***** Hogg's Legislature promptly declared the Scotch-Irish hill counties in a state of insurrection, passed a militia bill, and the Governor issued a proclamation suspending the writ of Habeas Corpus in these counties.
Fearing the effects of negro militia in the hill districts, he surprised Hambright by suddenly marching into the court house square a regiment of white mountain guerrillas recruited from the outlaws of East Tennessee and commanded by a noted desperado, Colonel Henry Berry. The regiment had two pieces of field artillery.
It was impossible for them to secure evidence against any member of the Klan unless by the intimidation of some coward who could be made to confess. Not a disguise had ever been penetrated. It was the rule of the order for its decrees to be executed in the district issuing the decree by the lodge furthest removed in the county from the scene. In this way not a man or a horse was ever identified.
The Colonel made an easy solution of this difficulty, however. Acting under instructions from Governor Hogg, he secured from Haley and Perkins a list of every influential man in every precinct in the county, and a list of possible turncoats and cowards. He detailed five hundred of his men to make arrests, distributed them throughout the county and arrested without warrants over two hundred citizens in one day.
The next day Berry hand-cuffed together the Rev. John Durham and Major Dameron, and led them escorted by a company of cavalry on a grand circuit of the county, that the people might be terrified by the sight of their chains. An ominous silence greeted them on every hand. Additional arrests were made by this troop and twenty-five more prisoners led into Hambright the next day.
The jail was crowded, and the court house was used as a jail. Over a hundred and fifty men were confined in the court room. Rev. John Durham was everywhere among the crowd, laughing, joking and cheering the men.
"Major Dameron, a jail never held so many honest men before," he said with a smile, as he looked over the crowd of his church members gathered from every quarter of the county.
"Well, Doctor, you've got a quorum here of your church and you can call them to order for business."
"That's a fact, isn't it?"
"There's old Deacon Kline over there who looks like he wished he hadn't come!" The Preacher walked over to the deacon.
"What's the matter, brother Kline, you look pensive?"
The deacon laughed. "Yes, I don't like my bed. I'm used to feathers."
"Well, they say they are going to give you feathers mixed with tar so you won't lose them so easily."
"I'll have company, I reckon," said the deacon with a wink.
"The funny thing, deacon, is that Major Dameron tells me there isn't a man in all the crowd of two hundred and fifty arrested who ever went on a raid. It's too bad you old fellows have to pay for the follies of youth."
"It is tough. But we can stand it, Preacher." They clasped hands.
"Haven't smelled a coward anywhere have you, deacon?"
"I've seen one or two a little fidgety, I thought. Cheer 'em up with a word, Preacher."
Springing on the platform of the judge's desk he looked over the crowd for a moment, and a cheer shook the building.
"Boys, I don't believe there's a single coward in our ranks." Another cheer.
"Just keep cool now and let our enemies do the talking. In ten days every man of you will be back at home at his work."
"How will we get out with the writ suspended?" asked a man standing near.
"That's the richest thing of all. A United States judge has just decided that the Governor of the state cannot suspend the rights of a citizen of the United States under the new Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution so recently rammed down our throats. Hogg is hoisted on his own petard. Our lawyers are now serving out writs of Habeas Corpus before this Federal judge under the Fourteenth Amendment, and you will be discharged in less than ten days unless there's a skunk among you. And I don't smell one anywhere." Again a cheer shook the building.
An orderly walked up to the Preacher and handed him a note.
"What is it?"
"Read it!" The men crowded around.
"Read it, Major Dameron, I'm dumb," said the Preacher.
"A military order from the dirty rascal. Berry, commanding the mountain bummers, forbidding the Rev. John Durham to speak during his imprisonment!"
A roar of laughter followed this announcement.
"That's cruel! It'll kill him!" cried deacon Kline as he jabbed the Preacher in the ribs.
In a few minutes, the Preacher was back in his place with five of the best singers from his church by his side. He began to sing the old hymns of Zion and every man in the room joined until the building quivered with melody.
"Now a good old Yankee hymn, that suits this hour, written by an an old Baptist preacher I met in Boston the other day!" cried the Preacher.
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing!"
Heavens, how they sang it, while the Preacher lined it off, stood above them beating time, and led in a clear mighty voice! Again the orderly appeared with a note.
"What is it now?" they cried on every side.
Again Major Dameron announced "Military order No. 2, forbidding the Rev. John Durham to sing or induce anybody to sing while in prison."
Another roar of laughter that broke into a cheer which made the glass rattle. When the soldier had disappeared, the Rev. John Durham ascended the platform, looked about him with a humourous twinkle in his eye, straightened himself to his full height and crowed like a rooster! A cheer shook the building to its foundations. Roar after roar of its defiant cadence swept across the square and made Haley and Perkins tremble as they looked at each other over their conference table with Berry.
"What the devil's the matter now?" cried Haley.
"Do you suppose it's a rescue?" whispered Perkins.
"No, it's some new trick of that damned Preacher. I'll chain him in a room to himself," growled Berry.
"Better not, Colonel. He's the pet of these white devils. Ye'd better let him alone." Berry accepted the advice.
Five days later the prisoners were arraigned before the United States judge, Preston Rivers, at Independence. Not a scrap of evidence could be produced against them. Governor Hogg was present, with a flaming military escort. He held a stormy interview with Judge Rivers.
"If you discharge these prisoners, you destroy the government of this state, sir!" thundered Hogg.
"Are they not citizens of the United States? Does not the Fourteenth Amendment apply to a white man as well as a negro?" quietly asked the judge.
"Yes, but they are conspirators against the Union. They are murderers and felons."
"Then prove it in my court and I'll hand them back to you. They are entitled to a trial, under our Constitution."
"I'll demand your removal by the President," shouted Hogg.
"Get out of this room, or I'll remove you with the point of my boot!" thundered the judge with rising wrath. "You have suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus to win a political campaign. The Ku Klux Klan has broken up your Leagues. You are fighting for your life. But I'll tell you now, you can't suspend the Constitution of the United States while I'm a Federal judge in this state. I am not a henchman of yours to do your dirty campaign work. The election is but ten days off. Your scheme is plain enough. But if you want to keep these men in prison it will be done on sworn evidence of guilt and a warrant, not on your personal whim."
The Governor cursed, raved and threatened in vain. Judge Rivers discharged every prisoner and warned Colonel Berry against the repetition of such arrests within his jurisdiction.
When these prisoners were discharged, a great mass meeting was called to give them a reception in the public square of Independence. A platform was hastily built in the square and that night five thousand excited people crowded past the stand, shook hands with the men and cheered till they were hoarse. The Governor watched the demonstration in helpless fury from his room in the hotel.
The speaking began at nine o'clock. Every discordant element of the old South's furious political passions was now melted into harmonious unity. Whig and Democrat who had fought one another with relentless hatred sat side by side on that platform. Secessionist and Unionist now clasped hands. It was a White Man's Party, and against it stood in solid array the Black Man's Party, led by Simon Legree.
Henceforth there could be but one issue, are you a White Man or a Negro?
They declared there was but one question to be settled:—
"Shall the future American be an Anglo-Saxon or a Mulatto?"
These determined impassioned men believed that this question was more important than any theory of tariff or finance and that it was larger than the South, or even the nation, and held in its solution the brightest hopes of the progress of the human race. And they believed that they were ordained of God in this crisis to give this question its first authoritative answer.
The state burst into a flame of excitement that fused in its white heat the whole Anglo-Saxon race.
In vain Hogg marched and counter-marched his twenty thousand state troops. They only added fuel to the fire. If they arrested a man, he became forthwith a hero and was given an ovation. They sent bands of music and played at the jail doors, and the ladies filled the jail with every delicacy that could tempt the appetite or appeal to the senses.
Hogg and Legree were in a panic of fear with the certainty of defeat, exposure and a felon's cell yawning before them.
Two days before the election, the prayer meeting was held at eight o'clock in the Baptist church at Ham-bright. It was the usual mid-week service, but the attendance was unusually large.
After the meeting, the Preacher, Major Dameron, and eleven men quietly walked back to the church and assembled in the pastor's study. The door opened at the rear of the church and could be approached by a side street.
"Gentlemen," said Major Dameron, "I've asked you here to-night to deliver to you the most important order I have ever given, and to have Dr. Durham as our chaplain to aid me in impressing on you its great urgency."
"We're ready for orders, Chief," said young Ambrose Kline, the deacon's son.
"You are to call out every troop of the Klan in full force the night before the election. You are to visit every negro in the county, and warn every one as he values his life not to approach the polls at this election. Those who come, will be allowed to vote without molestation. All cowards will stay at home. Any man, black or white, who can be scared out of his ballot is not fit to have one. Back of every ballot is the red blood of the man that votes. The ballot is force. This is simply a test of manhood. It will be enough to show who is fit to rule the state. As the masters of the eleven township lodges of the Klan, you are the sole guardians of society to-day. When a civilised government has been restored, your work will be done."
"We will do it, sir," cried Kline.
"Let me say, men," said the Preacher, "that I heartily endorse the plan of your chief. See that the work is done thoroughly and it will be done for all time. In a sense this is fraud. But it is the fraud of war. The spy is a fraud, but we must use him when we fight. Is war justifiable?
"It is too late now for us to discuss that question. We are in a war, the most ghastly and hellish ever waged, a war on women and children, the starving and the wounded, and that with sharpened swords. The Turk and Saracen once waged such a war. We must face it and fight it out. Shall we flinch?"
"No! no!" came the passionate answer from every man.
"You are asked to violate for the moment a statutory law. There is a higher law. You are the sworn officers of that higher law."
The group of leaders left the church with enthusiasm and on the following night they carried out their instructions to the letter.
The election was remarkably quiet. Thousands of soldiers were used at the polls by Hogg's orders. But they seemed to make no impression on the determined men who marched up between their files and put the ballots in the box.
Legree's ticket was buried beneath an avalanche. The new "Conservative" party carried every county in the state save twelve and elected one hundred and six members of the new Legislature out of a total of one hundred and twenty.
The next day hundreds of carpet-bagger thieves fled to the North, and Legree led the procession.
Legree had on deposit in New York two millions of dollars, and the total amount of his part of the thefts he had engineered reached five millions. He opened an office on Wall Street, bought a seat in the Stock Exchange, and became one of the most daring and successful of a group of robbers who preyed on the industries of the nation.
The new Legislature appointed a Fraud Commission which uncovered the infamies of the Legree régime, but every thief had escaped. They promptly impeached the Governor and removed him from office, and the old commonwealth once more lifted up her head and took her place in the ranks of civilised communities.