Historical Romance of the American Negro

At last we reached the Public Landing, marched on board, secured our cabins, and settled ourselves down for our passage to Louisville, greatly admiring the scenery and traffic of "The Beautiful River."

A great many passengers came on board at Cincinnati, all bound for the great celebration. All eyes were bright with animation, and high-beating hope swelled in every human heart. The rush to the colossal exhibition at Louisville reminded me of the tides of people on the grand march to see a circus; but this was a circus of a most unusual kind. From the grand reports that had been circulated all over the country for weeks, we all expected a high old time, we expected the colored race and their friends at Louisville to make a mighty effort to place a great show before the whole State, and also expected to swell the mighty chorus and throng by our own presence. Many persons on board had never been back to Louisville since they took French leave of the same place; whilst others had numerous friends and relations whom they greatly desired to see. But all wished to behold the old Kentucky shore again, for who does not love the scenes of their youth?

We were now fairly launched out upon the great river. The sweet spring winds blew over us, and seemed to accompany and cheer us upon our way. At such times the imagination gives play to all sorts of sweet things, and the very surges of the Ohio river seemed to rejoice as they bore us along on their downward course to the Mississippi and the Gulf States. The sun went down, and the moon arose upon the fleeting scene. The night was now upon us, and all the hills and dells that lined both sides of the beautiful river enchanted the eyes and hearts of all beholders. A sweet peace stole into our hearts that came down from heaven.

With what interest did we view the little wooden cabins that lay along the shores of the river on the Kentucky side, and along the slopes of her hills! What tales of grief and joy those dear little homes could have told if they had been able to speak. My two dear children were awed into silence as they looked upon the passing scenes, for they had both read "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and many other plaintive books besides; and heard from us and from others a thousand tales of slavery in days gone by. Many eyes besides our own were wet with tears of love, sorrow and emotion, as we viewed those little cabin homes, and saw the lights that night on the "Old Kentucky Shore" of the poet, and in our hearts we thanked the Lord that slavery here had indeed passed away forever. It has been often a wonder to me that the Lord allowed the curse to continue so long; but then He knows what is for the best, and I am always willing to take things on trust that I cannot understand. "The Lord is good; a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knoweth them who put their trust in Him." How true, how very true, indeed!

We called at no place on our way, but at the beautiful little city of Madison, Indiana, that lies so sweet-looking in the edge of the Ohio river. Quite a goodly number of our own beloved people came on board here, whom we rejoiced to see. It was the same old, old story that I have told before. They were going to Louisville to swell the mighty throng, and help sing the songs of the ransomed of the Lord during the forthcoming celebration at that city.

After we left Madison, we all retired to bed for the night, and we were not long in falling into a sound sleep. The night passed away, on flew the waves of the beautiful river with our fleet boat on their bosom, rushing on for the general rendezvous, and about four o'clock in the morning our gallant craft tied up at the landing-place at Louisville, the metropolis of Kentucky.

All up once more, and in good time! We were careful this morning to give ourselves a thorough, good washing, and lay in a solid, substantial breakfast in preparation for the events of the coming day. All on board, bent on the same happy journey as ourselves, were in a high key of excitement. Indeed we could snuff excitement in the very air before we left the boat. But at last we got away, and came up the bank from the beautiful river, and entered the city before seven o'clock, where we found the whole place astir with great numbers of excited people, rushing and sweeping along in all directions – men on horseback riding rapidly up and down the streets; great crowds of men, women and children arriving by rail from different parts of the State, while men in uniforms, bands of music, with the town boys and girls scurrying along in all directions like the wild waves of the sea; flags, banners, streamers and ribands seen fluttering in the breeze in all directions – such was our introduction to Louisville, when we came up from the river, and looked up and down Market, Jefferson and Green streets, and made our early way to a place on Walnut street, where we had arranged previously by letter to take up our quarters for the week that we were to spend in the city. Here our dear old acquaintances of ante bellum days received us gladly. We were all much altered now, had grown older, were married and had children of our own; were now free, whereas formerly we were called "goods and chattels" in defiance of the truth of the Eternal Jehovah that we had all the same rights as others, but for the time being were held down by sheer physical force.

So much talk about a "Fifteenth Amendment" we had never heard in our lives, and it made us laugh to hear even the little children lisp "The Fifteenth Amendment!" Poor, dear little things! Theirs was a happy lot. They were all free, and had not come up by the rough side of the mountain like their oppressed parents. The glorious weather was immensely in our favor. We blessed God for that, and we blessed Him for all things. The sun was shining in all his beauty; the mocking-birds sang in the parks, and the light winds blew over the fair and garden-like city on the Ohio. Thousands upon thousands of people still continued to arrive upon boats that came up and down the river, by the ferry-boats, and on all the heavily-laden incoming trains that arrived thick and fast. Even the old inhabitant was astonished at the tremendous crowds that at last packed all the main streets along which the procession was to pass, because we were now getting well into line, just as is done at a Presidential inauguration at Washington. Uniformed riders and fast messengers, ex-soldiers dressed in Uncle Sam's conventional blue, the fair sex as thick as the leaves of the forest, boys in the trees, all the windows full of sight-seers, and men and boys on the roofs of the houses – well, indeed, might the oldest inhabitant ask where all the people came from! Nobody could have given a complete answer to that question, for there were tens of thousands of people here this day who had never been to Louisville before. All had heard of Louisville, the beautiful metropolis of the State, but they were slaves then, and had no hope of ever beholding its beauties; but God is good – here came the war, here came victory and freedom, here came new laws and the Fifteenth Amendment, and here came they themselves at last to help on the good cause with loud shouts of joy.

Flags fluttered from thousands of windows, and the indications of joy were universal. And not only did the colored, but the white population packed the streets in thousands and tens of thousands; the crowds were good-humored to the last degree, and there was nothing but joy and rejoicing on every side all day long.

The outriders now began to move in advance of the procession; the first men in line followed next with a band of music, and these again were followed by a tasteful and beautiful float that promised mighty things in the rear! Bands of music at intervals, all the different societies, another wonderful and beautiful float came sailing on laden with rejoicing citizens, young and old, and a thousand other strange and wonderful features and devices of the triumphal march called forth loud shouts of joy, great outbursts of laughter and general applause. A beautiful colored maiden of sixteen or seventeen summers, named Miss Laura Claggett, stood up in a chariot during the entire procession, and she made a splendid living representation of the "Goddess of Liberty." It was said of her, as of the beauty of ancient Tyre, "Thou hast made thy beauty perfect." The interest that we all took in the long, splendid and varied procession was most intense. So much pains had been taken with all the necessary preparations that every part of it was complete, and the warmest approbation was bestowed upon all the preliminary arrangements, and the way in which they were carried out. Here was a true object lesson, indeed, that we were as fit for the highest civilization as the whites. This was freely admitted on all hands, with the exception, of course, of those blind persons who did not wish to see. We find them everywhere, and the best thing to do is simply to ignore them altogether. It was wonderful, thrice wonderful, to look around, and see the people who had come from the remotest parts of the State to see Louisville and the great celebration. It was most pathetic to look at some of them – bent down in some cases with hard work, labor and toil of half a century. There was a feeling of unutterable thankfulness that was apparent to all observers – thankfulness that they could yet enjoy a few years of freedom before they went home to be with the Lord, and thankfulness that their children should be free for all coming time. "No more auction blocks for me!" was the sentiment.

Thus the whole glorious procession marched and counter-marched over the principal streets of the beautiful garden-like city of Louisville, and at last broke up and scattered like all other famous processions of the kind, whether at Washington or anywhere else. The whole city press were loud in their praises of the universal good conduct and splendid management of the new citizens, and of course the Republican organ brought out the whole truth flat-footed, and cast all its glories to the breeze without stint. It was a downright triumph in the interest of law and order, for the police authorities had little or nothing to do. The pastors of all the churches, and other leaders, had impressed it upon the hearts and minds of all the people to be good, and to act as citizens, and give the enemy no just reason to throw stones. For my own part, though I had by this time seen a hundred processions, at least, in my time, I am bound to confess that the procession and day's doings at Louisville were as good as the best in regard to law and order, and I understand that other cities behaved quite as well as they did in Kentucky, throughout the Union.

For a week or so the entire colored population at Louisville were en fete, and a high old time of it they did have, indeed. It was a perfect carnival – a general jollification along the whole line. Music and dancing, and grand tea parties, both in public and private, were all the go, and as our presence in town was soon well known, we were invited to lend a hand in the general festivities along with others. There was a good time all over the metropolis of Kentucky, and don't you forget it.

There is a poem that says in one place, "Joy's image may vanish, and griefs die away; but the scenes of our youth are recorded for aye," – which leads me on to say that Tom, mother and myself had a great and yearning desire to revisit all those dear scenes and places round about the beautiful river that had been so deeply stamped into our hearts and memories in the glorious, youthful spring-time of life. Mr. Sutherland had no such longing to satisfy, and the two girls were not then born. The latter three, indeed, were born at Buffalo, on the Niagara river, in the great Empire State of New York. So Tom, mother and myself made calls on all those dear, dear friends of our earliest days who still remained alive, or still dwelt in Louisville. But many changes had taken place. Some had grown old and almost past recognition; the children of others received us kindly, for their parents were gone to a better land, and there were other changes all around, too numerous to mention. With the exception of God Himself, and the course of nature, all things seemed to be altered, and it was a source of thankfulness to us all that something remained that could not be shaken.

When we had thus ransacked the whole city in search of old friends (Mr. Sutherland and the girls coming bravely along with us), we crossed the river to Jeffersonville, Indiana, where we made two or three calls, and then went down to New Albany, on the Indiana side, where we had grand welcomes from all whom we knew there. It was really astonishing to behold our mutual joy, and to tell our true tales of joys and sorrows, and hear theirs in return. Praise ye the Lord!

We now hired a boat, and had a glorious sail up the Ohio, and showed Mr. Sutherland and the children all the old familiar places up the stream where we had formerly been. Then we went down the river, passed through the canal at Portland, below the city, and came out upon the Ohio once more. There were six of us in the boat besides the two rowers. We had taken the precaution to borrow a variety of loud-sounding musical instruments; we kept close to the Kentucky side of the Ohio, and when we drew near to the place of our birth, that is, Riverside Hall, we struck up "The Old Kentucky Shore," which we both played and sang with tremendous force, raising more excitement than the Salvation Army! This brought out Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, and all the old retainers who chose to remain after the fall of slavery. There were new faces there, also. My father recognized us at once, and invited us in to receive the hospitalities of the house. Here we remained all day, saw everything once more, and returned to Louisville at set of sun. But we afterwards returned to Riverside, and spent another whole day in perfect love and harmony. It was a sweet time.

We were now all far, far more than satisfied. All things had gone well with us, and we returned home to Buffalo more thankful and gladsome than ever. Oh, what shall we render unto the Lord for all his goodness! Because His mercy endureth forever!

CHAPTER XV

The Great Commercial Panic of 1873 – Collapse of the Republican Government of the South – The Rebel Shot-Gun – The Force Bill – Rebellion at New Orleans – Dangerous State of the Whole Country – Election of President Hayes – Presumption of the Late Secessionists – Speech of Congressman Foster, in Ohio – The Solid North Against the Solid South – The Election of James A. Garfield – For the Sake of Peace.

As I have indicated at the close of the last chapter, we all got home to Buffalo in perfect safety, and settled down once more to the duties of life. In the meantime we continued to watch the course of reconstruction in the South, which was run by the Republicans with but very few exceptions. We all seemed to think that things had settled down all right in those States. White and colored Republicans were mixed up pretty fairly in the Governments, and in all the different departments. There were about a dozen colored Congressmen at Washington, and numbers were also employed abroad in the consular and diplomatic service of the United States. All things appeared to have settled down in quietness and peace, but it was only to lull that which comes before the tempest, for the elements in Secessia were only awaiting a favorable opportunity to strike their favorable blow.

Up to the year 1872 (as I still remember well) this entire nation seemed to be running a course of unprecedented and joyful prosperity. Everybody was working, there seemed to be plenty of money in the country, and glorious good times, and immediately prospective wealth were the order of the day everywhere. Alas, alas! It was nothing but the inflation of a big balloon. In 1873 came a universal crash, and the balloon collapsed entirely! There was nothing but consternation over the whole nation, and the Northern States ceased for a time to keep their watchful eyes upon the reconstruction of the South, in order to attend to the dreadful troubles at home, caused by the complete collapse in trade. This was the opportunity for which the late open rebels had been waiting. They determined at once to take advantage of the sudden panic. The Ku-Klux-Klan now came to the front (of whom I have made mention before). They seized the shot-gun, and wrote on their banners, "We must carry these States peaceably if we can; forcibly, if we must." Their first efforts were directed against the white Republican leaders, who melted away like new fallen snow before a warm sun. Their next effort was directed against the most intelligent and influential colored leaders, to whom they denied employment in almost every possible case. In a short time there were not many Republican leaders left, either white or colored, and the rank and file of the party could not then do much. Congress passed next an act empowering President Grant to use the army to suppress their domestic violence, and prevent bloodshed; also to protect colored voters in the constitutional exercise of the rights conferred upon them by the Fifteenth Amendment. But the South were up on their feet again, and offered the most determined opposition to the right and proper use of the national army. Like a high-strung, violent termagant, the lately-defeated rebels now clamored for the ruling of their own States in their own way, to the complete exclusion of the lawful rights of all others. In her anxiety and desperation to have her own way, "Miss Dixie" appealed to the sympathies of the Northern people, and, indeed, she was pretty successful in her unjust appeal, because she was aided by the "Copperheads" (Democrats) of the North, by many of the Northern papers, and even by the more luke-warm among the Republicans themselves. The ex-rebels clamored for what they called "a white man's government," though the Union was no more a white man's government than a black man's. Indeed, if this country belongs to anybody, it belongs to the Indians, from whom the wicked Spaniards and other European robbers first stole the lands away, and murdered the people.

The bill that was introduced into Congress to enforce order in the South was nick-named the "Force Bill," and it was not such a bad name, after all, because nothing but force seemed of any service in making Southern States do right. Things came to their worst in 1874, when the city of New Orleans was in a state of siege, the streets blockaded with State troops and White Line leagues, and an open battle was fought between the two conflicting parties. The rebels overthrew the Republican State government, and a new government was set up by physical force in its stead. But President Grant sent troops to New Orleans, and the lawful government was restored. State elections followed in the North in the States of Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts, which resulted in the defeat of the Republican ticket and the triumph of the Democrats. In their short-sighted way, the Bourbon Democrats of the South gave way to great exultation and joy, and behaved in the most cruel and shameful way to the white and colored Republicans in Secessia.

Nor did the mischief end there, for in their mistaken sympathy, many of the Northern legislatures passed resolutions condemning President Grant for sending troops into the South, although he only did so in the discharge of his most legitimate duty, and in accordance with the law. These movements caused the next Congress, which was the Forty-fourth, to be organized by the Democrats, when the very cabinet ministers themselves were divided upon the policy to be pursued towards the South, one half pulling one way, and the other half pulling the other way. To help on the bad cause still further, although a majority of colored people exists in Mississippi, and that State ought to have gone Republican, still the shot-gun policy of the rebels carried that State before them, and the Republican Government ceased to exist.

The country was truly in a dangerous condition; a portion of the Northern population were in favor of General Grant and his policy, and the rest were in favor of a change in the South. A house divided against itself will not stand: at least, it will not stand long. Men even deserted the grand Republican party, not for any ill it had done, but simply because others deserted it. It was even charged against the Grant administration that it was responsible for the ruin of the Republican government in the Southern States, and even for the great business disasters that had overtaken the whole country, North and South. It is easy to find a stick to beat a dog. Such puerile charges remind me rather of the tricks of children than actions of men. All those charges were entirely false, and the Democrats, both North and South, must have known it themselves. We still remember well the mischief that President Andrew Johnson did in his great sympathy for the rebels after they had laid down their arms, and how the Southern States had been ruled by hands far too weak for the task; that is, by colored men, formerly unaccustomed to politics, by scalawags and carpet-baggers. The cleverest of the rebels refused to lend a hand in the work of Reconstruction, and sat sullenly at home nursing their wrath to keep it warm. They never moved a hand in the work of building up their own country, till they moved as the Ku-Klux-Klan, reached for the shot-gun, and murdered those who ruled the Southern States. The rebel legislatures were now made up of those very men whom the North had put down in the war. They thronged the State halls and corridors, dressed in the very same robes that they had worn on the battle-field when we were fighting for the Union and freedom: and they were as rebellious in heart as before!

There was one great man in the Republican party who might have done a great deal for the colored people of the South, if he had tried, but he did not try; nay, he himself wanted to be President, and did not wish to hurt himself when his own selfish interests were at stake. This man was the Hon. James G. Blaine, of Maine. He opposed the Force Bill, and lost no opportunity of opposing President Grant's administration whenever the latter wished to do anything against the late rebels, and in favor of the people. But Mr. Blaine never became President, and it served him right, for he might have proved a bad one, as Andrew Johnson did.

General Rutherford B. Hayes was Governor of Ohio, and in 1876 the Republican party gave him the nomination for the Presidency. The convention met at Cincinnati. The Democrats ran Samuel Jones Tilden as their candidate. By the aid of the shot-gun the South had suppressed the Republican legislatures of the States lately in rebellion, and having gained an inch they went boldly on with the intention of taking a yard. They certainly did expect to carry things their own way, especially if Mr. Tilden could be elected, which appeared very likely at the time. Though really done by means of the shot-gun in several Southern States, it was still pretended that those States had been carried for Tilden and the Democrats, which was a most unblushing falsehood on the very face of it, for although returning officers came up as bold as rats from those very States that had gone Democratic by the aid of the shot-gun, and put in their claims, every child in the land, both North and South, knew where the truth lay. A long wrangle followed over the counting of the electoral votes, and as several Southern States had been carried unlawfully, they were flung out, and General Rutherford B. Hayes was declared duly elected President of the United States, and took his seat on the Fourth of March, 1877. Now arose a wild cry about injustice from all the Democrats of the land that what they called "a great steal" had been done. The rebel South (that cared for no rights but the right of their murderous shot-guns) was exasperated to the last degree. In fact they were ready to fight for what they considered their rights, that is the right to do as they pleased. They had hoped that with the restoration of the Democratic government at that time they would be able to collect their rebel war claims of the National Treasury at Washington, and even get the price of their lost slaves from the same source. They considered that they had a perfect right to all such claims, and that the very rebel soldiers wounded in the war ought to receive pensions the same as those who fought against them for the Union and for freedom. When colored girls called upon those old rebel ladies of Secessia at this time, asking for employment, those female rebels replied, "Oh, we will hire you from your masters or mistresses," thus clearly indicating that they fully expected the restoration of slavery itself!