figure in Alabama Courts, and he actually sentenced the negro Johnson to banishment from Mobile to New Orleans. This was all very ludicrous. Banishment is contrary to the genius of American government; but so is the appointment of a civil officer in time of peace by a military chieftain; and the logical mind of the mayor, who had gotten his power from Gen. Pope, was unable to comprehend why he, Mayor Horton, could not banish a negro, just over to New Orleans. Soon after the assignment of Gen. Swayne to the command over Alabama it came to be an open secret that he was a prospective candidate for the United States Senate.

As far back as June 4th, 1866, the General had begun to make straight the way before him. On that day, which was two days after the first meeting of the Montgomery Council of the Union League of America, his name was proposed for membership in that Council and on the next day he was initiated. This Council was simply an association of those who were training themselves for leadership in the party, which, it was then evident, Congress was about to legislate into existence in Alabama. It is true that the Constitution of the League declared in the concluding words of Sec. 2 that its purpose was "to protect, strengthen and defend all loyal men without regard to sect, condition or party"; but if it had had no other object than this it would have welcomed all good men to membership. The minutes show, however, that many such were refused admission, evidently from the spirit of rivalry, for nearly all these rejections occurred after the passage of the reconstruction laws, and when the time was drawing near for a division of the spoils. Indeed, the purposes of the organization are not left to inference at all. May 22d, 1867, this Montgomery Council resolved "that the Union League is the right arm of the Union Republican party of the United States, and that no man should be initiated into the League who does not heartily endorse the principles and policy of the Union Republican party."

The Montgomery Council was composed mainly, if not altogether, of white Republicans. The Lincoln Council, in the same city, and many others elsewhere, were for blacks, principally. While the Union League was a means of solidi

fying the negro vote, it was also used to shut out white men. Not only were reputable citizens kept out by the votes of members, but the very framework of the League was so constructed as to exclude most of the Southern whites. The fifth question asked of an applicant upon his initiation was "Do you hold and believe that secession is treason?" etc. Of course, although the man who had fought for secession was willing to renounce it for the future, he could not be expected to assent to this proposition.

When Southern white men were thus excluded from, while the negro was sworn into, this controlling organization, no other political result was possible than that which followed-a republican party dominated by negroes-a black man's party.

Gen. Swayne's Chief Clerk, Keiffer, was Secretary of the Montgomery Council, U. L. A., and was also chairman of the Republican Executive Committee for the State. When Gen. Pope, May 21st, 1867, ordered the registration of voters, Gen. Swayne appointed for each of the forty-two districts three persons, all Republicans. Montgomery was headquarters of the General and of the Republican party. From that city General Swayne sent five colored men to be registrars in distant counties. Thus while registration proceeded during the day these registrars had opportunity at night to organize the Union League among the colored men who came to be registered.

Mystery is always attractive, especially to the uneducated. To the freedman an invitation to join a secret league, which was to protect him in the newly-found liberties, of which he was told his former master was conspiring to deprive him, was simply irresistible; and the invitation certainly lost no force because it came from those who were his guardians by law and who claimed that their party had freed him. In the Union League the negroes were sworn with uplifted hand, “in the presence of God and these witnesses," "to vote only for, and for none but, those who advocate and support the great principles set forth by the League to fill any office of honor, profit or trust in either the State or General Government."*

* See Ritual, Constitution and By-Laws of National Council Union League, p. 13.

The forms and ceremonies for the initiation of a member, as prescribed in the pamphlet above quoted, when followed by an explanation of the signs, grips and pass-words, as printed in the key intended "for the use of officers of the Council only," must have been, to the inexperienced freedman, another chapter from Revelations. How impressive these words, which the initiating officer spoke to the new members, "with clasped and uplifted hands repeat after me the Freedman's Pledge-To defend and perpetuate Freedom, Political Equality and an indivisible Union I pledge my life, my fortune and my sacred honor. So help me God!"

These are some of the things that occurred inside of the League. Outside, the freedman found leading members of Congress coming down South to tell him that his allegiance was due to the party that had freed him and given him the ballot. He also found great soldiers, like Gen. Swayne, giving the same advice.

What folly for Mr. Greeley to deplore the formation of "a black man's party"! The forces brought to bear upon the freedman could not be resisted; he was clay in the hands of the potter; and was fashioned to the uses of those who wrought.

Gen. Swayne, though he undoubtedly hoped to get office by the destruction of the Lincoln-Johnson Government in Alabama, was nevertheless far more conservative in his utterances than his superior, Gen. Pope. In a letter to Gen. Grant of date July 14th, 1867, Gen. Pope wrote concerning the freedmen: "It may be safely said that the marvelous progress made in the education of these people, aided by the noble charitable contributions of Northern societies and individuals, finds no parallel in the history of mankind. If continued, it must be by the same means, and if the masses of the white people exhibit the same indisposition to be educated that they do now, five years will have transferred intelligence and education, so far as the masses are concerned, to the colored people of this District," which included Georgia, Florida, Alabama

Missippi In the South this was looked upon as an official justification of the scheme to put the black race over the white, and it did not there popularize either the General

where

in command or the policy of Congress; but the marvelous prophecy may have found believers in other parts of the country.

All these things tended to drive away those intelligent and influential men whose support was necssary to the success of a Republican party in Alabama, but there still remained a very great indisposition to oppose the policy of Congress.

July 23d, 1867, General Clanton, Chairman of the State Committee, called a convention of the opposition, then called, as we have seen, "the Conservative Party of Alabama," to meet on September 4th. Strenuous efforts were made to secure a large attendance, but only thirteen out of the sixtyfive counties of the state were represented. But now the teachings of those who were organizing the black man's party were beginning to bring results that were startling. The negro was rapidly assuming an attitude of hostility to the Southern white man. Several instances had occurred during this summer of colored men resisting arrest by white officers; and now the idea of forcibly preventing the meeting of the Conservative or Opposition Convention at Montgomery began to take shape. Fortunately, however, a few leading colored men, appreciating the situation, formed themselves into a "SPECIAL Committee on the Situation," and resolved that they would "use all the influence they may possess to counteract any acts of violence," if offered, "to the convention." They were so successful that the delegates to the convention did not know of the danger till it had passed. Two days afterwards, September 6th, 1867, L. J. Williams, a colored Republican, published a card, as chairman, setting forth what this "Special Committee" had done, and taking to it the credit of having preserved the peace. It was indeed creditable to Williams and the committee acting with him, that they should suppress this contemplated outrage. The fact, however, that such a movement should have been conceived by those, who had so lately been slaves, is an amazing proof of the facility with which the colored men imbibed the lessons that were being taught them. As it was, the convention met and adjourned

in peace, after having passed resolutions deprecating efforts to array race against race, favoring education of the negro and expressing the belief that Congress did not possess the power to regulate suffrage, Some months after this occurrence one Wade Potter, a colored man, who had been speaking in the interest of the Democrats, was assaulted by a mob of negroes in the streets of Montgomery, and a serious riot was only prevented by the coolness and courage of Gen. Clanton, who came personally to the rescue of Potter. The extent to which the color line was drawn in those days by the colored people may be judged of when it is stated that negroes who dared to vote with the Democrats were often expelled from their churches.

Gen. Pope, August 31st, ordered an election for delegates to a Constitutional Convention, the voting to begin October 1st, 1867, and last three days. At this election 18,553 white men voted for delegates. Besides these, many more passively favored this reconstruction policy by refusing to register.

The convention to frame a new constitution met on the 5th of November, 1867, and it was a remarkable assemblage. Some of its members were Alabamians, intent on the best government that might be possible; others were natives of the state, with not a thought beyond self; many were negroes, for the most part densely ignorant, and many were Northern men who, having failed in life at home, had come South to seek their fortunes in politics, carrying all their worldly possessions in grip-sacks-" carpet-baggers." In a Democratic newspaper, the place of nativity of ninetyseven out of a hundred members of the convention purports to have been given; thirty-one of them being from Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Canada and Scotland. The debates in the convention on disfranchising certain classes of whites, on mixed schools, intermarriage of the races, and other questions were exciting and inflammatory. These discussions, duly reported by the newpapers of the day, were read throughout the state with the deepest concern. An overwhelming majority of the constituency of this convention was colored, and it had not been long in session before it became quite