John Minor Botts on the Southern Situation Report of Joint Committee on Reconstruction, part ii, p. 120. Botts was a noted Unionist of Virginia. [1866] At the time of the surrender of General Lee's army and the restoration of peace I think there was, not only a general but an almost universal, acquiescence and congratulation among the people that the war had terminated, and a large majority of them were at least contented. . . But from the time that Mr. Johnson commenced his indiscriminate system of pardoning all who made application, . . they became bold, insolent, and defiant; and this was increased to a very large extent by the permission which was, immediately after the evacuation of Richmond, given by General Patrick, the democratic copperhead provost marshal of the army of the Potomac, to the original conductors of the public press before the rebellion to re-establish their papers, without restriction or limitation; . . since which time, . . the spirit of disloyalty and disaffection has gone on increasing day by day, and hour by hour, until among the leaders generally there is as much disaffection and disloyalty as there was any time during the war, and a hundredfold more than there was immediately after the evacuation and the surrender of the army. This is the conclusion to which my mind has been brought by the licentiousness of the press, and by communications which are made to me from all parts. of the state, either verbally or by letter, from the most prominent and reliable Union sources. If I were to judge from anything I have ever heard personally from these gentlemen, I should not think there was any very great difference between their loyalty and yours or mine; but I hear of it elsewhere, and I see evidence of it daily, not only in the public press, but in the proceedings of the so-called legislature of the State. . . I give you the following extract of a letter from a prominent Union man of the State: . "I have no hopes of future loyalty unless the President and Congress can relieve the masses of the political incubus now weighing them to the ground. Hour after hour the democracy here are becoming more bold, more insolent, more proscriptive. Was the war in all its horrid consequences designed to establish a democratic oligarchy here in the south and eventually turn over the general government with all its patronage and power to this pack of bloodhounds? Or was it designed to preserve the Union, maintain liberty, and wipe out forever all sectional parties? If for the former, then the prevailing policy will soon effect it; and when it does, I pray that God will cause a universal earthquake and blot out that portion of his footstool comprised within the United States. Under democratic rule again, hell would be a garden of Eden compared to the Southern States, and I should assuredly select it as a permanent place of abode if forced to choose between the two." Treatment of the "Truly Loyal" Report of Joint Committee on Reconstruction, part iii, p. 11. Testimony of William H. Smith, of Alabama, who opposed secession, became a Confederate judge, and later deserted. First "scalawag" governor of Alabama. [1866] I WAS originally a Union man, and refused to take any part in the rebellion; stood out against it until I was compelled to leave home.. [The Southern people] manifest the most perfect contempt for a man who is known to be an unequivocal Union man; call him a "galvanized yankee," 1 and apply other terms and epithets to him. In travelling on the cars you can hear such language used every day by people; or I can where I am not known. Where I am known personally they avoid the use of such language, generally; but I very frequently hear it where I am not known. Persecution of Confederates by Unionists J. T. Trowbridge, The South, p. 240. [1865] I WAS Sorry to find the fires of these old feuds still burning [in Tennessee] The State Government was in the hands of Union men, and Rebels and refugees from the Union army were disfranchised. Secessionists, who assisted at the hanging 1. The term "galvanized yankee" was applied to a Confederate who went over to the other side. and robbing of Union men, and burned their houses, were receiving just punishment for their crimes in the civil courts and at the hands of the sheriff. This was well; and it should have been enough. But those who had suffered so long and so cruelly at the hands of their enemies did not think so. Returning Rebels were robbed; and if one had stolen back unawares to his home, it was not safe for him to remain there. I saw in Virginia one of these exiles, who told me how homesickly he pined for the hills and meadows of East Tennessee, which he thought the most delightful region in the world. But there was a rope hanging from a tree for him there, and he dared not go back. "The bottom rails are on top," said he: "that is the trouble." The Union element, and the worst part of the Union element, was uppermost. There was some truth in this statement. It was not the respectable farming class, but the roughs, who kept the old fires blazing. Many secessionists and Union men, who had been neighbors before the war, were living side by side again, in as friendly relations as ever. Time the Only Cure Report of Joint Committee on Reconstruction, part ii, p. 93. Testimony of Robert McCurdy, a Unionist clergyman, then in Virginia. [1865] If they could secure their independence, I do not think there is any doubt at all about the course they would take. I think they would do anything in the world by which that could be secured. I do not think, however, that the southern people have any idea that there is any possibility, even the remotest, of anything occurring through which they can do anything but submit. I think it is universally the feeling that there is no hope and no help for them in this regard. Physically, they are perfectly humbled. It is impossible to make their physical humiliation more complete than it is. A lady recently remarked to a friend of mine, "You cannot expect us to treat the northern people well who come here, or to have any intercourse with them. They have humiliated us, and we cannot buy, or sell, or have any intercourse with them." I can see no hope of an improvement in that respect except by the gradual operation of those causes which are above all opposition -commercial causes, the operation of trade, the demand for capital to come from the north, the emigration of persons from the north moving southward, the moving of southern people to distant points and colonizing and getting into new scenes and under new circumstances. I look for the gradual operation of these causes. I do not see why the south should witness any different results than those which Italy witnessed in the case of her northern conquerors, and which England witnessed in the case of the Normans. . . The people of the south esteem themselves a superior people. Northern men going among them with more activity, more business relations, with less luxury, will control in some departments; and there will be dissimilarity until time and the various causes, that are operating in spite of everything, produce homogeneity. There is no miracle to be wrought in this case. Time and nature's laws, not mere legislation of any kind, can effect it. There must be patient waiting. If I were a secessionist; if I had gone with the people of the south; if I had taken the same view of matters which they took; if my judgment, conviction, and conscience had not been all against them; if my church education and my education by my forefathers had not influenced me against them; if, in short, I had taken the course they adopted, I would do just precisely as they are doing; if it were a matter of principle, I should, of course, abide by the principle, and should esteem it something more than even dollars and cents, and political power, and home, and everything else. . All they can effect politically, socially, and ecclesiastically, they will. They have no more use for bullets. They henceforth use the social, the ecclesiastical, and the political ballot. 6. NORTHERN MEN IN THE SOUTH Feeling toward Northern People Senate Ex. Doc. no. 2, 39 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 7. From Report of Carl Schurz to President Johnson. [1865] BUT no instance has come to my notice in which the people of a city or a rural district cordially fraternized with the army. Here and there the soldiers were welcomed as protectors against apprehended dangers; but general exhibitions of cordiality on the part of the population I have not heard of. There are, indeed, honorable individual exceptions to this rule. Many persons . are honestly striving to soften down the bitter feelings and traditional antipathies of their neighbors; others, who are acting more upon motives of policy than inclination, maintain pleasant relations with the officers of the government. But, upon the whole, the soldier of the Union is still looked upon as a stranger, an intruder as the "Yankee," "the enemy." . . The existence and intensity of this aversion is too well known to those who have served or are now serving in the south to require proof. . . - This feeling of aversion and resentment with regard to our soldiers may, perhaps, be called natural. The animosities inflamed by a four years' war, and its distressing incidents, cannot be easily overcome. But they extend beyond the limits of the army, to the people of the north. I have read in southern papers bitter complaints about the unfriendly spirit exhibited by the northern people. . . But, as far as my experience goes, the "unfriendly spirit" exhibited in the north is all mildness and affection compared with the popular temper which in the south vents itself in a variety of ways and on all possible occasions. No observing northern man can come into contact with the different classes composing southern society without noticing it. He may be received in social circles with great politeness, even with apparent cordiality; but soon he will become aware that, although he may be esteemed as a man, he is detested as a "Yankee," . . the word "Yankee" still signifies |