Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/673

 1868-71] " Carpet-baggers " and " Ku Klux Klan" 641 men among them to fill the positions ; and the result was in very many localities to place civil, judicial, and local offices in the hands of corrupt whites or illiterate negroes. The characteristic of this regime, stated briefly, was misgovernment of every degree, from simple inefficiency and extravagance to appalling corruption and tyranny. Offices were multiplied, and salaries doubled and trebled ; government printing was lavishly granted for building up a party press in every county ; bonds were issued in aid of railroads which were never built, or in behalf of other schemes resting on thin air. Embezzlement by corrupt whites and blacks was wide-spread; and in South Carolina, where public morals reached their lowest depth of degradation, the members of the legislature and the executive officials helped themselves freely from the public treasury. Bribery in legis- lation was common ; and the administration of justice was frequently a scandal. Courts were partisan, and governors facile. It was hard to convict a Republican offender ; and, if convicted, he was almost certain to be pardoned. Taxation mounted enormously; for, since it fell, of course, not on the former slaves but on the whites, property was absolutely divorced from government. It cost " carpet-baggers 11 nothing to squander money which was furnished by their political opponents. To crown all, the personal character of very many negro and white Republican officials was notoriously immoral. This condition of things, it is needless to say, was regarded by Southern whites as the destruction of human civilisation. Original Secessionists and Unionists alike were immediately welded into a party with one absorbing purpose to put an end to "carpet-bag" rule. Overmatched at first in point of numbers, they were driven by their anger and disgust at negro supremacy into expedients which their knowledge of negro weaknesses suggested ; and the years 1866 to 1871 saw the rise of the " Ku Klux Klan," a secret society of disguised night- riders, who terrified, whipped, and finally began to murder negro leaders and "carpet-baggers." Open race-conflicts, too, were frequent; and after every brawl or shooting aflray the report of negroes killed and wounded showed the deadly purpose of the white inhabitants. The State governments in vain retorted by passing severe laws, and arming a " loyal," that is negro, militia. Every election became a fight for life, the Democrats trying to intimidate the negroes, the "carpet-baggers" using every means in their power to retain control, throwing out votes, cancelling returns, and ejecting Democratic claimants. In the years after 1868 the whole South seemed to be in anarchy, the lower elements on both sides exhibiting the worst passions of humanity. Murder, violence, and a consuming race-hatred seemed pitted against utterly unscrupulous misgovernment and tyranny. In such circumstances the Republicans controlling Congress and the executive could not fail to intervene. Congressional investigating c. M. H. vii, CH. xx.