Via Billy
Though a Northerner by parentage and education, I have been long
convinced that the operations of the Klux Klan have not been interpreted
properly by historians of my section. A lack of unprejudiced source
materials, a failure to comprehend the inherent virtues of the men and
women of the South, and a misunderstanding of the social and economic
problems of post-bellum days have been the chief causes, rather than
sectional prejudices. Within my limited range of influence, the
opinions ventured in the following lecture have been accepted by
Northerners with enthusiasm. A sincere sympathy and true brotherly
feeling have taken the place of the misunderstandings of the past. To
widen the possible influence of my words, and to tell the South of the
true friendship of the North, I have ventured the publication of the
following conclusions. Yet it must be remembered that I am only one of
many Northern historical students attempting to read history with the
heart and eyes both.
With April, 1865, came the collapse of the
Confederacy. Northern soldiers were taken to their homes with every
comfort and convenience, permitted by the times and conditions.
Everywhere they were received with the most heart-felt rejoicing. They
returned to a North more prosperous than when the struggle had begun,
and fortunately were soon absorbed in the new economic life of their
section.
The number of manufactories had increased during the war.
Railroads had opened up the western country. Thousands of recent
immigrants were supplying labor for both factory and farm. The North
had passed through one of the most destructive wars in the history of
the world, and yet had increased its wealth, its population, and its
power.
The southern soldiers, defeated, sorrowful, ill-clad,
ill-fed, sick in mind and in body, labored slowly and painfully to their
homes mostly on foot. They found the South desolated—prostrate.
During the war northern armies had destroyed the economic system of the
South. Along the lines of invasion slaves had been constantly
emancipated, and thousands left the farms, in spite of crops to be
cultivated, stock to be cared for, or food to be provided, to test their
new freedom, following the Union army, though wasting away in idleness,
vice, want and disease. The lives of even the well-to-do classes had
been reduced to a pitifully primitive—even barbarous—level. Parched rye
and dried blackberry leaves had, in many sections, taken the place of
coffee and tea. Women drew out the spinning wheels and hand looms and
made clothing. The old men and the more skilful slaves learned to make
shoes. Public property was destroyed or confiscated. Bridges were
down, factories in ashes, railroads in ruins, and steam boats were no
longer seen on the rivers. Bank stock and deposits, bonds of all sorts
were worthless, and confederate currency had not even the value of a
souvenir on a glutted market. The South was in a pitiable condition.
