Report on the Condition of the South | Page 7

in their present strength, they will hinder the
growth of that reliable kind of loyalty which springs from the heart and
clings to the country in good and evil fortune.
SITUATION OF UNIONISTS.

It would have been a promising indication of returning loyalty if the old,
consistent, uncompromising Unionists of the south, and those northern
men who during the war settled down there to contribute to the
prosperity of the country with their capital and enterprise, had received
that measure of consideration to which their identification with the new
order of things entitled them. It would seem natural that the victory of
the national cause should have given those who during the struggle had
remained the firm friends of the Union, a higher standing in society and
an enlarged political influence. This appears to have been the case
during that "first period" of anxious uncertainty when known Unionists
were looked up to as men whose protection and favor might be of high
value. At least it appears to have been so in some individual instances.
But the close of that "first period" changed the aspect of things.
It struck me soon after my arrival in the south that the known
Unionists--I mean those who during the war had been to a certain
extent identified with the national cause--were not in communion with
the leading social and political circles; and the further my observations
extended the clearer it became to me that their existence in the south
was of a rather precarious nature. Already in Charleston my attention
was called to the current talk among the people, that, when they had the
control of things once more in their own hands and were no longer
restrained by the presence of "Yankee" soldiers, men of Dr. Mackey's
stamp would not be permitted to live there. At first I did not attach
much importance to such reports; but as I proceeded through the
country, I heard the same thing so frequently repeated, at so many
different places, and by so many different persons, that I could no
longer look upon the apprehensions expressed to me by Unionists as
entirely groundless. I found the same opinion entertained by most of
our military commanders. Even Governor Sharkey, in the course of a
conversation I had with him in the presence of Major General
Osterhaus, admitted that, if our troops were then withdrawn, the lives
of northern men in Mississippi would not be safe. To show that such
anticipations were not extravagant, I would refer to the letter addressed
to me by General Osterhaus. (Accompanying document No. 10.) He
states that he was compelled to withdraw the garrison from Attala
county, Mississippi, the regiment to which that garrison belonged being

mustered out, and that when the troops had been taken away, four
murders occurred, two of white Union men, and two of negroes. (He
informed me subsequently that the perpetrators were in custody.) He
goes on to say: "There is no doubt whatever that the state of affairs
would be intolerable for all Union men, all recent immigrants from the
north, and all negroes, the moment the protection of the United States
troops were withdrawn." General Osterhaus informed me of another
murder of a Union man by a gang of lawless persons, in Jackson, about
the end of June. General Slocum, in his order prohibiting the
organization of the State militia in Mississippi, speaks of the "outrages
committed against northern men, government couriers, and negroes."
(Accompanying document No. 12.) He communicated to me an official
report from Lieutenant Colonel Yorke, commanding at Port Gibson, to
General Davidson, pointing in the same direction. General Canby
stated to me that he was obliged to disband and prohibit certain patrol
organizations in Louisiana because they indulged in the gratification of
private vengeance. Lieutenant Hickney, assistant commissioner of the
Freedmen's Bureau, at Shreveport, Louisiana, in a report addressed to
Assistant Commissioner Conway, says: "The life of a northern man
who is true to his country and the spirit and genius of its institutions,
and frankly enunciates his principles, is not secure where there is not a
military force to protect him." (Accompanying document No. 32.) Mr.
William King, a citizen of Georgia, well known in that State, stated to
me in conversation: "There are a great many bad characters in the
country, who would make it for some time unsafe for known Union
people and northerners who may settle down here to live in this country
without the protection of the military." The affair of Scottsborough, in
the military district of northern Alabama, where a sheriff arrested and
attempted to bring to trial for murder Union soldiers who had served
against the guerillas in that part of the country, an attempt which was
frustrated only by the prompt interference of the district