IN quick succession every county followed the example of Ulster, and the arms furnished the negroes by the state and National governments were in the hands of the Klan. The League began to collapse in a panic of terror.
A gale of chivalrous passion and high action, contagious and intoxicating, swept the white race. The moral, mental, and physical earthquake which followed the first assault on one of their daughters revealed the unity of the racial life of the people. Within the span of a week they had lived a century.
The spirit of the South "like lightning had at last leaped forth, half startled at itself, its feet upon the ashes and the rags," its hands tight-gripped on the throat of tyrant, thug, and thief.
It was the resistless movement of a race, not of any man or leader of men. The secret weapon with which they struck was the most terrible and efficient in human history—these pale hosts of white-and-scarlet horsemen! They struck shrouded in a mantle of darkness and terror. They struck where the power of resistance was weakest and the blow least suspected. Discovery or retaliation was impossible. Not a single disguise was ever penetrated. All was planned and ordered as by destiny. The accused was tried by secret tribunal, sentenced without a hearing, executed in the dead of night without warning, mercy, or appeal. The movements of the Klan were like clockwork, without a word, save the whistle of the Night Hawk, the crack of his revolver, and the hoof-beat of swift horses moving like figures in a dream, and vanishing in mists and shadows.
The old club-footed Puritan, in his mad scheme of vengeance and party power, had overlooked the Covenanter; the backbone of the South. This man had just begun to fight! His race had defied the Crown of Great Britain a hundred years from the caves and wilds of Scotland and Ireland, taught the English people how to slay a king and build a commonwealth, and, driven into exile into the wilderness of America, led our Revolution, peopled the hills of the South, and conquered the West.
As the young German patriots of 1812 had organised the great struggle for their liberties under the noses of the garrisons of Napoleon, so Ben Cameron had met the leaders of his race in Nashville, Tennessee, within the picket lines of thirty-five thousand hostile troops, and in the ruins of an old homestead discussed and adopted the ritual of the Invisible Empire.
Within a few months this Empire overspread a territory larger than modern Europe. In the approaching election it was reaching out its daring white hands to tear the fruits of victory from twenty million victorious conquerors.
The triumph at which they aimed was one of incredible grandeur. They had risen to snatch power out of defeat and death. Under their clan-leadership the Southern people had suddenly developed the courage of the lion, the cunning of the fox, and the deathless faith of religious enthusiasts.
Society was fused in the white heat of one sublime thought and beat with the pulse of the single will of the Grand Wizard of the Klan at Memphis.
Women and children had eyes and saw not, ears and heard not. Over four hundred thousand disguises for men and horses were made by the women of the South, and not one secret ever passed their lips!
With magnificent audacity, infinite patience, and remorseless zeal, a conquered people were struggling to turn his own weapon against their conqueror, and beat his brains out with the bludgeon he had placed in the hands of their former slaves.
Behind the tragedy of Reconstruction stood the remarkable man whose iron will alone had driven these terrible measures through the chaos of passion, corruption, and bewilderment which followed the first assassination of an American President. As he leaned on his window in this village of the South and watched in speechless rage the struggle at that negro armory, he felt for the first time the foundations sinking beneath his feet. As he saw the black cowards surrender in terror, noted the indifference and cool defiance with which those white horsemen rode and shot, he knew that he had collided with the ultimate force which his whole scheme had overlooked.
He turned on his big club foot from the window, clinched his fist, and muttered:
"But I'll hang that man for this deed if it's the last act of my life!"
The morning brought dismay to the negro, the carpet-bagger, and the scalawag of Ulster. A peculiar freak of weather in the early morning added to their terror. The sun rose clear and bright except for a slight fog that floated from the river valley, increasing the roar of the falls. About nine o'clock, a huge black shadow suddenly rushed over Piedmont from the west, and in a moment the town was shrouded in twilight. The cries of birds were hushed and chickens went to roost as in a total eclipse of the sun. Knots of people gathered on the streets and gazed uneasily at the threatening skies. Hundreds of negroes began to sing and shout and pray, while sensible people feared a cyclone or cloud-burst. A furious downpour of rain was swiftly followed by sunshine, and the negroes rose from their knees, shouting with joy to find the end of the world had after all been postponed.
But that the end of their brief reign in a white man's land had come, but few of them doubted. The events of the night were sufficiently eloquent. The movement of the clouds in sympathy was unnecessary.
Old Stoneman sent for Lynch, and found he had fled to Columbia. He sent for the only lawyer in town whom the Lieutenant-Governor had told him could be trusted.
The lawyer was polite, but his refusal to undertake the prosecution of any alleged member of the Klan was emphatic.
"I'm a sinful man, sir," he said with a smile. "Besides, I prefer to live, on general principles."
"I'll pay you well," urged the old man, "and if you secure the conviction of Ben Cameron, the man we believe to be the head of this Klan, I'll give you ten thousand dollars."
The lawyer was whittling on a piece of pine meditatively.
"That's a big lot of money in these hard times. I'd like to own it, but I'm afraid it wouldn't be good at the bank on the other side. I prefer the green fields of South Carolina to those of Eden. My harp isn't in tune."
Stoneman snorted in disgust:
"Will you ask the Mayor to call to see me at once?"
"We ain't got none," was the laconic answer.
"What do you mean?"
"Haven't you heard what happened to his Honour last night?"
"No."
"The Klan called to see him," went on the lawyer with a quizzical look, "at 3 a. m. Rather early for a visit of state. They gave him forty-nine lashes on his bare back, and persuaded him that the climate of Piedmont didn't agree with him. His Honour, Mayor Bizzel, left this morning with his negro wife and brood of mulatto children for his home, the slums of Cleveland, Ohio. We are deprived of his illustrious example, and he may not be a wiser man than when he came, but he's a much sadder one."
Stoneman dismissed the even-tempered member of the bar, and wired Lynch to return immediately to Piedmont He determined to conduct prosecution of Ben Cameron in person. With the aid of the Lieutenant-Governor he succeeded in finding a man who would dare to swear out a warrant against him.
As a preliminary skirmish he was charged with a violation of the statutory laws of the United States relating to Reconstruction and arraigned before a Commissioner.
Against Elsie's agonising protest, old Stoneman appeared at the court-house to conduct the prosecution.
In the absence of the United States Marshal, the warrant had been placed in the hands of the sheriff, returnable at ten o'clock on the morning fixed for the trial. The new Sheriff of Ulster was no less a personage than Uncle Aleck, who had resigned his seat in the House to accept the more profitable one of High Sheriff of the County.
There was a long delay in beginning the trial. At 10:30, not a single witness summoned had appeared, nor had the prisoner seen fit to honour the court with his presence.
Old Stoneman sat fumbling his hands in nervous sullen rage, while Phil looked on with amusement.
"Send for the sheriff," he growled to the Commissioner.
In a moment Aleck appeared bowing humbly and politely to every white man he passed. He bent half way to the floor before the Commissioner and said:
"Marse Ben be here in er minute, sah. He's er eatin' his breakfus'. I run erlong erhead."
Stoneman's face was a thundercloud as he scrambled to his feet and glared at Aleck:
"Marse Ben? Did you say Marse Ben? Who's he?" Aleck bowed low again.
"De young Colonel, sah—Marse Ben Cameron."
"And you the sheriff of this county trotted along in front to make the way smooth for your prisoner?"
"Yessah!"
"Is that the way you escort prisoners before a court?"
"Dem kin' er prisoners—yessah."
"Why didn't you walk beside him?"
Aleck grinned from ear to ear and bowed very low:
"He say sumfin' to me, sah!"
"And what did he say?"
Aleck shook his head and laughed:
"I hates ter insinuate ter de cote, sah!"
"What did he say to you!" thundered Stoneman.
"He say—he say—ef I walk 'longside er him—he knock hell outen me, sah!"
"Indeed."
"Yessah, en I 'spec' he would," said Aleck, insinuatingly. "La, he's a gemman, sah, he is! He tell me he come right on. He be here sho'."
Stoneman whispered to Lynch, turned with a look of contempt to Aleck, and said:
"Mr. Sheriff, you interest me. Will you be kind enough to explain to this court what has happened to you lately to so miraculously change your manners?"
Aleck glanced around the room nervously.
"I seed sumfin'—a vision, sah!"
"A vision? Are you given to visions?"
"Na-sah. Dis yere wuz er sho' 'nuff vision! I wuz er feelin' bad all day yistiddy. Soon in de mawnin', ez I wuz gwine 'long de road, I see a big black bird er settin' on de fence. He flop his wings, look right at me en say, 'Corpse! Corpse! Corpse!'"—Aleck's voice dropped to a whisper—"'en las' night de Ku Kluxes come ter see me, sah!"
Stoneman lifted his beetling brows.
"That's interesting. We are searching for information on that subject."
"Yessah! Dey wuz Sperits, ridin' white hosses wid flowin' white robes, en big blood-red eyes! De hosses wuz twenty feet high, en some er de Sperits wuz higher den dis cote-house! Dey wuz all bal' headed, 'cept right on de top whar dere wuz er straight blaze er fire shot up in de air ten foot high!"
"What did they say to you?"
"Dey say dat ef I didn't design de sheriff's office, go back ter farmin' en behave myself, dey had er job waitin' fer me in hell, sah. En shos' you born dey wuz right from dar!"
"Of course!" sneered the old Commoner.
"Yessah! Hit's des lak I tell yen One ob 'em makes me fetch 'im er drink er water. I carry two bucketsful ter 'im 'fo' I git done, en I swar ter God he drink it all right dar 'fo' my eyes! He say hit wuz pow'ful dry down below, sah! En den I feel sumfin' bus' loose inside er me, en I disremember all dat come ter pass! I made er jump fer de ribber bank, en de next I knowed I wuz er pullin' fur de odder sho'. I'se er pow'ful good swimmer, sah, but I nebber git ercross er creek befo' ez quick es I got ober de ribber las' night."
"And you think of going back to farming?"
"I done begin plowin' dis mornin', master!"
"Don't you call me master!" yelled the old man. "Are you the sheriff of this county?"
Aleck laughed loudly.
"Na-sah! Dat's er joke! I ain't nuttin' but er plain nigger—I wants peace, judge."
"Evidently we need a new sheriff."
"Dat's what I tell 'em, sah, dis mornin'—en I des flings mysef on de ignance er de cote!"
Phil laughed aloud, and his father's colourless eyes began to spit cold poison.
"About what time do you think your master, Colonel Cameron, will honour us with his presence?" he asked Aleck.
Again the sheriff bowed.
"He's er comin' right now, lak I tole yer—he's er gemman, sah."
Ben walked briskly into the room and confronted the Commissioner.
Without apparently noticing his presence, Stoneman said:
"In the absence of witnesses we accept the discharge of this warrant, pending developments."
Ben turned on his heel, pressed Phil's hand as he passed through the crowd, and disappeared.
The old Commoner drove to the telegraph office and sent a message of more than a thousand words to the
White House, a copy of which the operator delivered to Ben Cameron within an hour.
President Grant next morning issued a proclamation declaring the nine Scotch-Irish hill counties of South Carolina in a state of insurrection, ordered an army corps of five thousand men to report there for duty, pending the further necessity of martial law and the suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus.