So he started fair, and before the period of reconstruction began he had by thrifty management acc.u.mulated quite a competency. He had bought several plantations whose aristocratic owners could no longer keep their grip upon half-worked lands, had opened a little store, and monopolized a considerable trade. Looking at affairs as they stood at that time, Jordan Jackson said to himself that the opportunity for him and his cla.s.s had come. He had a profound respect for the power and authority of the Government of the United States, _because_ it had put down the Rebellion. He had been two or three times at the North, and was astounded at its collective greatness. He said that the colored man and the poor-whites of the South ought to put themselves on the side of this great, busy North, which had opened the way of liberty and progress before them, and establish free schools and free thought and free labor in the fair, crippled, South-land. He thought he saw a great and fair future looming up before his country. He freely gave expression to these ideas, and, as he traded very largely with the colored people, soon came to be regarded by them as a leader, and by "the good people of Horsford" as a low-down white n.i.g.g.e.r, for whom no epithet was too vile.
Nevertheless, he grew in wealth, for he attended to his business himself, early and late. He answered raillery with raillery, curses with cursing, and abuse with defiance. He was elected to conventions and Legislatures, where he did many foolish, some bad, and a few wise things in the way of legislation. He knew what he wanted--it was light, liberty, education, and a "fair hack" for all men. How to get it he did not know.
He had been warned a thousand times that he must abandon this way of life. The natural rulers of the county felt that if they could neutralize his influence and that which went out from Red Wing, they could prevent the exercise of ballatorial power by a considerable portion of the majority, and by that means "redeem" the county.
They did not wish to hurt Jordan Jackson. He was a good enough man.
His father had been an honest man, and an old citizen. n.o.body knew a word against his wife or her family, except that they had been poor. The people who had given their hearts to the Confederate cause, remembered too, at first, his gallant service; but that had all been wiped out from their minds by his subsequent "treachery."
Even after the attack on Red Wing, he had been warned by his friends to desist.
One morning, he had found on the door of his store a paper containing the following words, written inside a little sketch of a coffin:
[Ill.u.s.tration: JORDAN JACKSON, If you don"t get out of here in three days, you will go to the bone yard. K.K.K.]
He had answered this by a defiant, ill-spelled notice, pasted just beside it, in which he announced himself as always ready to meet any crowd of "cowards and villains who were ashamed of their own faces, at any time, night or day." His card was English prose of a most vigorous type, interspersed with so much of illiterate profanity as to satisfy any good citizen that the best people of Horsford were quite right in regarding him as a most desperate and dangerous man--one of those whose influence upon the colored people was to array them against the whites, and unless promptly put down, bring about a war of races--which the white people were determined never to have in Horsford, if they had to kill every Radical in the county in order to live in peace with their former slaves, whom they had always nourished with paternal affection and still regarded with a most tender care.
This man met Hesden as the latter came out upon the porch, and with a flushed face and a peculiar twitching about his mouth, asked if he could see him in private for a moment.
Hesden led the way to his own room. Jackson then, having first shut the door, cautiously said:
"You know me, Mr. Le Moyne?"
"Certainly, Jackson."
"An" you knew my father before me?"
"Of course. I knew old man Billy Jackson very well in my young days."
"Did you ever know anything mean or disreputable about him?"
"No, certainly not; he was a very correct man, so far as I ever heard."
"Poor but honest?"--with a sneer.
"Well, yes; a poor man, but a very correct man."
"Well, did you ever know anything disreputable about _me?_"
keenly.
"Well--why--Mr. Jackson--you--" stammered Hesden, much confused.
"Out with it!" angrily. "I"m a Radical?"
"Yes--and--you know, your political course has rendered you very unpopular."
"Of course! A man has no right to his own political opinions."
"Well, but you know, Mr. Jackson, yours have been so peculiar and so obnoxious to our best people. Besides, you have expressed them so boldly and defiantly. I do not think our people have any ill-feeling against you, personally; but you cannot wonder that so great a change as we have had should excite many of them very greatly. You should not be so violent, Mr. Jackson."
"Violent--h.e.l.l! You"d better go and preach peace to Eliab Hill.
Poor fellow! I don"t reckon the man lives who ever heard him say a harsh thing to any one. He was always that mild I used to wonder the Lord didn"t take him long ago. n.i.g.g.e.r as he was, and cripple as he was, I"d ruther had his religion than that of all the mean, hypocritical, murdering aristocrats in Horsford."
"But, Mr. Jackson, you should not speak in that way of our best citizens."
"Oh, the devil! I know--but that is no matter, Mr. Le Moyne. I didn"t come to argue with you. Did you ever hear anything agin" me outside of my politics?"
"I don"t know that I ever did."
"If you were in a tight place, would you have confidence in Jordan Jackson as a friend?"
"You know I have reason to remember that," said Hesden, with feeling.
"You helped me when I could not help myself. It"s not every man that would care about his horse carrying double when he was running away from the Yanks."
"Ah! you remember that, then?" with a touch of pride in his voice.
"Yes, indeed! Jackson," said Hesden, warmly.
"Well, would you do me a good turn to pay for that?"
"Certainly--anything that--" hesitating.
"Oh, d.a.m.n it, man, don"t strain yourself! I didn"t ask any questions when I helped you!"
"Mr. Jackson," said Hesden, with dignity, "I merely wished to say that I do not care at this time to embroil myself in politics. You know I have an old mother who is very feeble. I have long regretted that affairs are in the condition that they are in, and have wondered if something could not be done. Theoretically, you are right and those who are with you. Practically, the matter is very embarra.s.sing.
But I do not hesitate to say, Mr. Jackson, that those who commit such outrages as that perpetrated at Red Wing disgrace the name of gentleman, the county, and State, the age we live in, and the religion we profess. That I _will_ say."
"And that"s quite enough, Mr. Le Moyne. All I wanted was to ask you to act as my trustee."
"Your trustee in what?"
"There is a deed I have just executed conveying everything I have to you, and I want you to sell it off and dispose of it the best you can, and send me the money."
"_Send_ it to you?"
"Yes, I"m going away."
"Going away? Why? You are not in debt?"
"I don"t owe a hundred dollars."
"Then why are you doing this? I don"t understand."
"Mr. Le Moyne," said Jackson, coming close to him and speaking in a low intense tone, "I was _whipped_ last night!"
"Whipped!"
"Yes."
"By whom?"