"Very simple; Whipper and the Speaker adjourned the House yesterday afternoon to attend a horse race. They lost a thousand dollars each betting on the wrong horse. They are recuperating after the strain. They are booked for judges of the Supreme Court when they finish this job. The negro ma.s.s-meeting to-night is to indorse their names for the Supreme Bench."
"Is it possible!" the doctor exclaimed.
When Whipper resumed his place at his desk, the introduction of bills began. One after another were sent to the Speaker"s desk, a measure to disarm the whites and equip with modern rifles a negro militia of 80,000 men; to make the uniform of Confederate gray the garb of convicts in South Carolina, with a sign of the rank to signify the degree of crime; to prevent any person calling another a "n.i.g.g.e.r"; to require men to remove their hats in the presence of all officers, civil or military, and all disfranchised men to remove their hats in the presence of voters; to force black and whites to attend the same schools and open the State University to negroes; to permit the intermarriage of whites and blacks; and to inforce social equality.
Whipper made a brief speech on the last measure:
"Before I am through, I mean that it shall be known that Napoleon Whipper is as good as any man in South Carolina. Don"t tell me that I am not on an equality with any man G.o.d ever made."
Dr. Cameron turned pale, and trembling with excitement, asked his friend:
"Can that man pa.s.s such measures, and the Governor sign them?"
"He can pa.s.s anything he wishes. The Governor is his creature--a dirty little scallawag who tore the Union flag from Fort Sumter, trampled it in the dust, and helped raise the flag of Confederacy over it. Now he is backed by the Government at Washington. He won his election by dancing at negro b.a.l.l.s and the purchase of delegates. His salary as Governor is $3,500 a year, and he spends over $40,000. Comment is unnecessary. This Legislature has stolen millions of dollars, and already bankrupted the treasury. The day Howle was elected to the Senate of the United States every negro on the floor had his roll of bills and some of them counted it out on their desks. In your day the annual cost of the State government was $400,000. This year it is $2,000,000. These thieves steal daily. They don"t deny it. They simply dare you to prove it. The writing paper on the desks cost $16,000. These clocks on the wall $600 each, and every little Radical newspaper in the State has been subsidized in sums varying from $1,000 to $7,000. Each member is allowed to draw for mileage, per diem, and "sundries." G.o.d only knows what the bill for "sundries" will aggregate by the end of the session."
"I couldn"t conceive of this!" exclaimed the doctor.
"I"ve only given you a hint. We are a conquered race. The iron hand of Fate is on us. We can only wait for the shadows to deepen into night.
President Grant appears to be a babe in the woods. Schuyler Colfax, the Vice-president, and Belknap, the Secretary of War, are in the saddle in Washington. I hear things are happening there that are quite interesting.
Besides, Congress now can give little relief. The real lawmaking power in America is the State Legislature. The State lawmaker enters into the holy of holies of our daily life. Once more we are a sovereign State--a sovereign negro State."
"I fear my mission is futile," said the doctor.
"It"s ridiculous--I"ll call for you to-night and take you to hear Lynch, our Lieutenant-Governor. He is a remarkable man. Our negro Supreme Court Judge will preside--"
Uncle Aleck, who had suddenly spied Dr. Cameron, broke in with a laughing welcome:
"I "clar ter goodness, Dr. Cammun, I didn"t know you wuz here, sah. I sho"
glad ter see you. I axes yer ter come across de street ter my room; I got sumfin" pow"ful pertickler ter say ter you."
The doctor followed Aleck out of the hall and across the street to his room in a little boarding-house. His door was locked, and the windows darkened by blinds. Instead of opening the blinds he lighted a lamp.
"Ob cose, Dr. Cammun, you say nuffin "bout what I gwine tell you?"
"Certainly not, Aleck."
The room was full of drygoods boxes. The s.p.a.ce under the bed was packed, and they were piled to the ceiling around the walls.
"Why, what"s all this, Aleck?"
The member from Ulster chuckled:
"Dr. Cammun, yu"se been er pow"ful frien" ter me--gimme medicine lots er times, en I hain"t nebber paid you nuttin". I"se sho" come inter de kingdom now, en I wants ter pay my respects ter you, sah. Des look ober dat paper, en mark what you wants, en I hab "em sont home fur you."
The member from Ulster handed his physician a printed list of more than five hundred articles of merchandise. The doctor read it over with amazement.
"I don"t understand it, Aleck. Do you own a store?"
"Na-sah, but we git all we wants fum mos" eny ob "em. Dem"s "sundries,"
sah, dat de Gubment gibs de members. We des orda what we needs. No trouble "tall, sah. De men what got de goods come roun" en beg us ter take "em."
The doctor smiled in spite of the tragedy back of the joke.
"Let"s see some of the goods, Aleck--are they first cla.s.s?"
"Yessah; de bes" goin". I show you."
He pulled out a number of boxes and bundles, exhibiting carpets, door mats, ha.s.socks, dog collars, cow bells, oilcloths, velvets, mosquito nets, damask, Irish linen, billiard outfits, towels, blankets, flannels, quilts, women"s hoods, hats, ribbons, pins, needles, scissors, dumb bells, skates, c.r.a.pe skirt braids, tooth brushes, face powder, hooks and eyes, skirts, bustles, chignons, garters, artificial busts, chemises, parasols, watches, jewellery, diamond earrings, ivory-handled knives and forks, pistols and guns, and a Webster"s Dictionary.
"Got lots mo" in dem boxes nailed up dar--yessah, hit"s no use er lettin"
good tings go by yer when you kin des put out yer han" en stop "em! Some er de members ordered horses en carriages, but I tuk er par er fine mules wid harness en two buggies an er wagin. Dey "roun at de libry stable, sah."
The doctor thanked Aleck for his friendly feeling, but told him it was, of course, impossible for him at this time, being only a taxpayer and neither a voter nor a member of the Legislature, to share in his supply of "sundries."
He went to the warehouse that night with his friend to hear Lynch, wondering if his mind were capable of receiving another shock.
This meeting had been called to indorse the candidacy, for Justice of the Supreme Court, of Napoleon Whipper, the Leader of the House, the notorious negro thief and gambler, and of William Pitt Moses, an ex-convict, his confederate in crime. They had been unanimously chosen for the positions by a secret caucus of the ninety-four negro members of the House. This addition to the Court, with the negro already a member, would give a majority to the black man on the last Tribunal of Appeal.
The few white men of the party who had any sense of decency were in open revolt at this atrocity. But their influence was on the wane. The carpet-bagger shaped the first Convention and got the first plums of office. Now the negro was in the saddle, and he meant to stay. There were not enough white men in the Legislature to force a roll-call on a division of the House. This meeting was an open defiance of all pale-faces inside or outside party lines.
Every inch of s.p.a.ce in the big cotton warehouse was jammed--a black living cloud, pungent and piercing.
The distinguished Lieutenant-Governor, Silas Lynch, had not yet arrived, but the negro Justice of the Supreme Court, Pinchback, was in his seat as the presiding officer.
Dr. Cameron watched the movements of the black judge, already notorious for the sale of his opinions, with a sense of sickening horror. This man was but yesterday a slave, his father a medicine man in an African jungle who decided the guilt or innocence of the accused by the test of administering poison. If the poison killed the man, he was guilty; if he survived, he was innocent. For four thousand years his land had stood a solid bulwark of unbroken barbarism. Out of its darkness he had been thrust upon the seat of judgment of the laws of the proudest and highest type of man evolved in time. It seemed a hideous dream.
His thoughts were interrupted by a shout. It came spontaneous and tremendous in its genuine feeling. The magnificent figure of Lynch, their idol, appeared walking down the aisle escorted by the little scallawag who was the Governor.
He took his seat on the platform with the easy a.s.surance of conscious power. His broad shoulders, superb head, and gleaming jungle eyes held every man in the audience before he had spoken a word.
In the first masterful tones of his voice the doctor"s keen intelligence caught the ring of his savage metal and felt the shock of his powerful personality--a personality which had thrown to the winds every mask, whose sole aim of life was sensual, whose only fears were of physical pain and death, who could worship a snake and sacrifice a human being.
His playful introduction showed him a child of Mystery, moved by Voices and inspired by a Fetish. His face was full of good humour, and his whole figure rippled with sleek animal vivacity. For the moment, life was a comedy and a masquerade teeming with whims, fancies, ecstasies and superst.i.tions.
He held the surging crowd in the hollow of his hand. They yelled, laughed, howled, or wept as he willed.
Now he painted in burning words the imaginary horrors of slavery until the tears rolled down his cheeks and he wept at the sound of his own voice.
Every dusky hearer burst into tears and moans.
He stopped, suddenly brushed the tears from his eyes, sprang to the edge of the platform, threw both arms above his head and shouted:
"Hosannah to the Lord G.o.d Almighty for Emanc.i.p.ation!"
Instantly five thousand negroes, as one man, were on their feet, shouting and screaming. Their shouts rose in unison, swelled into a thunder peal, and died away as one voice.
Dead silence followed, and every eye was again riveted on Lynch. For two hours the doctor sat transfixed, listening and watching him sway the vast audience with hypnotic power.
There was not one note of hesitation or of doubt. It was the challenge of race against race to mortal combat. His closing words again swept every negro from his seat and melted every voice into a single frenzied shout: