Heaven and Hell (59 page)

He walked off. Her eyes brimming with tears of rage, she fled.

. . . Some of the shock of the bank experience is leaving.

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But not the humiliation--or the anger.

March, 1868. What confusion and melodrama! Two months ago the Senate in executive session refused to concur in the matter of the suspension of Mr. Stanton, whereupon Gen. Grant resigned and permitted Stanton to return to his War Dept. offices. Johnson immediately appointed Gen. Lorenzo Thomas in Grant's place, and Thomas boasted that he'd remove Stanton by force if need be-- whereupon Stanton quite literally barricaded himself in his rooms

and had a warrant drawn for the arrest of Thomas! The warrant was delivered at a masked ball!!--it would all be perfect for a comic opera libretto if the passions behind it were not deep and deadly.

But they are, and the wolves pursuing Johnson have at last cornered him. On the 24th instant, a vote to impeach for ' 'high crimes and misdemeanors" passed in the U.S. House by substantial margin. It is an event without precedent in the nation's history, and those on both sides are rabid about it. Stout and his crowd call J. ' 'the arch-apostate,'' insisting that he has betrayed Lincoln, the Constitution, the nation, etc. The President's supporters claim that he, deeming the Tenure of Office Act unconstitutional, had no choice but to test it by direct action. The Radicals are bent on bringing him to trial. I cannot believe a chief executive will be so humiliated. Yet many are rejoicing at the prospect.

...

Andy home last night. The convention adjourned after 53 days, having called special elections for April to ratify the new constitution and elect state and national representatives. . . .

Topper here with assay results. I confronted him with the deceit about Stout's ownership of his firm. With a cool arrogance I have noted in some short men, and many lawyers, he turned aside my accusation by showing a profit projection based on the assay. The sums are staggering. . . .

. . . Much activity in the district. Horsemen on the road at all hours, lanterns glimmering in the marshes long into the night. * / suspect either the election campaign or the influx of surveyors,

mining experts, etc. But neither can altogether explain a curious 374 * HEAVEN AND HELL

change among the freedmen. Few are smiling, and they seem easily alarmed. I hear many conversations kept private by the use of the swift Gullah tongue, which must be clearly overheard to be understood. . . .

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. . . I am convinced now--they are frightened. Prudence has noticed it. Why?

The Imperial Wizard came by night.

In a lonely grove of great oaks a mile from Summerton, they planted and lit a ring of torches. Wives and sweethearts had sewn the regalia according to instructions sent earlier by letter. The Invisible Empire prescribed no color for regalia. At Des's urging, the initiates chose red.

Gettys had paid for the expensive yard goods out of his handsome earnings from the Dixie Store.

Standing six feet two inches and powerfully built, General Nathan Bedford Forrest had a swarthy complexion and gray-blue eyes. Streaks of white showed in his wavy black hair and neat chin beard. He impressed the initiates as a man it would be unwise to challenge.

When he presented them with an official copy of the Prescript, the national constitution, and told them the fee was ten dollars, no one objected.

The initiates stood in a line. The torches smoked and hissed around them. Erect and clear-eyed, Forrest moved from man to man, inspecting them. Des was almost dizzy with excitement. Jack Jolly carried himself with a certain smugness; this was his old leader, after all. Gettys sweated, though not nearly so much as Father Lovewell, who kept shooting glances into the insect-murmurous dark beyond the torches. One of the two farmers who completed the group recognized the priest, whom he saw in church every Sunday.

Forrest began his instruction.

"This is an institution of humanity, mercy, and patriotism. Its genesis and organizing principles embody all that is chivalric in conduct, noble in sentiment, heroic in spirit. Knowing of your previous declaration of loyalty to these principles, I shall, by order of the Grand Dragon of the Realm of Carolina, ask you ten questions."

His stern eyes raked them. "Have you ever belonged to or subscribed to the principles of the Radical Republican Party, the Union League, or the Grand Army of the Republic?"

As one, "No."

"Do you righteously oppose Negro equality, both social and political?"

"Yes."

"Do

you advocate a white man's government?"

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The Year of the Locust 375

"Yes."

"Do you favor constitutional liberty, and a government of equitable laws instead of a government of violence and oppression?"

"Yes!"

So it went, for nearly an hour. The lessons:

"We protect the weak, the innocent, the defenseless, against the lawlessness and lust of the violent, the brutal, the deranged. . . . We serve the injured, the suffering, the unfortunate, giving first priority and highest allegiance to widows and orphans of the Confederate dead.''

The rules:

"Any ritual, hand grip, code or pass word, as well as the origins, designs, mysteries, and other proprietary secrets of this organization shall not be knowingly betrayed. If any are so betrayed, the perpetrator shall incur the full and extreme penalty of our law. Never shall the name of the organization be written by any member. For purposes of printed announcement it shall be identified always and only by one, two, or three asterisks."

The investiture:

From the ground, Forrest plucked up a robe and sacklike hood of shiny sateen-weave cotton. Solemnly, he handed these to Des.

"I endow you with the title, rights, and privileges of Grand Cyclops of the klavern and, additionally, the title, rights, and responsibilities of Grand Titan of this district."

To Jolly: "I endow you with the title, rights, and privileges of Grand Turk, charging you to assist the Cyclops in all regards, and serve as his loyal adjutant."

"Yes, sir, General." Jolly accepted the regalia, his eyes brimming with anticipatory pleasure.

Grand Sentinel, Grand Ensign, Grand Scribe, Grand Exchequer-- each man had a responsibility.

With great solemnity and a high sense

of patriotism absent from his life since he'd mustered out of the Palmetto Rifles, Des donned the shimmering red robe and hood. So did the others. .

The torches fumed and smoked. General Forrest surveyed the hooded den. Well pleased, he smiled.

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"You are the newest knights of our great crusade. Begin your Purge here, on your home soil, where the face of the enemy is known to you. Joined klavern to klavern throughout our great Invisible Empire,

together we will sweep the debased government of certain evil men from this land we love."

Des licked his lips and exhaled, rippling the mask that hung below tos chin. Again he felt the weight of his boon companion, Ferris Brixjpam, sagging dead in his arms.

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Jolly felt the rolling gait of a war horse, and heard the screams of the dying at Fort Pillow.

And Gettys grew stiff under his robe, thinking of Orry Main's widow denied her sudden new wealth, abducted and brought to a remote clearing like this, stripped bare for whatever punishment, or pleasure, they chose.

Eerily, Des sensed his thoughts. "Certain white men, Randall,"

he whispered. "A certain woman, too."

1

Slavery and imprisonment for debt are permanently barred.

Duelling is outlawed.

Divorce is made legal. The property of a married woman is no longer subject to sale or levy for a husband's debts.

Henceforth judicial districts are to be called counties.

A system of public schools shall be established, open to all and financed by uniform taxes on real and personal property.

Railroads and poorhouses shall likewise be built with tax monies, collection of which by municipalities, townships, counties and school districts is hereby authorized.

There shall be no segregation by race in the state militia.

Universal manhood suffrage is granted to all regardless of race or previous condition.

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No person shall be disfranchised for crimes committed while he was enslaved.

Distinction on account of race or color in any case whatever shall be prohibited, and all classes of citizens shall enjoy equally all common, public, legal and political privileges.

Some provisions of the forty-one sections of the

South Carolina Constitution of 1868

IPr

40

Marie-Louise Main came into the springtime of her fifteenth year bothered by a number of things.

She was bothered at night by vivid dreams in which she waltzed with a succession of handsome young men. Each young man held her waist firmly and flirted in a Yankee accent she found wickedly attractive.

Every face was different, but all the young men were officers in blue uniforms with bright gold buttons. The ending of each dream was similar, too. The young officer whirled her away to some dim balcony or garden path and there bent to kiss her in a highly forward way--: Whereupon she invariably awoke. She knew why. She was ignorant of what came after a kiss.

Oh, she had a general idea. She'd seen animals, and, well, she knew. But she hadn't the faintest idea of how it felt, or how she should behave. Mama had provided basic facts, but to questions about response she said, "Time enough to talk about that when you become engaged.

That will be some years yet." Of course Marie-Louise never mentioned the subject with Papa.

She was bothered by what she perceived as her inadequacy when she compared herself with her peers, the five other young ladies in her class at Mrs. Allwick's Female Academy. While she worked at her translation of selected passages from Horace or the Aeneid, the other girls passed notes and whispered about their beaux. Each had several, Or claimed they did.

Marie-Louise had none. Papa was so grim and

preoccupied all the time, he wouldn't give her the slightest encouragement
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about boys. Not that it really mattered. She didn't know even one

"°y who might want to begin the courtship ritual with the customary Small gifts and parlor visits.

She wondered if her looks contributed to this unhappy situation.

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She had to accept her height, and a slim figure; both parents were built that way. She'd inherited Mama's dark blond curls and a large mouth with good teeth. Her small bosom came in some mysterious way from Papa's side, she decided; Mama was flat.

When she felt good, she thought herself passably pretty. When something got her down--usually the lack of boys in her life--she was sure she was a homely horse. Objectively, she was considered an attractive young woman, with a pretty face suited to smiling and a natural warmth that invited friendliness, although it was true that she was a little too tall and thin ever to be deemed a beauty.

Marie-Louise was bothered by her father. He was stern and unsmiling, and although she had once been comfortable in his presence, she was no longer. Nor was Mama. Mama liked to entertain Aunt Madeline whenever she was in Charleston, but it could only be during the day, when Marie-Louise was at school; Papa refused to allow Uncle Orry's widow to eat supper at Tradd Street or call when he was at home. He never explained this intolerant behavior, but it wounded Marie Louise, who was fond of her aunt by marriage. Mama said Aunt Madeline needed the affection and support of her family. Uncle Orry's best friend Mr. Hazard, the brother of Aunt Brett's husband, had lost his wife in some terrible accident. Aunt Madeline had gone to the funeral and was still upset about it, Mama said.

Papa didn't care. Papa was not himself; not the man Marie-Louise remembered from her early childhood. He was busy with all sorts of personal causes. For instance, twice a month he traveled on horseback to Columbia. He was one of thirty-eight trustees of the old South Carolina College, now reopened as a state university with twenty-two students.

"If the Radicals and General Canby will leave us alone, we might make something of the institution." Exactly what he wanted to make of it, Marie-Louise couldn't fathom, but he was fiercely protective of the university, and of his position as trustee.

Papa was always delivering angry little sermons at meals. Marie Louise knew there was turmoil in the state because of a new constitution that had something to do with public schools, one of the topics that
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most often prompted Papa's sermons. One evening he nourished a letter from General Wade Hampton. "He's chairing our special committee to write a protest to Congress about that damnable constitution." The next evening he waved some cheap inky sheet and declared, "The Thunderbolt is a trashy paper but in this case the editor's right. A property tax

rate of nine mills per dollar would be thievery. The school scheme is nothing but a paupers' cause, engineered by approximately sixty Negroes, most of whom are ignorant, and fifty white men who are North w^

The Year of the Locust 379

ern outcasts or Southern renegades. Their tinkering with the social order will destroy this state morally and financially."

The new schools, to be attended by black as well as white pupils, were not the only issue that incensed Papa. He ranted about charges of treason brought against Mr. Davis after a long imprisonment. "Our caged eagle," Papa called him. As for the President of the United States, Mr.

Johnson, Papa said he was "high-principled" and "the friend of Southerners,"

but he was apparently about to be driven out of office by a scheme Marie-Louise didn't understand at all. She only knew the fiendish Republicans were behind it.

Papa hated Republicans. He frequently rushed off to evening meetings of the Democratic party, which he supported with his effort as well as his money. Marie-Louise wished he'd spend more time with the family and less attending meetings and writing letters to newspapers castigating the Republicans. He had no time for his daughter when she tried to plead that she needed a beau, if not several. She decided she would have to acquire one on her own or be forever humiliated in front of her classmates at Mrs. Allwick's.