Albion Tourgee during his life was one
of the most loved and most hated men, he was a judge, best-selling writer,
outspoken advocate for civil rights, educator, and United States Ambassador;
however, he is much lesser known then contemporaries such as Frederick Douglas,
Harriet Beecher Stowe, and W.E.B. DuBois.
Though much lesser known, Tourgee is worthy of study yet unlike George
Washington Carver, DuBois, or Stowe, Tourgee appears nowhere in the history
curriculum of Texas, Tourgee’s home state of Ohio, or the state of North
Carolina where he spent a large portion of his adult life and where he served
as a major political force.[1] One might ask why a person of Tourgee’s
stature is not a part of the history curriculum of these states. The answer is that unlike the historic contemporaries
mentioned earlier, Tourgee had the misfortune to be presented with the
contemptuous label of “carpet-bagger”.
“Carpet-bagger” is a word familiar to most people. It is a word that though mostly associated
with the South, yet is it not exclusive to that region. However, no matter what area you are in it
has a negative connotation. This was not
always the case.
The word originated in the mid-1800s
and it described a traveler of little wealth that carried an inexpensive valise
made of carpet material.[2] This merely descriptive definition did not
last and by 1872, The Atlanta Constitution published its own definition
“a
carpetbagger—a penniless adventurer from the loyal [northern] states, where he
was hardly tolerated, by reason of his worthlessness or evil ways, who roamed
about the country seeking what he could steal or otherwise appropriate to his
own use, usually through some official position, or any other way than honest
industry, having at first appearance little baggage than a half empty carpet
bag; hence the name.[3]
In
thirty-odd years, the word went from a simple descriptive noun to an epitaph
that political men would hurl at each other into the twentieth century. To understand why this negative connotation
was placed on “carpet-bagger”, one needs to understand the history of
reconstruction. But just as important as
understanding the history is understanding the historiography, because without
knowing both one cannot understand the reason for the hatred that the political
rivals in the south shared or would it be clear how the vanquished seemed to
rise as heroes in the history of reconstruction.
The period of time between the end
of the Civil War and the reinstating of the confederate states to the union is
often thought of as the reconstruction era.
Although it is generally thought of as being a single period, in reality
it actually begins in 1863 and goes to the generally accepted end date of
1877. During these fourteen years, three
distinct periods occur. The first, 1863
to 1865, is wartime reconstruction. By
1863 large portions of the south was under union control. Therefore, in December of 1863, President
Lincoln proposed a plan in which a state could form a new state government and
constitution when ten percent of a state’s voters swear loyalty to the union
and abolish slavery. Under this plan,
Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee formed state governments.[4]
Then in April of 1865, the Civil War
ends and one week later Lincoln is assassinated, which leaves Andrew Johnson as
president. Johnson, a southern Democrat
from Tennessee, favored Lincoln’s reconstruction plan. The period known as Presidential
Reconstruction was from 1865 to 1867. In
May of 1865, Congress was not in session.
Johnson took this chance to pardon many Confederates and appointed
provisional governors. During the summer
and fall of 1865, many southern states formed governments. These governments however did not meet with
the approval of Congress. Many contained
high-ranking former Confederates. These
governments also enacted so called “Black Codes” which were a series of laws
written to force the freed former slaves into quasi-slavery.[5] When Congress convened in 1865, congressional
leadership barred access to senators and representatives from the state
governments formed under Johnson.[6] Throughout 1866 and 1867, the relationship
between Johnson and Congress continued to be stormy. In 1866, Congress passed two pieces of
legislation over Johnson’s veto. One
extended the Freedman’s Bureau and the second was the 1866 Civil Rights Act,
which granted any person born in the United States citizenship.
The years from 1867 to 1877 saw the
Radical Republicans in Congress take over reconstruction. It is this period that is generally thought
of and referred to in most historiography as reconstruction. It is during this period that Congress
dissolved the government’s setup under Johnson’s presidency and placed the
south under control of military governors each governing one of five military
districts. It was under this situation
that new state governments were formed in which black citizens could vote but
many whites (former confederates) could not participate in government.[7] The result of this was republican dominated
government made up of northern Republicans (carpetbaggers), indigenous
Whigs/Republicans (scalawags), and African Americans (freedmen).
These governments expanded social
services and developed public education systems.[8] The southern Democrats barred from the
political process fought back the only way at their disposal through violence
and intimidation against “carpet-baggers” and freedmen. By 1874, Democrats won control of the House
of Representatives and by 1876; just three southern states had republican
governments (Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina). By 1877, all the formers states had been
fully re-admitted and reconstruction ended.[9]
Like a great, many things with negative
connotations ‘carpetbaggers’ get theirs because of politics.[10] Following the Civil War, American politics
were at its most tumultuous and adversarial.
In less than one presidential term of office you had a president
assassinated, another almost impeached, and a great number of Americans denied
representation. This was the time that
became known as reconstruction. Though
reconstruction was a dark time in American history, especially in the South, it
was not equally bad for all states. For
some, like Virginia, it was a relatively short and painless process but for
other states, it was several years before they were again afforded the rights
that we as Americans take for granted.
Though
it is understandable that southerners would harbor a grudge and hence bestow on
newcomers that they saw as the reason for their discomfort a moniker as full of
venom as ‘carpet-bagger’ is; however, even to this day throughout the United
States, the term ‘carpet-bagger’ has been used as a derogatory term. In order for that to happen, we must look to
a Northerner. Dr. William A. Dunning (1857-1922)
a Professor of History at Columbia
University and a founding member of the American Historical Association and he
founded the Dunning School of Reconstruction Historiography at Columbia
University. Dunning, a Democrat, was very
critical of the ‘carpet-baggers’ most of whom were Republicans. Through his position in American Academia and
the works of his graduate students, his became the predominant theory being taught
in relation to reconstruction in the south until the 1960s.[11] However though Dunning’s voice and the voice
of his students were the loudest, his was not the only voice. W.E.B DuBois took a sympathetic approach and although
he did not see ‘carpet-baggers’ as the evil force that Dunning did, he did see
them as pawns of rich northern industrialists.[12] Another contemporary critic of Dunning was
Albion W. Tourgee. A ‘carpet-bagger’
himself said in an interview printed in the New York Tribune in 1879 shortly
after his return from his attempt to settle in the south “defiantly states”
that his return to the north was due to antagonism in the south of all things Northern.[13] This sentiment is bared out in in the novel
“A Fool’s Errand”. Although it was a
work of fiction, it does give a sense of at least one Northerner’s experience
in the South.[14] Despite the dissenting views, the academic status
of Dunning and those influenced by his teaching such as E. Merton Coulter, Professor
of History at the University of Georgia; Joseph G. De Roulhac Hamilton, Professor
of History at the University of North Carolina; Thomas Staples, Professor of
History at Hendrix College in Arkansas; and Charles W. Ramsdell, Professor of History
at the University of Texas at Austin, just to name a few, predominated until the
1960s.
Then a movement of revisionist historians, led ironically by
another Professor of History from Columbia
University, Eric Foner, whose celebrity and prolific literary career has made
him the current expert on the
‘carpet-baggers’ among other things.[15] He is not alone. Some of the other revisionist historians are Richard
N. Current, Historian and Fulbright lecturer; Ted Tunnell Professor of History
at Virginia Commonwealth University; and Carl Moneyhand, Professor of History at
the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
The common feature of the revisionist historians is that the
‘carpet-baggers’ are not the illiterate villains they were portrayed to be by
the Dunning School. For example Current
in his book, Those
Terrible Carpet Baggers, wrote of
‘carpet-baggers’, “Probably they were less ignorant and more literate than the
rank and file Democrats and conservatives, who opposed them in politics.”[16]
This is in contrast to the treatment of ‘carpet-baggers’ by Staples in his book
Reconstruction in Arkansas 1862-1874. Conservatives were at great advantage when
speaking to an honest and intelligent voter, for he could easily perceive the
absurdity of delivering the state government into the hands of men who had not
developed enterprise enough to establish business attachments in their own states.”[17]
The history of ‘carpet baggers’ is
linked to that of the era of Reconstruction one of the, if not the most,
tumultuous times in American history. As
bloody as Antietam was during that battle, the rank and file soldier did not
harbor the hate that conservatives and republicans had for each other
during reconstruction. That hate is not completely without reason in some
areas. Conservatives were stripped of
suffrage and rights of local self-determination, this in addition to having to
live with the fact that the North had emerged the victor of the Civil War. It is
no wonder when former Union soldiers start taking over political
offices, plantations, and other positions of
influence that are barred to former confederates, however; one of the most
dangerous words in the English language is, all, because very seldom can all be
used to describe any group and ‘carpet-baggers’ are no exception.
Tourgee was born in 1838 and was the son
of Valentine and Louisa Emma Winger Tourgee.
Valentine, the descendant of French Hugonuts, immigrated to Rhode Island
seeking religious freedom.[18] Valentine and Emma move to northeastern Ohio
where soon after they settle, Tourgee is born.
Tourgee was the only child of this union. By the time Tourgee was five, his mother had
passed away.[19] Within a year, Valentine remarried. The relationship between Tourgee’s stepmother
and himself was strained especially after Tourgee’s half-sister was born.[20] By contrast, Valentine was a doting parent
and overall the Tourgee family farm near Lake Erie, by all accounts, provided a
relatively normal childhood where Tourgee displayed an enthusiasm for his
chores and the written word.[21]
A vigorous youth, he found himself
on the short end of various mishaps, the one that had the most lasting impact
occurred when Tourgee was fourteen. An
exploding percussion cap blew a piece of shrapnel into Tourgee’s eye, leaving
him permanently blind in his right eye.[22] Tourgee managed to hide this handicap from
the Army years later. Tourgee was a
popular student at the Kingville Ohio Academy where he met Emma Kilbourne whom
Tourgee would eventually marry.[23] In 1859, Tourgee completed his education at
Kingville and entered the University of Rochester as a sophomore.[24] It is during his time at Rochester that
Tourgee begins to take interest in politics when he joined a Republican political
organization, The Wide Awake Club.[25] Shortly after the fall of Fort Sumter, Tourgee
joined the Twenty-Seventh New York Volunteer Infantry where he was elected
sergeant.[26] Tourgee’s military career however took an
unfortunate turn. Less than three months
from the time Tourgee entered the army he was involved in the first battle of
Bull Run where during the retreat Tourgee was struck by the wheel of a gun
carriage causing a spinal injury.[27] After the injury, Tourgee was discharged from
the military because it was believed that Tourgee would not walk again.[28] After his discharge, Tourgee returned to Ohio
and while there, Emma did what she could to aid in his recovery.[29] While recovering, Tourgee continued his
studies and in the spring of 1862 began seeing a back specialist in
Cleveland. By June of 1862, he notified
Emma he could walk.[30] Shortly thereafter, Tourgee was awarded his
A.B. degree from Rochester based on the merit of his military service. He was then appointed Lieutenant in the 105th
Ohio Volunteer Infantry.[31] His first action with the 105th
was at the Battle of Perryville, KY (October 7, 1862); during this battle,
Tourgee was again injured. This time
shrapnel from an exploding shell struck him.[32] Tourgee quickly returned to service with the
105th as they operated in Kentucky and Tennessee.[33]
Then in January of 1863, Lt. Tourgee
and about 130 men were on a patrol looking for provisions when approximately
160 men under the command of Confederate General John Morgan ambushed
them. Tourgee and all but twenty men
were captured and were held in a prisoner of war camp in various prisons for
the next four months, during which Tourgee would later say, “[he had] but two
enjoyments cursing the confederacy and smoking.”[34] After Tourgee was exchanged for a confederate
prisoner, Tourgee returned to Ohio where he and Emma were wed on May 14, 1863.[35]
For Tourgee, this did not mark the
end of his military service. Within two
weeks, Tourgee had rejoined the 105th at Murfreesboro,
Tennessee. During this tour of duty,
Tourgee saw action at Hoover’s Gap, Chattanooga, and Chickamauga. During these battles, Tourgee made a name for
himself as a “brave and efficient officer”.[36] Despite his admirable war record Tourgee
began finding himself being passed over for promotion. Though he claimed that it did not bother him,
Tourgee became more and more dissatisfied with military service.[37] Then on December 6, 1863, Tourgee resigned
his commission “for the good of the service”.[38]
During Tourgee’s military service,
he became acutely aware of the plight of slaves in the south when he hired a
runaway slave as a personal valet.[39] This concern did not end with his military
service. After Tourgee’s discharge, he
returned to Ohio and established a law practice where he made an effort to
assist “negro contrabands”, escaped slaves as they entered Ohio.[40] Tourgee soon became dissatisfied as an
attorney and left to take a job as a reporter for a paper in Erie, Pennsylvania.[41] Within months, this too failed to hold the
interest of Tourgee.[42] Tourgee soon found himself the principal and
a teacher at the Erie Academy[43]. Tourgee also found this latest position
lacking.[44] Though Tourgee had once been very athletic,
the war had taken its toll on his body. His
back injury, especially, seemed to flare up more during the long cold
Pennsylvanian winters. His doctor
suggested a milder climate might be advisable.
So with that information, Tourgee sent a letter to the governor of North
Carolina inquiring on the opportunities available.[45] By June of 1865, Tourgee received a letter
from Governor Holden stating, “That every favor [would] be shown to them.”[46] Within a month, Tourgee was aboard a
southbound ship bound for North Carolina on what amounted to a reconnaissance
mission[47]. Tourgee was delighted with what he
found. He returned north and gathered
Emma and their belongings and returned to North Carolina where they settled
outside of Greensboro in Piedmont County.[48]
Tourgee’s in-laws joined Emma and
Tourgee soon afterward, along with two business associates of Tourgee, Senneca
Kuhn and R. T. Pettengill. Together the
three partners formed A. W. Tourgee and Company with the purpose of managing an
orchard, to practice law, and engage in other speculative ventures.[49] Through Tourgee’s business dealings, many
contacts were made among both the southern unionists and African American
community, both of which would later be sources of political allies.[50] However, by 1866, Tourgee found himself
increasingly involved in politics. Under
President Johnson’s Presidential Reconstruction, many ex-confederates were
appointed which led to little to no change in relations amoung races[51]. This went contrary to Tourgee’s belief, as to
the purpose of the war. In a letter
written in 1863 to a friend he stated, “I don’t care a rag for the union as it
was. I want and fought for the union
better than it was. Before this is
accomplished we must have a fundamental and through and complete revolution and
renovation. This I expect and hope.”[52] The treatment of freedmen was not acceptable
to Tourgee and he often represented former slaves in disputes. Tourgee’s more profit minded partners did not
feel as strong about race relations, and this lead to arguments between the
partners that hurt the business.[53] This did nothing to stop Tourgee’s working
for the rights of African Americans as well as poor whites that generally
opposed secession.[54]
This feeling put Tourgee at odds
with Governor Jonathan Worth who summed up the issues as such, “We who were
born here will never get along with the free Negros, especially while the tools
and demagogues of the north insist they must be our equals. This will not be tolerated.”[55] If Tourgee’s belief in equality for African
Americans was not enough to alienate himself, his feelings toward white former
confederates was enough to make him one of the most hated men in North
Carolina. The election of Worth and
other prominent ex-confederates whom Tourgee considered traitors left Tourgee
beside himself.[56] Even the former Governor Holden, who had
welcomed Tourgee to North Carolina, failed to get Tourgee’s endorsement for his
Union Party because although he was against secession prior to the war, he
“acquiesced to confederate authority”.[57] This was enough for Tourgee to consider
Holden and his party Confederates even though this caused a rift in the party
that opposed the conservatives.[58]
By the time the 1866 constitutional
convention was over, thirty-four of the delegates were numbered among Tourgee’s
political allies and they considered Tourgee among their leaders.[59] By 1867, unionists from North Carolina
petitioned Congress to create a loyal government by giving former slaves the
right to vote while barring former Confederates from voting. The Congress responded by passing the
Reconstruction Act of 1867. This law
took the ten former confederate states that had not been readmitted to the
union, Tennessee having been granted re-admittance in 1866, and created five
military districts. Each district was
governed by a general whose duty it was to oversee the creation of new state
constitutions and assure that African Americans had the opportunity to
participate in government. Once this was
accomplished all that would stand in the way of a state reentering the Union
would be to ratify the fourteenth amendment.[60] The fourteenth amendment contained three
sections. The first created a national
definition of citizenship. The second
stated that if a slave state did not have universal male suffrage the state
could have its representation in Congress and the Electoral College
appropriately reduced. Lastly, the third
section states that anyone that had “engaged in insurrection” could hold public
office.[61]
In North Carolina, the Constitutional
Convention was set to start on January 14, 1868. There were 120 delegates and all but thirteen
were Republican. The twenty-nine
year-old Tourgee was the youngest delegate.
This did not however keep him from being a prominent participant. On January 15, he was elected Assistant
Secretary Protem. He was also a member
of the committee to determine the best way to frame the constitution, to frame
the judicial article, and chaired the committee that wrote the article for
local government.[62] Tourgee also contributed to many reforms,
which Tourgee considered “the political key to northern progress”.[63]
After the convention, he returned home
very satisfied with the results of the convention.[64] Not long after his return, William Holden
recommended Tourgee for a vacant state Superior Court Judgeship which drew
Jonathon Worth’s wrath and prompted this response, “this vile wretch Tourgee,
the meanest Yankee whoever settled among us”.[65] Worth petitioned General Canby, the military
Governor of the military district containing North Carolina. General Canby sided with Worth and denied
Tourgee the seat on the bench.[66] This however just strengthened Tourgee’s
dislike of Worth.[67]
Tourgee then tried to obtain the
Republican nomination for the United States House of Representatives but that
wound up going on to the native-born William Henderson.[68] Tourgee did not have long to be disappointed
as he quite unexpectedly found himself appointed one of three commissioners to
prepare the new law codes for the state.[69] Then Tourgee was asked to accept the
Republican nomination for the Superior Court Judge of the Seventh Judicial
District, the position denied him by Worth.
This response was written in the Raleigh Sentinel, “a more loathsome,
scurvy low down Yankee cannot be found in the state”[70]. Tourgee returned to Greensboro buoyed by the
judicial nomination after the setbacks of being passed over for the vacant
judicial seat and not being nominated for Congress. However, Tourgee now had a bright outlook; he
wrote to a former military acquaintance that requested information on the
opportunities for a new Republican Paper in North Carolina. Tourgee replied, “I think we shall have a
human country here sometime and when we do, it will be a good place for any
human journalist…”[71]
However, while Tourgee and his unionist
allies were pleased with the way things were going, the conservatives fretted
in private, “civilization consists in the possession of property.”[72] This worry over the new government that was
created by the unionist that put the power in the hands of the people
threatened the conservative’s powerbase.
Though they privately worried about the loss of their property publicly,
they made race the major issue. At a
meeting in Guilford County this statement was made, “do not surrendering the
state to the Negro and his demagoging white office seeker.”[73] When the returns of the April 21-23, 1868
election came back, the republican majority was somewhat smaller than the
November 1867 election. Although Tourgee
did win his seat, as did Holden, who defeated Worth for the governorship and the
constitution also carried.[74] Though the election of 1868 was the high
watermark for Republicans in not only North Carolina but also much of the South
because though most republicans saw the impeachment of President Johnson as a
forgone conclusion the failure to acquit marked a turning point in the course
of reconstruction.[75]
Tourgee found this out first hand for
after the election but before he was to take the bench he traveled north on a
fundraising mission for southern relief, the mission took him through
Pennsylvania and Ohio. While on the mission,
Tourgee wrote to Emma, “People who live in the north are sick of the words
‘south and give in conjunction”[76]. Tourgee returned to North Carolina where he
was very active in the Republican Party and worked very hard to assure that
Grant carried North Carolina and gain the White House, which he did. However, by 1870 the Republicans lost control
of the North Carolina legislature yet did retain control of the governor’s
mansion and the judiciary[77].
As the 1870s began, the rest of the
country began to take less of an interest in the south. The Republicans governments’ setup just a
couple years prior began to come under siege from conservatives across the
south. One example of this could be seen
in the letters of Daniel Richards, a Republican from Illinois, that had settled
in Florida to take a United States district tax collector position and was a
leading Republican in the state. He
writes to fellow Republican from Illinois, Elihu Washburne on April 8, 1868, “A
perfect reign of terror is most imminent.
The public journals nearly all justify the operation of the Ku Klux Klan
and it seems to be not only very dangerous but a very extensive organization.”[78] Another example of organized resistance to the
Republican efforts could be found in northern Alabama where the Ku Klux Klan
actively sought to suppress the freedman’s right to vote.[79] In Arkansas, Democrats realized that the
black suffrage issue was their strongest card and the Democratic leaders made
repeated appeals for white racial solidarity.
The Arkansas Gazette summed up the Democratic philosophy, “We do not
recognize that the Negro has any political rights whatever…” meanwhile the Ku
Klux Klan was terrorizing blacks in rural precincts[80].
In North Carolina, 1868 found Tourgee
and the two other commissioners working hard to establish North Carolina’s new
legal codes and within a month, there was discernible progress. Though the new code was criticized from both
sides, when given a fair opportunity to use the system even conservative
alternatives began to appreciate the system.
The well-known conservative lawyer, Samuel Phillips said, “All the
lawyers in old North Carolina would never have framed as good a code-in a
century”.[81] By 1870, the commission’s work was drawing to
an end, however, with conservatives regaining control of the legislature the commission’s
work was rejected at every turn, and by 1873 the commission was abolished by
constitutional amendment.[82]
During the same time, Tourgee was
working on the commission he was also hearing court cases. The seventh district encompassed eight
counties which Tourgee rode circuit. His
first court was on September 6, 1868 in Guilford County. However, the lampooning of the Republican
judiciary by the conservative press began before the first case was heard. The Raleigh Sentinel printed, “our judges are
a disgrace to the bench, a mockery of dignity and decency a laughing stock for
the legal profession and a curse and blight to the people…they have no legal
learning or any other sort of learning what is worse, they have no capacity to
learn.”[83] Tourgee, being such a prominent figure, was singled
out for abuse. There were implications
made that Tourgee was a wanted fugitive and that Tourgee’s effort to provide
heat in local jail was encouraging crime.
Though several conservative attorneys felt obliged to apologize, the
press ignored the apologies.
After the completion of his first
circuit the conservative paper, The Patriot, printed of Tourgee, “Fair, full
and unbiased by party prejudice and that he was about as good a judge as the
conservative press could be of more concern to members of the Republican party
was the Ku Klux Klan.[84] In May of 1870, Judge Tourgee wrote a letter
to his friend General Joseph Abbott, describing the death of their mutual
friend, John Stephens, who was a state senator from Caswell. Though one could ascertain the original
purpose of the letter was simply to inform Abbott of the death of a mutual
friend; however, it appears that as Tourgee began describing the vile acts of
the Ku Klux Klan. Tourgee lastly vents
his frustration not being able to end the problems caused by the Ku Klux Klan
(1870). The Klan furnished iron clad
alibis members intimidated or killed hostile witnesses. Klan members also infiltrated juries and
police forces impeding investigations.[85] To make matters worse the conservatives
talked about the “negro” crime wave and praised the Klan for fighting Negro
crime while Republicans were unable to protect people. Though there was only one account, where Klan
violence was in response to a crime and that was a barn burning while on the
other side of the coin there appeared to be one instance of organized “negro”
insurrection and that was in response to Klan activity.[86]
However, the lack of proof was not an
impediment to the Klan it was to the judiciary.
However, Tourgee’s letter to Joseph Abbott did make an impression on him
and his colleague’s Senator John Pool shared the letter with other members of
Congress and within ten days of the murder of state Senator Stephens the first
federal law outlawing the Ku Klux Klan was passed.[87] This however did not aid North Carolina in
the prosecution of offenses already perpetrated by the Klan. However, it did allow federal troops to be
employed in order to combat the Klan.[88] The pressure by republicans on Governor
Holden was great to put an end to Klan activity and many even urged him to
follow the examples of Arkansas Governor Clayton Powell, but the political
situation was much different in North Carolina then Arkansas and Governor Holden
was not Governor Powell.[89]
Arkansas in their constitution had given
much more martial powers to the governor allowing for both a militia and a
state guard that both answered directly to the governor.[90] What Holden did do was to call for
enlistments in the military, however; he did not call on local men he called on
mountaineers that fought in the Union Army under Colonel George Kirk of the
Third North Carolina United States volunteers.
The militia quickly rounded up leaders to the Klan and they were held
without formal charges or a trial; however, the Klan members over Tourgee’s objections
were able to get a writ of habeas corpus and Holden was forced to free the men.
Then on August 6, 1870, the conservatives carried the state.[91]
Once the conservatives gained control of
the legislature, the activists of the Ku Klux Klan declined.[92] With this decline in Klan violence Tourgee
began to fear less for his life.
However, the Klan did not stop being a thorn in Tourgee’s side. Josiah Turner, the publisher of the Raleigh
Sentinel and member of Guilford County Bar and reputedly the king of the Ku
Klux Klan, petitioned Tourgee for a bench warrant for assault and false
imprisonment during the incident with Colonel Kirk.[93]
Though
Tourgee failed to issue the warrant, with control of the legislature it was
only a matter of time until Holden was impeached and stripped of his North
Carolina citizenship.[94] With all the turmoil and loss Tourgee endured
in 1870, there was at least one bright part.
On November 19, 1870, Emma gave birth to Tourgee’s daughter Lodolska
Tourgee, Lodie for short.[95] The birth of Lodie seemed to energize Tourgee
for as 1870 was winding down he was considering quitting the state; however, by
the end of January of 1871 he was entering into a new business venture. He and fellow carpetbagger, H. W. Snow,
established the Greensboro Spoke and Handle factory.[96] By fall of 1872, the company merged with
another handle making company. The
resulting company became the North Carolina Handle Company. The resulting company was initially very
successful, but the depression of 1873 proved to be too much to overcome for
the young company and Tourgee lost most of his money and property[97]. To literally add injury to insult, that same
year Tourgee began experiencing discomfort that began in his blind eye but soon
spread to his good eye. Tourgee sought
for the medical opinion of an eye specialist in Philadelphia who recommended
that the blind eye be removed and replaced with a glass prosthetic. Tourgee was soon joined by Emma and underwent
the procedure, which soon proved beneficial to his “good” eye, although it took
years for Tourgee to get used to it.
Like many other times in Tourgee’s life,
he did not let the setback stop him.
Throughout his life, Tourgee had dabbled with writing by getting an odd
short story or opinion piece published in various periodicals in both the north
and the south. Tourgee’s big literary
break came in 1873 when he finished writing his first novel, Toinette.[98] In Toinette, Tourgee tells the story of a
North Carolina planter that falls in love with a slave of mixed heritage and
his Toinette “cleaned up” and instructed in the ways of society.[99] Then with the help of friends in Ohio had her
in installed into Ohio society, where she refuses the planters proposal until
he accepts her proposal as her equal.[100] Tourgee publishes the book under the name, de
Plume Henry Hurton, however it is not long before it becomes widely known that
Tourgee is the author because of a writer from Lee, Massachusetts who published
a literary review naming Tourgee as the author.[101]
Tourgee’s rivals however took advantage
of Tourgee’s authorship of the scandalous novel by running a story in the
Charlotte Observer that stated, “The real purpose of Tourgee was to popularize
intermarriage between the races in North Carolina.”[102] Sales of “Toinett” were not to rival the
success of Tourgee’s later novels but it did garner some promising
reviews. Of the book one of Tourgee’s
former professors said, “The style is so bright terse and clear that you prove
by it your vocation for literature.”[103]
The year of 1874 also saw the end of
Tourgee’s political career in North Carolina after he once again failed to
secure the Republican nomination for Congress and his term as judge was ending
without hope of re-election. He was left
without a political office for the first time in six years[104]. This left Tourgee in a dire financial
situation. Tourgee did enter into a short-lived
law partnership with George Gregory that amounted to a total of $85 in legal
fees being collected by Tourgee.[105] Tourgee next sought to engage in the Lyceum
lecture circuit, speaking on southern humor and interpretations of modern
civilization.[106]
In the spring of 1876, Tourgee was able
to secure employment as a federal pension agent.[107] The position necessitated for the Tourgee
family to relocate to Raleigh. A few
months later, their Greensboro home went to auction. Though not a candidate, Tourgee did work
diligently to assure republican victory and to defend republican directives they
gained during 1868.[108] By 1877, Tourgee complained, “that is was
all he could do to live among these people now”.[109] Then in 1878, Tourgee lost his position as a
pension agent due to downsizing of the agency.
In 1879, Tourgee and his family began arrangements to move to Denver,
Colorado however; before he left he published his digest of cited cases in
1878. On September 2nd,
Tourgee and his family set out for Denver.[110]
Tourgee then took a job as an editor of
the evening edition of the Denver Times.
This was a short-lived position, because his publisher called him to New
York because his novel (Figs and Thistle) had begun to sell quite well.[111] Earlier that year, Tourgee wrote his crowning
literary achievement “A Fool’s Errand” .
Though the novel was loosely based on Tourgee’s life he published it
anonymously. This caused quite a stir
among the countries newspapers trying to discern the identity of the
author. One critic from Chicago felt the
book was so comparable to Uncle Tom’s Cabin that he felt the same author wrote
it.[112] Although Tourgee’s friends and relatives were
quick to recognize the character of Colonel Servosse, the romantic that was the
protagonist in “Fool’s Errand”. The
“Fool’s Errand” became a best seller, as did his next novel “Bricks Without
Straw”. Tourgee’s books brought such
fame to Tourgee that his alma matter, The University of Rochester, bestowed him
an honorary LLD degree.
The money and notoriety allowed Tourgee
to gain some influence in national politics by getting a plank to aid education
in the south.[113] However, no longer of the south, Tourgee
continued working for the betterment of his former home. Tourgee never stopped working for the
betterment of African Americans. However,
as had happened many times in Tourgee’s adult life he met with a “financial low
ebb”.[114] In 1884, he had to mortgage the revenue from his new book “An Appeal to Caesar’s” but as
always Tourgee persevered.[115]
In 1891, Tourgee was a founding member
of the National Citizen’s Rights Association (NCRA). The group’s purpose was to publicize the
facts of oppression and attack segregation.[116] Many notable people joined Tourgee’s
organization such as Ida Wells and Charlotte and Francis Grimke.[117] Almost a year after the formation of the
NCRA, the group had over 10,000 members in forty-two states. In June of 1891, Tourgee was appointed an
attorney in a case to test the constitutionality of the Louisiana law, separate
but legal.[118]
On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy bought a
ticket in New Orleans bound for Covington and took a seat in the white’s only
car this however was against Louisiana’s segregation law, because Plessey was
1/8 African American. Therefore, Plessey
was arrested and charged with a violation of Louisiana’s Jim Crow laws. Tourgee entered a plea before John H.
Ferguson arguing that the law that Plessey “violated” was null because it went
against the fourteenth amendment.
Ferguson ruled against him Plessey then applied to be heard by the state
supreme court and ultimately to the United States Supreme Court (1892). In each instance, Tourgee was defeated but
the publicity was the greatest benefit of the case.
Tourgee never stopped fighting for
African American civil rights and the NCRA was to evolve into the National
Association for the Advancement of Color People (NAACP)[119]. In 1897, Tourgee and his family set sail for
France where he was named Consul to Bordeaux where he worked until his death on
May 21, 1905.[120]
Throughout Tourgee’s life, he worked to
better the lot of African Americans. He
had wanted to make the United States a better place. Tourgee did as much or more than other great
Americans that are wildly studied yet because he was afflicted with the
terrible condition of being a “carpetbagger”. He is
largely unknown. If Tourgee would
have gone west, say to Idaho, and made the same contribution that he did in
North Carolina he very likely would be considered a hero yet because he chose
to go to the south after the Civil War and to rebuild a state that was destroyed by war he was not. Thanks
in large part to William Dunning and the Dunning School, which painted
reconstruction in a very negative light while making the former confederate
into heroes. Like Eric Foner said in
reference to why “carpetbaggers” were so vilified, “like a great many things
the reason is politics.”[121] However, we now have the opportunity to
rectify this situation and historians today have started giving us a less
biased look at events that occurred in the past.
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