52. ULYSSES S. GRANT & GEORGE G. MEADE An important Reconstruction-era letter from the Georgia Provisional Governor RUFUS B. BULLOCK to General Ulysses S. Grant (who had just been elected President) complaining of increasing lawlessness in the countryside in resistance to federal reconstruction policy. The letter bears the endorsements of ULYSSES S. GRANT and GEORGE G. MEADE who essentially throw up their hands in frustration over the entire matter! The letter by Bullock is an A.L.S. on State of Georgia Executive Department letterhead, 4pp. 4to., Atlanta, Nov. 17, 1868 and reads in most part: "The enclosed letters [also included in this lot] are from the Judge of the Superior Court of the Middle Circuit of this state. He is a native, a man of mark[?] and prominence before & during the war & since the war in favor of restoration of the Government...He is therefore now objectionable to the Reb. democracy only because he is friendly to reunion...I am now powerless to prevent or correct the outrages & abuses. A copy of the communication from the sheriff of Warren County has been handed to Genl Meade with request that a force be sent to sustain the sheriff. I hope it will not be considered improper to cause a suggestion to be made to Genl Meade that the Government desire and expect him to fully sustain & cooperate with the State Executive. The Sheriff of Warren Co. & of Richmond Co. are the only ones that have dared or been willing to report these outrages to me. -- The Sheriff of Richmond Co. has since been assassinated, & the life of [Sheriff] Norris of Warren [County] is daily threatened -- After making such use of the enclosed as you desire (except publication) please return them to me & oblige..." The letter was received the same day by Grant's adjutant, George K. Green[?] who forwards the correspondence to General GEORGE G. MEADE, who signs an endorsement on the docket, "Headquarters Department of the South" Atlanta, Dec. 1, 1868, in part: "...Respectfully returned to the General in Chief, & his attention called to my communication of the 23d instant, in reference to the condition of the affairs in Warren County Georgia...there is nothing new in this communication of his Excellency Governor Bullock & that office has been advised, that if he is powerless to correct these evils; I am equally so, under existing laws & orders of the War Department...The fact is, the civil authorities make no attempt to enforce criminal law; if they did & were met with resistance, I could then intervene, but so long as no action is had on their part, & they permit themselves to be overarmed, I do not see how I can intervene; unless instructed to do so. Besides, to preserve order in the way the civil authorities seem to desire would require me virtually to take charge of the five States under my command, & necessitate a much larger force than is now in the department. Geo. G. Meade..." On another docket, General of the Army ULYSSES S. GRANT signs an additional endorsement: "Hqrs." Dec. 11, 1868 in which he returns the material adding: "...with the information that no additional or special instructions other than those referred to, have been given to Gen. Meade. The matter of the condition of Georgia is now before Congress. U.S. Grant General..." The lot is accompanied by three of the enclosed letters mentioned by Governor Bullock. Two are written by Judge William Gibson in Augusta, and one is addressed to him by members a grand jury in Washington, Georgia. In the letter written to Gibson, 2pp. 4to., Washington, Ga., Nov. 9, 1868 the grand jurors felt "...bound to say...that your presence in this community as a Judicial officer to hold a court is not acceptable to the People. The part taken by you which holding a Judicial Commission in going to a [Republican] party Convention at Chicago, & then upon your return canvassing the State for a Political Party, still being a Judge, has entirely impaired our confidence & respect for you as an Officer of the Law. We are authorized by the members of [the] Bar to say that they will not transact any business through you as a judge..." 25 men have signed their names at the close. Gibson's correspondence to Bullock is even more revealing. In an A.L.S., 3p. 4to., Augusta, Oct. 15, 1868 he informs on the lawless state of the countryside. He writes in small part: "...Some week before court the Jailer reported to me he was called up about 12 o'clock at night to come out & receive a prisoner, when to his surprise, after arriving near the jail, he was robbed of the Jail Keys, & a freedmen taken therefrom, and next morning he found the freedman hanging dead to the bridge...the Citizens near Thompson hung a freedman to a tree, and on Thursday evening he was still hanging to the tree..." The judge asked several blacks why they hadn't gone and buried the corpse. They replied that "...the whites would not allow them to do it..." While in court he remarked that some of the grand jurors sat "in the Jury box & inn the Grand Jury room with Pistols buckled around them & Bowie Knives..." The judge continues describing mobs threatening his life and recommends that these people "be placed under Military...Surveillance..." He continues, "...I was in Warrenton the day of he meeting of the Republicans...they were not permitted to hold their meeting in the Court house or on the Square. & after the Klan, consented for them to meet in the African Church near town, they were threatened & compelled to disperse...a Freedman had gone out with his employer in a few hundred yards of his house, he was shot down in the road & left dead..." A month later, he send further reports to the governor in an A.L.S., 3pp. 4to., Augusta, Nov. 15, 1868: "...In Emanuel County I am Satisfied that lawless bands of persons exist whose duty it is to both whip & Kill persons when the band may designate. This band of persons too I am constrained to believe either acts so secretly, or permeates the whole community, as to avoid detection and punishment...I neither know or heard of any other lawlessness than the intimidation exercised at the Polls in preventing all colored voters from voting unless they voted the Democratic ticket...I have never Sympathized in the least with what is called & known as Carpet Baggers, but have preferred Citizens with White Skins, who either Settled here before the War or were natives, And all the part I took in Politicks...to get the State back into the Union, after which I quietly exercised the right of every freeman. And gave my vote, to Genl. Grant & S. Colfax, for President & Vice President. After I was qualified as Judge...I never opened my mouth publickly on Political Subjects at any time or place..." Violence against blacks and white sympathizers in Georgia and other Southern states would worsen in the coming years. The Ku Klux Klan, established in 1866, had become a major political force in the South, intimidating potential black voters, federal troops, and anyone suspected with sympathizing with the policies of Reconstruction. George Meade, who was placed in command of the 3rd Military District and was charged with supervising the restoration of civil government, was in a difficult position as evidenced by his communication to Grant on the matter. After Grant became President, he made some modifications in order to mollify white hostility toward federal policy and reduce violence. As conciliation to white Southerners, he ordered the Freedman's Bureau, which had been active in aiding former slaves' transition to freedom, dismantled. Addressing the problem of the Ku Klux Klan, he used so-called force bills (passed 1870-71) to threaten the use of force against states attempting to prevent blacks from voting. Where the Ku Klux Klan was particularly active (South Carolina especially), he suspended habeas corpus and ordered mass arrests. The policies did little to ease tensions. When Grant left office in 1877, the last federal troops left the Southern states and Reconstruction came to an end, dashing the hopes of blacks throughout the South. Here, early on, both Grant and Meade seem to prefer to avoid the issue entirely. Light soiling at folds, otherwise very good condition. Together four pieces. $4,000-6,000