the Democratic party.' May I ask if you used these words, and, if you did so, did you mean to connect me, directly or indirectly, with what was known as the Ku-Klux Klan?

Requesting an early reply, addressed to me, care of Augustus Schell, Esq., New York, I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WADE HAMPTON.

WASHINGTON, D. C., September 21, 1880. HON. WADE HAMPTON, care of Augustus Schell, Esq., New York.

SIR: Your note of the 17th inst. is received, in which you inquire whether, at the conference held by the national Republican committee, at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, I used the language attributed to me as follows: 'And now you are asked to surrender all you have done into the hands of Wade Hampton and the Ku-Klux, and the little segment in the north that is called the Democratic party.' In reply, I have to advise you, that while I do not remember the precise language, I presume the reporter correctly stated, in a condensed way, his idea of what I said. I no doubt spoke of you as the leading representative of the Democratic party in the south, and referred to the Ku-Klux Klan as the representative of the barbarous agencies by which the Democrats have subverted the civil and political rights of the Republicans of the south.

I did not connect you personally with the Ku-Klux Klan. Indeed, I knew that you had, in one or two important instances, resisted and defeated its worst impulses. I appreciate the sense of honor which makes you shrink from being named in connection with it. Still, you and your associates, leading men in the south, now enjoy benefits of political power derived from atrocities of the Ku-Klux Klan, in which phrase I include all the numerous aliases by which it has, from time to time, been known in the south. Your power in the southern states rests upon the actual crimes of every grade in the code of crimes-from murder to the meanest form of ballot-box stuffing committed by the Ku-Klux Klan and its kindred associates, and, as you know, some of the worst of them were committed since 1877, when you and your associates gave the most solemn assurance of protection to the freedmen of the south.

These crimes are all aimed at the civil political rights of Republicans in the south, and, as I believe, but for these agencies, the very state that you represent, as well as many other states in the south, would be represented, both in the Senate and House, by Republicans. But for these crimes the boast attributed to you, that one hundred and thirty-eight solid southern votes would be cast for the Democratic ticket, would be but idle vaporing; but now we feel that it is a sober truth.

While I have no reason to believe that you or your northern associates personally participated in the offenses I have named, yet, while you and they enjoy the fruits of these crimes, you may, in logic and morals be classed as I classed you, as joint copartners with the Ku-Klux Klan in the policy which

thus far has been successful in seizing political power in the south, and which it is hoped, by the aid of the small segment of the Democratic party in the north, may be extended to all the departments of the government. It is in this sense that I spoke of you, the Ku-Klux Klan and the northern Democratic party.

Permit me, in conclusion, while frankly answering your question, to say the most fatal policy for the south would be by such agencies as I have mentioned to secure again political ascendency in this country, for I assure you that the manhood and independence of the north will certainly continue the struggle until every Republican in the south shall have free and unrestricted enjoyment of equal civil and political privileges, including a fair vote, a fair count, free speech and free press, and agitation made necessary to secure such results may greatly affect injuriously the interests of the people of the south.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

To HON. JOHN SHERMAN.

JOHN SHERMAN.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA., October 1, 1880.

SIR:- Your letter has been received. As you do not disclaim the language to which I called your attention, I have only to say that in using it you uttered what was absolutely false, and what you knew to be false. My address will be Columbia, S. C.

I am your obedient servant,

WADE HAMPTON.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

WASHINGTON, D. C., October 18, 1880.}

TO HON. WADE HAMPTON, Columbia, S. C.

I have to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 1st inst., handed me unopened by Mr. C. McKinley, a few moments ago, after my return from the west. I had this morning read what purported to be an extract of a speech made by you, published in the Charleston News and Courier,' and upon your general reputation as a gentleman had denied that you had made. such a speech or written such a letter as is attributed to you in that paper. What I stated to you in my letter of September 21, I believe to be true, notwithstanding your denial, and it can be shown to be true by public records and as a matter of history. As you had, long before your letter was delivered to me, seen proper to make a public statement of your views of the correspondence, I will give it to the press without note or comment, and let the public decide between us. Very respectfully,

JOHN SHERMAN.

This correspondence excited a good deal of attention, and broke off all social relations between us. We afterwards served for many years in the Senate together, but had no intercourse

with each other except formal recognition while I was president of the Senate. I always regretted this, for I did not feel the slightest enmity to General Hampton, and recognized the fact that while enjoying the office he held as the result of the crimes of the Klan, yet he and his colleague, M. C. Butler, were among the most conservative and agreeable gentlemen in the Senate, and the offenses with which I connected his name were committed by his constituents and not by himself.

CHAPTER XLI.

MY LAST YEAR IN THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT.

Opening of the 1880 Campaign in Cincinnati- My First Speech Arraigned as " Bitterly Partisan"- Letter from Garfield Regarding the Maine Election-Ohio Thought to Be in Doubt - Many Requests for Speeches - Republican Ticket Elected in Ohio and Indiana - A Strange Warning from Detroit Threatening Garfield with Assassination - The Latter's Reply - My Doubts About Remaining in the Treasury Department or Making an Effort for the Senate - Letter to Dalzell - Last Annual Report to Congress in December, 1880 - Recommendations Regarding Surplus Revenue, Compulsory Coinage of the Silver Dollar, the Tariff, etc. - Bills Acted Upon by Congress.

D

URING July and August I received many invitations to speak on political topics, but declined all until about the 1st of September. In anticipation of the election of Garfield, and his resignation as Senator, I was, as early as July, tendered the support of several members of the legislature who had voted for him for Senator, and who wished to vote for me in case he resigned. I replied that I would prefer the position of Senator to any other, that I resigned my seat in the Senate to accept the office of Secretary of the Treasury, and would be gratified by a return to my old position, but only in case it came to me as the hearty choice of the general assembly. During the month of August the two assistant secretaries, who had been for a year confined to the department and upon whom the duties of secretary had devolved during my recent absence, went on their usual vacation, so that I was fully occupied during office hours with the routine business of the department.

My first speech of the campaign was made on Monday, the 30th of August, in Cincinnati. It was carefully prepared, and delivered in substance as printed. My habit has been for many years, at the beginning of a political canvass, to write

or dictate a speech and hand it to the press associations, to be printed in the newspapers only after the speech is made. This is done for the convenience of the press and to secure an accurate report. The speech at Cincinnati, thus prepared, was not read by me, but I spoke from briefs which enabled me to substantially follow it. Subsequent speeches had to vary according to the nature and mood of the audience, or the political subject exciting local interest and attention. At Cincinnati I gave a comparison of the principles, tendency, and achievements of the two great parties, and the reasons why the Democratic party wanted a change in the executive branch of the government. I contrasted the aims and policy of that party, at each presidential election from 1860 to 1880, with those of the Republican party, and expressed my opinion of the effects that would have followed their success at each of those elections. I stated in detail the results se'cured during the last four years by the election of a Republican President. These included the resumption of specie payments, the refunding and the steady reduction of the public debt, the faithful collection of the revenue, economy of public expenditures, and business prosperity for which I gave the causes, all of which were opposed or denied by the Democratic party. I entered into detail on the measures proposed by the then Democratic Congress, the motive of them, and the ruinous effects they would produce, and alleged that the changes proposed were dictated by the same policy that was adopted by Buchanan and the active leaders of the War of the Rebellion and by the corrupt power that controlled the city of New York. I replied to the charges of fraud made as to the election of President Hayes, that the alleged fraud consisted in the judgment of the electoral commission created by the Democrats that Hayes was duly elected. I narrated the gross crimes of the Ku-Klux Klan and kindred associations to control the elections in the south, and the attempted bribery of an elector in Oregon.

This speech was arraigned as bitterly partisan, but it was justified by facts proven by the strongest evidence. I have recently carefully read it, and, while I confess that its tone