Publication
Richmond, VA: Presbyterian Committee of Publication.
Physical description
235 p.; 21 cm
Notes
Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "A volume sacred to / memory and friendship, / With best wishes of / the Author, / S.H. Chester."
CONTENTS
Foreword.
Introduction.
I. Ancestry.
II. Mount Holly.
III. Church and School.
IV. Boyhood Days.
V. War Times, Reconstruction and the Ku-Klux. [see relevant text transcribed, below]
VI. College Days Under General Lee.
VII. College Associations and Friendship.
VIII. Seminary Days.
IX. First Pastorate.
X. The Presbytery of Mecklenburg.
XI. Elocution and Romance.
XII. A Co-pastorate.
XIII. Two More Pastorates.
XIV. An Emergency Assignment.
XV. A Visit to China.
XVI. Visit to Korea and Japan.
XVII. A Visit to Brazil.
XVIII. Congo Troubles and Our State Department.
XIX. Co-operation and the Panama Congress.
XX. Administration Changes.
XXI. Friendly Visitor to Europe, 1920.
XXII. The Stockholm Conference, 1925.
XXIII. Some More of Our Friends.
XXIV. Retirement.
Editor's note: Suspecting that readers may want to know more about the content of Chapter V, we have transcribed the most likely relevant portion of that chapter. Please note that given Rev. Chester's words here, composed near the end of his days, we would have to conclude that he was unrepentant of his involvement with this group. If contrary evidence can be presented, we would like to see it. Rev. Chester later oversaw the foreign missions work of the PCUS, and we might examine how his views affected that work. For example, he would have been in charge over the Congo Mission work, led by Dr. William Henry Sheppard [1865-1927] and by Rev. Samuel Norvell Lapsley [1866-1892].
And now the text, with a few explanatory comments given in brackets.
Chapter V. (the last section) - The Ku-Klux Klan.
"The response to these measures [i.e., reconstruction] all over the South was the Ku-Klux Klan, the Pale Faces, the Knights of the White Camelia, all of them secret oath-bound organizations, differing in minor features, but with the same general character and purpose. This was "to protect our people from indignity and wrongs; to succor the suffering, particularly the families of dead Confederate soldiers; and to protect the people from unlawful seizures and from trial otherwise than by jury." The courses run by these orders depended on the character of their leaders. Some of them had reckless men at their head and ran speedily into courses of violence and crime, which led ultimately and inevitably to their prosecution and extirpation by the Federal government. Many innocent men suffered with the guilty in these prosecutions, usually because of their refusal to give evidence against their comrades, whose conduct, however, they might wholly disprove. Others of them remained under control of sane and responsible leaders who would not countenance criminal proceedings of any kind, and served an indespensable [sic] purpose of self-protection to the intelligent and respectable element among the disenfranchised white people, against whom all the powers of the existing government seemed for a time to be directed to humiliate and ruin them.
"Our community adopted the Knights of the White Camelia, and into that order I was initiated at the age of sixteen [*see note below] by the pastor of our church. When the ceremony of initiation was finished and my blindfold removed, I looked around and saw all the elders and deacons of the church and every important member of the community standing around the walls of the room. Certain passwords and signs were adopted, but it was understood that no meetings were to be called, except to meet an emergency. There were no costumes and no raids were ever made because none were ever necessary. Messages were sent to leading Negroes assuring them that we were their friends as we had always been, and warning them against being deceived and led into any movement against the white people by their false friends, the carpet baggers. A few of those [i.e., the carpet baggers] who made themselves especially obnoxious received messages posted on their doors to the effect that for a certain number of days they would not be disturbed, in order that they might have an opportunity to arrange their business affairs; but that after a fixed date they were likely to find living conditions in that part of the country neither pleasant nor safe. None of those thus singled out hesitated to heed the warning. One of them was our county treasurer, who left immediately, carrying with him all the money in the treasury, amounting to $20,000. Neither he nor the money was ever heard of again.
"After this, things moved along with comparative quiet, with only an occasional visit from the soldiers, who contented themselves with taking whatever we had that they wanted, sometimes with compensation, and sometimes without.
"Finally, President Hayes came on the scene and said, 'Let us have peace,' and withdrew the armies of occupation, and allowed the southern states once more to take charge of their own local affairs, with the result of a country finally made one in a higher sense than was ever true before the Civil War."
CONTENTS
Foreword.
Introduction.
I. Ancestry.
II. Mount Holly.
III. Church and School.
IV. Boyhood Days.
V. War Times, Reconstruction and the Ku-Klux. [see relevant text transcribed, below]
VI. College Days Under General Lee.
VII. College Associations and Friendship.
VIII. Seminary Days.
IX. First Pastorate.
X. The Presbytery of Mecklenburg.
XI. Elocution and Romance.
XII. A Co-pastorate.
XIII. Two More Pastorates.
XIV. An Emergency Assignment.
XV. A Visit to China.
XVI. Visit to Korea and Japan.
XVII. A Visit to Brazil.
XVIII. Congo Troubles and Our State Department.
XIX. Co-operation and the Panama Congress.
XX. Administration Changes.
XXI. Friendly Visitor to Europe, 1920.
XXII. The Stockholm Conference, 1925.
XXIII. Some More of Our Friends.
XXIV. Retirement.
Editor's note: Suspecting that readers may want to know more about the content of Chapter V, we have transcribed the most likely relevant portion of that chapter. Please note that given Rev. Chester's words here, composed near the end of his days, we would have to conclude that he was unrepentant of his involvement with this group. If contrary evidence can be presented, we would like to see it. Rev. Chester later oversaw the foreign missions work of the PCUS, and we might examine how his views affected that work. For example, he would have been in charge over the Congo Mission work, led by Dr. William Henry Sheppard [1865-1927] and by Rev. Samuel Norvell Lapsley [1866-1892].
And now the text, with a few explanatory comments given in brackets.
Chapter V. (the last section) - The Ku-Klux Klan.
"The response to these measures [i.e., reconstruction] all over the South was the Ku-Klux Klan, the Pale Faces, the Knights of the White Camelia, all of them secret oath-bound organizations, differing in minor features, but with the same general character and purpose. This was "to protect our people from indignity and wrongs; to succor the suffering, particularly the families of dead Confederate soldiers; and to protect the people from unlawful seizures and from trial otherwise than by jury." The courses run by these orders depended on the character of their leaders. Some of them had reckless men at their head and ran speedily into courses of violence and crime, which led ultimately and inevitably to their prosecution and extirpation by the Federal government. Many innocent men suffered with the guilty in these prosecutions, usually because of their refusal to give evidence against their comrades, whose conduct, however, they might wholly disprove. Others of them remained under control of sane and responsible leaders who would not countenance criminal proceedings of any kind, and served an indespensable [sic] purpose of self-protection to the intelligent and respectable element among the disenfranchised white people, against whom all the powers of the existing government seemed for a time to be directed to humiliate and ruin them.
"Our community adopted the Knights of the White Camelia, and into that order I was initiated at the age of sixteen [*see note below] by the pastor of our church. When the ceremony of initiation was finished and my blindfold removed, I looked around and saw all the elders and deacons of the church and every important member of the community standing around the walls of the room. Certain passwords and signs were adopted, but it was understood that no meetings were to be called, except to meet an emergency. There were no costumes and no raids were ever made because none were ever necessary. Messages were sent to leading Negroes assuring them that we were their friends as we had always been, and warning them against being deceived and led into any movement against the white people by their false friends, the carpet baggers. A few of those [i.e., the carpet baggers] who made themselves especially obnoxious received messages posted on their doors to the effect that for a certain number of days they would not be disturbed, in order that they might have an opportunity to arrange their business affairs; but that after a fixed date they were likely to find living conditions in that part of the country neither pleasant nor safe. None of those thus singled out hesitated to heed the warning. One of them was our county treasurer, who left immediately, carrying with him all the money in the treasury, amounting to $20,000. Neither he nor the money was ever heard of again.
"After this, things moved along with comparative quiet, with only an occasional visit from the soldiers, who contented themselves with taking whatever we had that they wanted, sometimes with compensation, and sometimes without.
"Finally, President Hayes came on the scene and said, 'Let us have peace,' and withdrew the armies of occupation, and allowed the southern states once more to take charge of their own local affairs, with the result of a country finally made one in a higher sense than was ever true before the Civil War."
Language
Other editions
Memories of Four-Score Years by Samuel Hall Chester (Hardcover)