William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 2

“ [85] elect Pinch for governor and have a strong majority in the Chambers. But we have educated negroes in Louisiana like Tom Chester, and educated Africans are no more likely to agree in politics than educated Anglo-Saxons. When a Negro learns to spell he sets up as a leader. He follows no one; least of all a man of his own colour. If a Negro owns a cabin and a patch of garden, he becomes Conservative and votes against the scalawags. A Conservative Negro Club exists in every parish in Louisiana; and in spite of Kellogg's promise that every Negro voting the Grant ticket shall have forty acres and a good mule, thousands of Negroes voted with us in the late elections. Tens of thousands will vote for us when the Federal troops retire.”

From General McEnery's cabinet we go to the Conservative Lower House, in St. Louis Street, where we are cordially received by Speaker Wiltz. A man of spare figure, closely-cropped hair, and pale, wan face, the Hon. Louis A. Wiltz has an easy and yet resolute manner. As we enter the House Captain Kidd is speaking; Kidd, a lawyer and a soldier, and of equal standing in the camp and at the bar. He