![It was an opportune time, before Congress met and the ardent
Southern sentiment was chilled by the fresh breezes from the North,
for a run among the reconstructed, avoiding officials, whether
Northern Generals, or Southern Governors, candidates, or
Freedmen’s Bureau Agents; moving quietly among the people, and
seeing in what temper they were carrying on the work to which Mr.
Johnson had summoned them.
When I had been last in Richmond—a day or two after the surrender
—it was thought to be something of a feat to make the trip in a
couple of days. In November, so rapidly had the broken ways been
mended and the crooked paths made straight, it was accomplished
in a night. The traveler southward left Washington at nine in the
evening, and was aroused up next morning at five in Richmond.
The trip naturally inspires an appetite; but among the morning
papers I found the following further appetizer from the Richmond
Examiner, of Rebel memory:
“A special dispatch to the Baltimore Sun avers that ‘it is now pretty clear that the
President has at heart the admission of Southern Congressmen, and will make it a
measure of his Administration. Those opposing it will be regarded as hostile to the
most material points of his policy.’ It would appear from this that the President
does not agree with the learned librarian of the House,[44] nor with the clerk of the
House, who, it is said, will not enter the names of Southern Congressmen until
after the organization, and their admission is specially granted by the exclusive
members who are to participate. The President, if this be true, will have done a
good part in shifting the burden of the difficulty from the shoulders of the
Southern members to his own. The clerk and librarian may now have the pleasure
of a dispute with his Excellency, if they will, instead of the luxury of looking solemn
and severe at some Southern gentlemen they would like to keep out in the cold
for a short time.”
Paragraphs like this served a special use. They illustrated the temper
in which pardoned Rebels, who had sought the Attorney-General’s
office[45]
as their “last ditch,” resumed their duties as loyal citizens.
“None so hard to please as a beggar.” These men abjured all their
rights under the Constitution, and did their best to overthrow it.
They were forced back. Yesterday they cringed for pardon at the](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/94930-250528204208-1b6f11fc/85/Linux-Installation-Configuration-and-Command-Line-Basics-1st-Edition-Nathan-Clark-51-320.jpg)
![feet of “the boorish and drunken tailor” they had denounced; to-day
they are harder to satisfy than ninety and nine just men who have
no need of repentance.
An ex-colonel of a Virginia regiment was exceedingly anxious to
argue his political principles. They were talking, he heard, about
keeping the Southern members from participating in the organization
of the House, just to enable the Radicals to get all the officers. But
he didn’t believe they would dare to venture on so grossly tyrannical
a course. If it was proposed to conciliate the South, they must no
longer be subjected to such iniquitous oppression. The whole war
had been of the same sort. The North had no business to begin its
attack in the first place—no justification for it under the sun. The
South was only defending itself from Northern violations of law.
Didn’t Massachusetts, in her Legislature, threaten to secede in 1812?
[46]
And wasn’t there a clause in the Constitution about importing
slaves down to 1808, which was put in for her benefit, and at her
peremptory demand?
“As for your niggers, you’ve got ’em on your hands. They won’t
work, unless you force them to it, and they’ll steal rather than
starve. You even talk about giving them suffrage! There are no
words to express the infamy of such a proposition. This is a white
man’s government, and must be kept so till the end of time. It’s
true, there are a great many ignorant whites voting now; but so
much the more need for stopping further addition to the ignorant
vote.” There ought to be educational and property qualifications, he
thought; but on no account would he permit negroes to avail
themselves of these. Educated or ignorant, rich or poor, the niggers
must be kept down.
In Richmond, and, as it appeared, throughout the South, there was
a general reliance upon the President to secure the immediate
admission of their Senators and Representatives. Whether all
believed or not, all at any rate claimed, that their Representatives
had a perfect right to participate in the organization of the House.
The President was to see to it that they were admitted to this right.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/94930-250528204208-1b6f11fc/85/Linux-Installation-Configuration-and-Command-Line-Basics-1st-Edition-Nathan-Clark-52-320.jpg)
![classes of our people.” Here, as always, President Johnson’s will was
to be taken as the final expression and force of law.
An indignant correspondent of one of the newspapers[47]
brought
heavy charges against the Government and one of the United States
Judges:
“Major Nutt’s farm, near Alexandria, and Dr. Bowen’s farm, sold by decree of
Judge John C. Underwood, are to be delivered up to Judge Underwood, Governor
Pierpont, and Mr. Downey, the purchasers under the confiscation sale. It now
appears that the principal property sold under Judge Underwood’s decrees, in and
around Alexandria, was purchased by himself and those connected with him in the
high position he holds, at a fractional part of its value only.
“Rumor says, and I have never heard it doubted, that Judge Underwood, during
the rebellion, obtained permission to raise a regiment of negroes in Alexandria,
which he succeeded in getting at a low price, which regiment he turned over to
one of the Northern States, at a large advance, thereby realizing a large sum of
money, with which he has been buying up the property confiscated by himself,
under his own decree, in fee simple.”
The burnt district, comprising nearly all the business portion of the
city, south and east of the capitol, was beginning to rise from its
ruins. Between a fourth and a third of it would soon be better than
before the conflagration, with which the Rebels signalized their
abandonment of the city. But business was greatly overdone by
Northern speculators who had rushed down with heavy supplies of
goods immediately after the surrender. The first pressing necessities
satisfied, the Virginians were too poor to trade largely.
Thanks to Northern loans, in sums ranging as high (in one or two
cases, at least,) as a half-million dollars, the railroads were rapidly
getting into running order, and old lines of travel were reopening.
Already the Virginia Central Railroad was open to Staunton, and the
Orange and Alexandria through its whole length, over a score or
more of our battle-fields. Rival lines of steamers for Baltimore
swarmed in the James River. Southward, Wilmington could be
reached by rail, and even Charleston, a few gaps being filled by
stage lines. South-westward, an unbroken line extended through
Chattanooga and Atlanta—historic names—to Mobile.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/94930-250528204208-1b6f11fc/85/Linux-Installation-Configuration-and-Command-Line-Basics-1st-Edition-Nathan-Clark-57-320.jpg)
![“The Lynchburg Post-office is in a church. The Government, it
seems, was not willing to pay the rent demanded for the building
formerly used for postal purposes, and the rent on churches was not
exorbitant. A route agent, whiling away his time while his mail was
made up, told how he had taken the oath, and so become an
employee of the Government again.
“I was an old route agent, you see, and I wanted to go back to a
nice berth. But I had been a magistrate under the Confederacy, and
I was required to swear that I had never been. I went to see
President Johnson. There was an awful crowd in the lobby, but I
cottoned to Captain Slade, and played Yankee a little. Leaving out
part of my name, I wrote on a card simply ‘Frederick Bruce,’ and
made Slade promise to lay it before the President without a word. In
a moment I was called in; but, as I approached the President, I
thought I could see, by the twinkle of his eye, that I wasn’t the
Frederick Bruce he had expected![48]
Well, I told him that I took a
magistrate’s office under the Confederate Government, to avoid
having to go into the army. He said the word ‘voluntary’ occurred at
the beginning of the oath, and its force ran through the whole of it,
and applied to every clause. ‘Now, sir,’ said the President, ‘it’s with
your own conscience to say whether you took that office voluntarily
or not.’ Of course, I didn’t, for I was compelled to do it in order to
keep out of the army, and so I told the President I would take the
oath at once, and he said, ‘all right.’”
The narration threw a flood of light on the style of Unionists, with
whose aid the Southern States were being “reconstructed.” This map
was one of the “stay-at-home” Rebels. He made no secret of his
entire sympathy with the Rebel cause, but he wanted to keep out of
the fight himself, and found it pleasanter to be a Rebel magistrate
than a Rebel soldier.
Not very many Virginians seemed disposed to abandon the pleasant
mountain homes about Lynchburg, for the doubtful bliss of Mexico or
Brazil. The discovery had suddenly been made that there was a good
deal more danger of “nigger equality” in either than in the United](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/94930-250528204208-1b6f11fc/85/Linux-Installation-Configuration-and-Command-Line-Basics-1st-Edition-Nathan-Clark-65-320.jpg)
![States, and the newspapers were dolorously warning the dissatisfied,
that, if they should go to Brazil, they might happen to be brought
before courts where negro judges presided, or be required to submit
to laws enacted by the wisdom of negro legislators. It was bad to be
forced to tolerate the presence of free negroes in the United States,
but, really, it began to look as if they could go nowhere else without
finding matters a great deal worse.
In the main, the negroes seemed to be doing well. In the Lynchburg
hotels they were paid twenty dollars a month—five dollars more than
they received for similar services in Richmond. “Den, besides dat, we
picks up ’siderable from gemmen dat gibs us half-dollar for toting
deir trunk or blacking deir boots, as I’s shore you’s gwine to do,
sah.”[49]
These, however, were only the more intelligent. Through the
country the negroes were by no means earning such wages, and, in
fact, the most were earning none at all. They gained a precarious
support by picking up occasional jobs, and by a pretty general
system of pilfering.
All had the idea that in January the lands of their former masters
were to be divided among them; and it was, therefore, almost
impossible to make contracts with them for labor on the farms
through the ensuing year. The inhabitants charged that this idea had
been sedulously spread among them by the Yankee soldiers, and
that they had been advised never to contract for more than a
month’s work at a time, until the division of property came. Here is a
specimen of the way in which the Lynchburg papers treated the
difficulty:
“The refusal of these people to make contracts for labor another year completely
deranges all the regular and matured plans of our farmers. They know not what
provision to make for feeding their employees; what extent of soil to mark out for
seed; what kind of crops to cultivate, or what calculations to make upon their
operations. If they sow, they are not certain to what extent they can reap; and if
they attempt a variety of crops, (including tobacco,) they have no assurance
whatever that their labor will not forsake them at the very moment that it is most
indispensable.
“A friend in Amherst suggests that the powers that be should issue an order to the
effect that all who do not get homes, or show they have a support within](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/94930-250528204208-1b6f11fc/85/Linux-Installation-Configuration-and-Command-Line-Basics-1st-Edition-Nathan-Clark-66-320.jpg)
![themselves, by the 1st day of January, 1866, will, on the 10th of said month, (nine
days’ notice being given,) be hired out to the highest bidder. Such an order would,
in his opinion, cause all except the most worthless to secure homes before the
20th of December. These suggestions certainly seem to us to have wisdom in
them, and to meet the difficulties, to some extent, that now so seriously
embarrass and retard agricultural pursuits; and we respectfully commend them to
the attention of the proper authorities. One thing is certain, that if the negroes are
not made to enter into contracts, and to keep them when made, the most ruinous
consequences will result to our farming interests, and provisions enough will not
be made to feed our people another year. Some fanatics and deluded persons, we
know, will laugh at this idea, and tell us that the South has never been so
prosperous in the past as she will be in the future under our present system of
labor. But taking the most favorable view of the subject, it is still manifest to every
one at all familiar with the real condition of things, that freed negro labor never
was and never can be made productive—that is to say, accumulative or
progressive; and that any reliance upon the voluntary work of free negroes,
beyond what is absolutely necessary to their sustenance, is both vain and foolish.
And we predict now, with regret and pain, what the results will certainly show,
that there will henceforth be a steady and permanent decline in all the productions
of the South dependent upon negro labor, as there has been in the French and
British emancipation islands; and that the negro himself will steadily lose all the
civilization which contact with his master has given him, and finally relapse into his
native barbarism.”
At the same time they were busy inducing these people, who were
steadily losing all civilization and about to relapse into their native
barbarism, to emigrate to Liberia; by way, it should seem, of
hastening the process. One colony had already been sent off, and
the papers made much of an address, written by the negro
emigrants to their “best friends,” to wit, their old masters,[50]
wherein
they were made to hint a conviction, in substance the same with
that so current in the bar-rooms, that “Virginia is no place for free
niggers.”
The people of Lynchburg were all Johnson men. That is, they
believed the President disposed to exact less of them than his party
wanted, and they were bound to praise the bridge that promised to
carry them safely over. Here, as elsewhere, “sound conservative
views” were greatly in demand; these “views” being always found to](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/94930-250528204208-1b6f11fc/85/Linux-Installation-Configuration-and-Command-Line-Basics-1st-Edition-Nathan-Clark-67-320.jpg)
Linux Installation Configuration and Command Line Basics 1st Edition Nathan Clark
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- 7. Linux Installation, Configuration and Command Line Basics Nathan Clark
- 8. © Copyright 2018 Nathan Clark. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. Every effort has been made to ensure that the content provided herein is accurate and helpful for our readers at publishing time. However, this is not an exhaustive treatment of the subjects. No liability is assumed for losses or damages due to the information provided. Any trademarks which are used are done so without consent and any use of the same does not imply consent or permission was gained from the owner. Any trademarks or brands found within are purely used for clarification purposes and no owners are in anyway affiliated with this work.
- 9. Books in this Series
- 10. Table of Contents About This Book 1. What is Linux? 1.1 From UNIX to Linux 1.2 A Brief History of Linux 1.3 Linux Range of Use 1.4 Linux Certifications 2. Software Licenses 3. Linux in Day-to-Day Life 3.1 What is a Linux Distribution? 3.2 Which Linux Distributions Exist? 4. Setting up a Linux System 4.1 Types of Installations 4.2 Installing Linux Step-by-Step 4.3 Adding a Graphical User Interface 4.4 Adding Additional Software 4.5 Exiting Linux 5. Navigating Linux 5.1 The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) 5.2 Commands for Directories 5.3 Terminal-based File Managers 5.4 Graphical File Managers 6. Introduction to Linux Terminals 6.1 What is a Terminal? 6.2 What is a Shell? 6.3 Available Shells 7. Essential Linux Commands 7.1 Files and Directories
- 11. 7.2 Output and Text Processing 7.3 Users and Groups 7.4 Process Management 7.5 Network and System Information 8. Getting Help 8.1 Man Pages 8.2 Info Pages 8.3 Integrated Help 8.4 External Help Further Reading About the Author
- 12. About This Book This book has been created to guide you through your very first steps in the Linux environment. If you are a complete novice, or need a refresher in Linux, you’ve chosen the right book. In the upcoming chapters we will cover the Linux diversity and history and then continue on with setting up a Linux system from scratch for the end user. Here we will guide you through the setup and configuration process step by step. We will take a detailed look at the infamous command line by covering numerous essential terminal commands. We will also address specific topics such as choosing a distribution, adding a graphical user interface, package management, navigating the filesystem and directories, partitioning, software selection, and using the help system. By the end of this book you will have set up and configured Linux from start to finish, and be able to use Linux at a proficient level.
- 13. 1. What is Linux? Linux is the name for the kernel of an operating system that is based on the UNIX principles. The name is derived from the first name of its Finnish inventor, Linus Torvalds, and follows the methodology used by other UNIX-based systems (the last letter is an x). Today, Linux is developed and maintained by thousands of people around the world. The kernel of an operating system is its heart. It is required for communication between the hardware of your computer and you, the user. An operating system is a collection of different software components: a kernel, various tools and the accompanying libraries. It is a software that extends the basic operating system of your computer, known as the BIOS. 1.1 From UNIX to Linux The history of Linux can be traced back to the 1990s. In order to understand the story behind Linux, we also have to look back briefly at the early days of computing after the 2nd World War. At that time computing machines filled entire buildings and the transformation from mechanical to electronic components, like microprocessors and the usage of multi-layer circuits, was underway. Moreover, in the 1960s and 1970 s hardware and software components were quite expensive and not standardized. Various vendor-specific platforms existed and each of them had their own interface, protocols to transfer and exchange data, as well as operating system. The communication between these single computing devices required specific knowledge and the understanding of its protocols. The development of UNIX was an aim to circumvent these obstacles and to simplify the usage of computing devices on a larger scale. UNIX
- 14. At the beginning of 1965 the development of the Multiplexed Information and Computing Service (Multics) started. Multics was the result of a collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), General Electric (GE) and Bell Labs/AT&T. Led by the developers Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie, the main product they developed was Unics. Later on it was renamed to UNIX. The UNIX operating system was mainly in use at the University of California in Berkeley. UNIX Variants The concept of UNIX became licensed to several companies that developed and maintained their own variant of UNIX. This included Solaris/SUN OS (SUN Microsystems, nowadays owned by Oracle), AIX (IBM), Scenix (Siemens), SCO UNIX, Xenix (Microsoft), as well as HP-UX (Hewlett-Packard), NeXTSTEP, Mac OS (Apple) and Android (Google). Open-source implementations comprised of the Berkeley System Distribution (BSD) with its variants: NetBSD, OpenBSD, and FreeBSD. Today, Linux is the most popular free software among open source developers. There is also a strong commercial support for the systems mentioned above . The UNIX Philosophy UNIX is designed with a number of strict principles in mind. These principles cover portability, multi-tasking and multi-user orientation in combination with a time-sharing approach. Furthermore, it is based on network connectivity following the TCP/IP scheme. The original development was done in the C programming language that resulted in independence from a hardware platform. Delivered with a selection of development tools and libraries, it allows you to easily extend it to your specific needs. It is simple, but has a powerful ability to automate tasks that supports complex but maintainable scripts.
- 15. Similar to a toolbox, UNIX consists of a variety of tools. Each of them having a specific purpose and being designed exactly for that task. The idea is to use one tool per task. In order to achieve more complex goals, you would combine several tools into a chain. The following example combines the two commands ‘ls’ and ‘wc’ by means of a pipe to be able to count the number of Python files in the current directory. $ ls *.py | wc -l 6 $ We will explain these commands and their usage in more detail later on in the guide. 1.2 A Brief History of Linux Similar to UNIX, the Linux operating system has different roots and is based on the work of quite a few masterminds. Among others, this includes Richard M. Stallman, Andrew S. Tanenbaum and Linus Torvalds . Richard M. Stallman, a hacker and developer at MIT, is the first president of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), and the father of the GNU project. GNU abbreviates the slogan GNU is Not UNIX. The goal of the project was to develop a free UNIX operating system. Until the beginning of the 1990s a collection of tools were available, but the kernel was still missing. The entire software was published under the GNU Public License (GPL) around 1983. The next step for Linux came from Andrew S. Tanenbaum. At that time he was a professor at the University of Amsterdam. For his students he developed Minix, an operating system for educational purposes to demonstrate and understand the UNIX principles. As he pointed out, Minix was not intended to be used in practice. Linus Torvalds, a Finish student at the University of Helsinki, was a user of Minix and quite unhappy with its boundaries. In 1990 he
- 16. began to develop a new operating system based on the ideas of Minix, the UNIX principles, and the POSIX standard. His motivation was to have his own system that was understandable, and maximized to the boundaries of the hardware. He also wanted to have fun, and had no commercial intent in mind. The entire story behind Linux is described in his autobiographical book titled Just for Fun. Today, Linus Torvalds oversees the development of the Linux kernel. To make Linux attractive to the outside world it needed a nice logo. Based on a competition for mascots, a large number of proposals were handed in. Larry Ewing sent in his idea for a penguin as seen on the cover of this book, and his proposal won. Designed with a cheeky smile and a well-fed body this penguin, named Tux, represents the image of a happy and satisfied user . 1.3 Linux Range of Use Originally designed for Intel-based systems, Linux runs on a variety of platforms today. Among others this includes the ARM architectures (named arm and arm64), Motorola/Freescale’s 68k architecture (m68k), Intel x86 (i386 and amd64), IBM s390 (s390), PowerPC (powerpc) and SPARC (sparc). Right from the beginning Linux focused on server systems. It is in constant use as a web server, file server, mail and news server, internet gateway, wireless router and firewall. Used as a computing unit, it helped to render video sequences and entire films such as Titanic, Shrek and Toy Story. Furthermore, Linux is in use in automotive products, astronautics, military, logistics and the engineering environment. Since 2006, Linux servers run all the world’s stock exchanges. It also runs almost all internet search engines. Over the last decade Linux also conquered the desktop. Due to its high flexibility and stability, it works as a reliable setup for text processing, graphic design, desktop publishing, calculations in
- 17. spreadsheets, communication (email, chat, audio, and video) as well as user interfaces for your phone and television. 1.4 Linux Certifications The widespread use of Linux has increased the demand for engineers and users who know exactly what they are doing. At this point a certification for Linux becomes advantageous. These certifications can be divided into programs that are general (not specific to a distribution) and focused (specific to a Linux distribution). The lists below give an overview of the primary certifications that currently exist . Non-specific Certifications Linux Essentials LPIC-1: Linux Server Professional Certification LPIC-2: Linux Engineer Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator (LFCS) Linux Foundation Certified Engineer (LFCE) CompTIA A+ CompTIA Network+ Distribution-specific Certifications RedHat Certified Engineer (RHCE) RedHat Certified System Architect (RHCSA) RedHat Certified Architect (RCA) SUSE Certified Administrator (SCA) SUSE Certified Engineer (SCE) SUSE Enterprise Architect (SEA)
- 18. 2. Software Licenses As with most products available on the market, software is also packaged with an according license. A software license describes the usage of the software and allows or limits its usage. For commercial software, changes and copies are allowed within rather strict boundaries only. As an example, the license restricts you to use it for 5 users in parallel, and requires you to obtain another license block to add a 6th or 7th user. Common licenses are Shared Source from Microsoft and the Apple License. For open source software, licenses are much less restrictive. Changes and copies are explicitly allowed, and are even desired in some cases to make improvements for every user and purpose. The goal is to keep the software available for everyone from now and into the future. This so-called Copyleft principle ensures that everyone has access to do adaptations if needed, and the restrictions on the use and redistribution of covered software are as minimal as possible. Common licenses that are in use for the single Linux components and its tools are the GNU Public License (GPL), BSD Licenses and the Apache License . The licenses for open source software follow a number of freedom rules as follows: To use the program for every purpose (right of unlimited use - freedom 0) To understand how the program works and how to change it according to your needs (right to read the source code of the program - freedom 1) To make copies of the software to help your neighbor (right of redistribution - freedom 2) To improve the software and to publish your changes so that all other users can also benefit from your improvements (freedom 3)
- 19. This ensures that the quality of available software constantly improves and everyone has access to these improvements. Using the GPL, the changes have to be published using the same license. Other open source licenses like BSD do not have this strong requirement.
- 20. 3. Linux in Day-to-Day Life There are a few terms that may confuse Linux beginners. The first thing is its name, Linux vs GNU/Linux. As described earlier in Chapter 1, the term Linux refers to the Linux kernel only. In reality many users refer to Linux as the operating system as a whole, the kernel plus libraries and tools. Also the term Linux is used to include all the programs that run on Linux, or that are available for this great operating system. Furthermore, the description GNU/Linux needs understanding. Linux distributions with this name prefix are fleshed out with GNU implementations of the system tools and programs. One such example is Debian GNU/Linux. As already pointed out in Chapter 1, the GNU project goes back to the initiative of Richard M. Stallman and his dream to develop a free UNIX system. Based on his experiences at MIT and the collaboration with other colleagues he choose to use free software that was already available to rewrite the tools he needed. This included the TeX typesetting system as well as X11 window system. He published the rewritten tools under the GPL license whenever possible to make his work available freely to everyone who was interested in it. Next we will have a closer look at the different Linux distributions . 3.1 What is a Linux Distribution? A Linux distribution is a collection of software packages that fit together. A distribution is maintained by a team of software developers. Each member of the team focuses on a different package of the distribution. Together as a team they ensure that the single software packages are up-to-date and do not conflict with the other packages of the same release of the distribution. As of 2018 for Debian GNU/Linux 9, the official repositories contain more than 51,000 different packages. A repository is a directory of packages with a certain purpose. Debian GNU/Linux sorts its
- 21. packages according to the development state. The official repository is named stable and reflects the current release of stable packages. The other repositories are named testing and unstable, and work in the same way but do not count as official packages. Typically a Linux distribution comprises of packages for a Linux kernel, a boot loader, GNU tools and libraries, a graphical desktop environment with a windows environment, as well as additional software like a web browser, an email client, databases and documentation. The software is provided in two ways; as the source code and as the compiled binary packages. This allows you to understand how the software is designed, to study it and to adjust it according to your personal needs. This step is described as freedom 1 on the list shown in Chapter 2. Depending on the focus of the Linux distribution, it also contains packages for a specific purpose like network or forensic tools, scientific software for educational purposes, and multimedia applications. More details are given below . 3.2 Which Linux Distributions Exist? According to Distrowatch, more than 600 different Linux distributions exist. Major distributions are Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Fedora, CentOS, openSUSE Linux, Arch Linux, Gentoo and Slackware. One of the major questions is: which Linux distribution to use? Based on our experience these are the recommendations: For beginners: Ubuntu, Xubuntu, openSUSE, Linux Mint For advanced users with experience: Debian GNU/Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Fedora, CentOS For developers: Arch Linux, Gentoo, Slackware For the examples in this book we use Debian GNU/Linux. Even though this distribution is recommended for advanced users it is still very beginner friendly, which we will show later in the guide. But the
- 22. most important reason for this selection is its stability and the trust in this Linux distribution that was built up during the last 20 years of permanent use as a server and desktop system. Other Linux distributions fluctuate too much for comfort. You are more than welcome to choose a different Linux distribution. The majority of this book applies to most distributions. But if you are a complete novice, we highly recommend sticking to Debian GNU/Linux at least for the duration of this guide, as we will go step by step through its setup and configuration . In general, choosing a Linux distribution can depend on several criteria as stated below: By its availability: free or commercial use By its purpose: desktop, server, Wi-Fi router/network appliance By the intended audience: end user, network engineer, system administrator, developer By the package format: .deb, .rpm, .tar.gz By the time updates are available: every Linux distribution follows its own update cycle By the support that is provided: support can be free (community-based) or with costs (based on a support contract) When selecting a distribution, we recommend one that is stable, that is updated regularly and fits into the purpose you need the computer for. Below you will find a short description for each of the Linux distributions mentioned above.
- 23. Debian GNU/Linux Established in 1993, Debian GNU/Linux (Debian for short) is an entirely free and community-based operating system that follows the GNU principles. More than 1,000 developers continuously work on it based on their own free will. Behind Debian is no company and there are no business interests involved . One design goal is to have a stable and reliable operating system for computers that are actively delivering services. It is targeted to users who know what they want and have experience. The Debian developers maintain and use their own software. The packages are made available in .deb format, and are divided into categories according to the following licenses: Main: free software Contrib: free software that depends on non-free software Non-free: packages that have a non-free license Debian works excellent on both servers and desktop systems. A range of architectures are supported like ARM EABI (arm), IA-64 (Itanium), mips, MIPSel, powerpc, s390 (32 and 64 bit), as well as sparc, i386 (32 bit) and amd64 (64 bit). The code name of each release is based on the name of a character from the film Toy Story, such as Stretch for Debian GNU/Linux 9. Ubuntu Ubuntu is a free Linux distribution that is financed by the company Canonical Ltd. It is based on Debian but focuses on beginners instead. That’s why it contains just one tool per task. Also, the Ubuntu team tries to incorporate brand new elements that lack
- 24. stability. The packages are made available in .deb format, and are divided into categories according to their support from Canonical: Main: free software, supported by Canonical Restricted: non-free software, supported by Canonical Universe: free software, unsupported Multiverse: non-free software, unsupported Ubuntu is available in three official editions: Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server, and Ubuntu Core (for the Internet of Things). Supported are a range of architectures like i386, IA-32, amd64, ARMhf (ARMv7 VFPv3-D16), ARM64, powerpc (64 bit) and s390x. Initially published in 2004, there are two releases per year: one in April and another in October. The release is reflected by the version number: 18.04 refers to the April release of the year 2018. The code name of a release is based on an adjective and an animal, such as Utopic Unicorn for Ubuntu 14.10. Linux Mint Linux Mint is a non-commercial distribution that is based on Ubuntu and follows its release scheme. The initial publication dates back to the year 2006. As of 2014 there have been two releases per year following the release from Ubuntu by one month. The code name for the release is a female name that ends with an a , such as Felicia for version 6. Linux Mint supports the two architectures IA-32 and amd64. The target of the distribution is desktop users that can use it easily.
- 25. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) RHEL is a commercial Linux distribution. It is based on the combination of Red Hat Linux (available between 1995 and 2004) plus Fedora 19 and 20. Its original release dates back to the year 2000. Its focus on business customers includes long-term support, training, and a certification program (see Chapter 1). Red Hat’s community project is called Fedora (see below). The packages are made available in .rpm format (Red Hat Package Manager). RHEL supports the architectures arm (64 bit), i386, amd64, powerpc, as well as s390 and zSeries. The distribution targets both servers and desktops. The code name for the release looks rather random, as it does not follow a similar scheme as used for Debian or Ubuntu. Fedora Fedora is a community Linux distribution, aimed mainly at desktop usage. It is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and sponsored by Red Hat. It was launched in 2003 at the time the support for Red Hat Linux ended. As of 2018 it is available in the following versions: Workstation: for pc Server: for servers Atomic: for cloud computing Fedora supports the architectures amd64, ArmHF, powerpc, mips, s390 and RISC-V. The distribution has a rather short lifecycle where a new release follows roughly every 6 months. The code name for a
- 26. release does not follow a fixed naming scheme but mostly consists of city names. CentOS CentOS abbreviates from the name Community Enterprise Operating System. As with Fedora it is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and compatible in terms of the binary packages. This allows the use of software on CentOS that is initially offered and developed with RHEL in mind. In contrast to Fedora it focuses on enterprise use for both desktop and server, with long-term support. The initial release of CentOS goes back to May 2004. The software packages come from three different repositories: Base: regular, stable packages Updates: security, bug fix or enhancement updates Addons: packages required for building the larger packages that make up the main CentOS distribution, but are not provided upstream CentOS is available for the architectures i386 and amd64. Other architectures are not supported. openSUSE The Linux distribution openSUSE has its roots in the distributions SUSE Linux and the commercial SUSE Linux Professional that saw its first release in 1994. The name SUSE is an abbreviation for the
- 27. original German owner named Gesellschaft für Software- und Systementwicklung GmbH . OpenSUSE is based on the structures of Red Hat Linux and Slackware, and uses .rpm as a software archive format. It is available for the architectures i586, x86-64 and ARM. The openSUSE project aims to release a new version every eight months. As with Fedora, the code name for a release does not follow a fixed naming scheme. Arch Linux Arch Linux is a free Linux distribution that saw its first release in 2002. It follows the principle of a rolling release, which results in monthly releases of the distribution. Currently the core team consists of about 25 developers and is supported by a number of other developers, called trusted users. Arch Linux uses Pacman as a package management system. The single packages are held in four software repositories: Core: packages for the basic system Extra: additional packages like desktop environments and databases Community: packages that are maintained by trusted users Multilib: packages that can be used on several architectures Arch Linux supports the architecture amd64. The early releases until 2007 had code names that do not follow a specific scheme.
- 28. Gentoo As with Arch Linux, Gentoo follows the principle of a rolling release. New installation images are available weekly, with the first release available in 2002. Gentoo is special due to being a source code based distribution. Before installing the software, it has to be compiled first. Supported architectures are alpha, amd64, arm, hppa, IA-64, m68k, mips, powerpc, s390, sh and sparc. Slackware Slackware is the oldest active Linux distribution. The first release dates back to 1992. Regular releases are available without a fixed interval. It targets the professional user, and gives him/her as much freedom as possible. Slackware uses compressed tar.gz archives as a package format, and supports the four architectures i486, alpha, sparc and arm. The distribution was also ported to architecture s390.
- 29. 4. Setting up a Linux System As mentioned in the previous chapter, we will be using Debian for our demonstrations. To recap, Debian is a distribution that provides great stability and scales up exceptionally well once your skills and knowledge progress past the beginner stages. In this chapter we will install and configure Debian, showing you every single step along the way. 4.1 Types of Installations Debian offers a variety of methods for a proper setup. This includes a graphical and a text-based installation; we will use the former. For installation media the Debian developers offer three variants: A CD or DVD for 32 bit and 64 bit A network image for 32 bit and 64 bit (a so-called Netinst- ISO) A tiny CD for 32 bit or 64 bit We also have test media available. These include live images for 32 bit and 64 bit, and allow you to try Debian before installing it on your computer. During the time of writing this document, version 9.5 is the current stable release of Debian. The setup described here is based on this release and the amd64 architecture. After downloading the network image from www.debian.org/distrib no further static images are required to be referenced in the system. Instead, it depends on the internet connection to retrieve the packages to be installed and keep your operating system up-to-date. The entire process will take you about an hour and it allows you to have a lean software selection according to your specific needs. Software packages that you do not use will not be available on your system. They can be added whenever you feel the need for them.
- 30. The target system of our installation is an XFCE-based desktop system for a single user with a web browser and a music player. For the web browser we use Mozilla Firefox and for the music player, VLC. Both programs are a permanent component of the Linux distribution. The environment we use for demonstration purposes is a virtual machine based on VirtualBox with 4 GB of RAM and 15 GB of disc space. 4.2 Installing Linux Step-by-Step Boot Menu In order to begin with the installation of Debian, first boot the computer (in our case the VirtualBox image) from the ISO image you have downloaded. If you are also using a virtual machine, see your virtual machine vendor website for help on how to enable the ISO image. Next, wait for the boot menu to appear on the screen. The image below shows you the different options that are offered. Using the cursor keys you can navigate the boot menu, and the Enter key selects an entry.
- 31. The different options are: Graphical install: start the installation process using a graphical installer Install: starting the installation process using a text-based installer Advanced options: select further options like Expert mode, Automated install or Rescue mode (see image below for more details) Help: get further help Install with speech synthesis: starting the installation process with speech support
- 32. From the main boot menu choose the entry Graphical install , and press the Enter key to proceed. Language Selection Next, choose the language you prefer to be used during the entire installation process. The dialogs and messages are translated accordingly. This selection does not determine irrevocably the language your Linux system will have, you can always choose a different language later. The image below shows the dialog box. English is already pre- selected, and so you just have to click the Continue button on the lower-right corner of the dialog box to proceed.
- 33. Location Selection Third, make a selection regarding your location (see image below). Based on your language setting made before, the countries are listed in which the chosen language is mainly spoken. This also influences the locale settings like the time zone your computer is in. In order to have a different setting choose the entry titled other from the end of the list and go on from there. When you are done, click the Continue button to proceed with step four.
- 34. Keyboard Selection Fourth, choose your keyboard layout from the list (see image below). For the United States the pre-selection is American English. If you use a different keyboard layout select the right one from the list. If done click the Continue button to proceed with step five.
- 35. Network Setup Step five includes loading the installer components from the ISO image, and the detection of the network hardware in order to load the correct network driver. Then, the installer tries to connect to the internet to retrieve an IP address via DHCP from your local network server. When done, you can set up the hostname of your computer (see image below). Choose a unique name for your machine that consists of a single name and does not exist yet in your local network segment. It is common to use names of fruits, places, musical instruments, composers and characters from movies. In this case we choose the name debian95 that simply represents the Linux distribution and its version number.
- 36. When you are done, click the Continue button to proceed with step six to add a domain name like yourcompany.com (see image below). In this case it is not needed. That’s why we leave the entry field empty. Click the Continue button on the lower-right corner to proceed with the installation.
- 37. Users and Roles Our Linux system needs at least two users in order to be operated properly. One is an administrative user that has a fixed name root and the other is a regular user that we just give the name of User in this case. In the next two steps you set the password for the user root (see image below) and both the full name and account name for the regular user. For simplicity we use Debian User as the full name and User as the account name. For both users, choose a password that is dissimilar and that you can remember. You will need these passwords later in order to log onto your computer.
- 38. Time Zone Setting the correct time zone is of significant importance for communication with other services, especially in a network. Choose the value from the list as seen in the image below. The entries in the list are based on the location you have selected before. When done, click the Continue button to define the storage media and the accompanying partitions.
- 39. Storage Media and Partitioning A Linux system can be distributed across a number of different storage media like hard disks and flash drives. Over and above, a storage media can be separated into multiple disk partitions. In order to do so, the setup program of Debian has the following methods available (see image below): Guided - use entire disk: follow the steps as provided and use the entire disk space for the Linux installation. This creates partitions with fixed sizes. Guided - use entire disk and set up LVM: follow the steps as provided and use the entire disk space for the Linux installation. This option makes use of Logical Volume
- 40. Management (LVM) in order to create partitions with sizes that can be changed later on. Guided - use entire disk and set up encrypted LVM: follow the steps as provided and use the entire disk space for the Linux installation. This option makes use of Logical Volume Management (LVM) in order to create encrypted partitions with sizes that can be changed later on. Manual: create partitions individually. This is the expert mode and requires deeper knowledge about partitions and file system parameters. From the list choose the entry Guided - use entire disk . The values for partition sizes are chosen according to experience, implemented as an algorithm. A manual calculation is not required. Click the Continue button on the lower-right corner to proceed with the installation .
- 41. Next, select the disk to partition. In our case we have only one disk available (see image below). Later on in this guide the disk will be referred to as /dev/sda for the 1st SCSI disk. A disk partition refers to a piece of the storage media that is organized separately and is intended to contain a branch of the Linux file system tree. There is no universal way to do this separation correctly. This guide shows a simple but safe solution that works for a basic system. The menu in the dialog box offers the following options: All files in one partition: use just a single partition to keep programs and user data Separate /home partition: store programs and user data in separate partitions
- 42. Separate /home, /var, and /tmp partitions: keep user data, variable data and temporary data in separate partitions As shown in the image below, choose the third entry Separate /home, /var, and /tmp partitions . Click the Continue button on the lower-right corner to proceed with the installation. The next step is to confirm the partition scheme. This is calculated automatically based on experience and contains these partitions: sda1: the first partition of the first SCSI disk is a primary partition with a size of 3 GB, formatted with the ext4 file system, and referred to as the root part of the file system tree (indicated with /) sda5: the fifth partition of the first SCSI disk is a logical partition with a size of 1.3 GB, formatted with the ext4 file
- 43. system, and reserved to store variable data of the file system tree (indicated with /var) sda6: the sixth partition of the first SCSI disk is a logical partition with a size of 3.3 GB, formatted as a swap file system sda7: the seventh partition of the first SCSI disk is a logical partition with a size of 311 MB, formatted with the ext4 file system, and reserved to store temporary data of the file system tree (indicated with /tmp) sda8: the eighth partition of the first SCSI disk is a logical partition with a size of 8.8 GB, formatted with the ext4 file system, and reserved to store the user data of the file system tree aka home directories (indicated with /home) Due to historical reasons a hard disk can contain four primary partitions only. The fourth one is called an Extended Partition if divided into so-called logical partitions or logical drives. In our case the logical partitions /dev/sda5, /dev/sda6, /dev/sda7 and /dev/sda8 are stored on the primary partition /dev/sda4. The partitions /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda3 are not in use.
- 44. From the above list, choose the entry Finish partitioning and write changes to disk . Click the Continue button on the lower-right corner to proceed and to confirm the partition scheme (see below image). Choose yes from the list and click the Continue button to partition the disk. Note that all the data on the selected storage device will be lost and the disk will be empty.
- 45. Having divided the storage media into single partitions, the partitions will be formatted with the file system as defined before. In our case the partitions /dev/sda1, /dev/sda5, /dev/sda7 and /dev/sda8 will get an ext4 file system, and the partition /dev/sda6 will get a swap filesystem. As soon as this step is completed, the base system of Debian will be installed next. Package Management The ISO image contains the installer and a number of packages to set up the Linux base system. For example this includes the Linux kernel being installed below.
- 46. Next you need to decide whether to use additional installation media or not. In our case we have just a single installation disk and can consequentially select No from the menu (see image below). Then click the Continue button to proceed.
- 47. As pointed out earlier, the software for Debian is organized in packages. These packages are provided in multiple software repositories. The repositories are made available via package mirrors that are maintained by universities, private persons, companies and other organizations. These mirrors are located in different countries. In the next step you will have to decide from which country you would like to retrieve your Debian packages. It is recommended to choose a mirror that is geographically located near you to minimize the time that is needed to transport the data from the mirror to your computer via network. As an initial step, choose your desired country.
- 48. As a second step choose a preferred mirror from the list (see image below). The list contains universities, internet providers, government services and other organizations.
- 49. In case your computer network includes a proxy server to communicate with the outside world, enter the according information here. In this case we don’t have that and leave the entry field empty. Click the Confirm button to proceed.
- 50. Another Random Scribd Document with Unrelated Content
- 51. It was an opportune time, before Congress met and the ardent Southern sentiment was chilled by the fresh breezes from the North, for a run among the reconstructed, avoiding officials, whether Northern Generals, or Southern Governors, candidates, or Freedmen’s Bureau Agents; moving quietly among the people, and seeing in what temper they were carrying on the work to which Mr. Johnson had summoned them. When I had been last in Richmond—a day or two after the surrender —it was thought to be something of a feat to make the trip in a couple of days. In November, so rapidly had the broken ways been mended and the crooked paths made straight, it was accomplished in a night. The traveler southward left Washington at nine in the evening, and was aroused up next morning at five in Richmond. The trip naturally inspires an appetite; but among the morning papers I found the following further appetizer from the Richmond Examiner, of Rebel memory: “A special dispatch to the Baltimore Sun avers that ‘it is now pretty clear that the President has at heart the admission of Southern Congressmen, and will make it a measure of his Administration. Those opposing it will be regarded as hostile to the most material points of his policy.’ It would appear from this that the President does not agree with the learned librarian of the House,[44] nor with the clerk of the House, who, it is said, will not enter the names of Southern Congressmen until after the organization, and their admission is specially granted by the exclusive members who are to participate. The President, if this be true, will have done a good part in shifting the burden of the difficulty from the shoulders of the Southern members to his own. The clerk and librarian may now have the pleasure of a dispute with his Excellency, if they will, instead of the luxury of looking solemn and severe at some Southern gentlemen they would like to keep out in the cold for a short time.” Paragraphs like this served a special use. They illustrated the temper in which pardoned Rebels, who had sought the Attorney-General’s office[45] as their “last ditch,” resumed their duties as loyal citizens. “None so hard to please as a beggar.” These men abjured all their rights under the Constitution, and did their best to overthrow it. They were forced back. Yesterday they cringed for pardon at the
- 52. feet of “the boorish and drunken tailor” they had denounced; to-day they are harder to satisfy than ninety and nine just men who have no need of repentance. An ex-colonel of a Virginia regiment was exceedingly anxious to argue his political principles. They were talking, he heard, about keeping the Southern members from participating in the organization of the House, just to enable the Radicals to get all the officers. But he didn’t believe they would dare to venture on so grossly tyrannical a course. If it was proposed to conciliate the South, they must no longer be subjected to such iniquitous oppression. The whole war had been of the same sort. The North had no business to begin its attack in the first place—no justification for it under the sun. The South was only defending itself from Northern violations of law. Didn’t Massachusetts, in her Legislature, threaten to secede in 1812? [46] And wasn’t there a clause in the Constitution about importing slaves down to 1808, which was put in for her benefit, and at her peremptory demand? “As for your niggers, you’ve got ’em on your hands. They won’t work, unless you force them to it, and they’ll steal rather than starve. You even talk about giving them suffrage! There are no words to express the infamy of such a proposition. This is a white man’s government, and must be kept so till the end of time. It’s true, there are a great many ignorant whites voting now; but so much the more need for stopping further addition to the ignorant vote.” There ought to be educational and property qualifications, he thought; but on no account would he permit negroes to avail themselves of these. Educated or ignorant, rich or poor, the niggers must be kept down. In Richmond, and, as it appeared, throughout the South, there was a general reliance upon the President to secure the immediate admission of their Senators and Representatives. Whether all believed or not, all at any rate claimed, that their Representatives had a perfect right to participate in the organization of the House. The President was to see to it that they were admitted to this right.
- 53. None of these former sticklers for a strict construction of the Constitution, hesitated for a moment at the suggestion that the President was as powerless in the premises as themselves. “Hasn’t he the army?” they asked. In the better days such a question would have been denounced as treasonable. After their four years of arbitrary rule, it seemed to them the most natural thing in the world. Richmond was fallen from its high estate, but it was a capital still. The brains, the pluck, and the pride of the rebellion are there, and the Rebel capital still leads the returning Rebel States. The Northern public scarcely appreciated the amount of journalistic talent concentrated there in the interest of the Rebel cause. The newspapers of Richmond, throughout the war, were in many respects the ablest on the continent. Their writing was often turgid, but it was always effective; and it shaped the public sentiment of the whole Confederacy. Mr. Davis himself was not above writing leaders for his organ, and Benjamin is reported to have been a frequent contributor. In the midst of their destitution they managed to keep up double the number of average dailies that we had in Washington, and the editorials of each were generally the productions of educated thinkers, as well as red-hot partisans. Fortunately or unfortunately, a share of the old ability and fervor clings to the revived newspapers of Richmond, and it is curious to see with what avidity the Virginians gulp down the praises of their heroic dead, in which they tend to indulge so freely, since it is no longer so safe to extol the deeds of the pardoned or pardon-seeking survivors. Yet, with all the fervid zeal of the newspapers, I doubt if the great mass of Virginians cared very much, in November, for any active participation in political movements. At the outset, they were disgusted with their vulgar, drunken Governor. Then their ablest men were all ineligible to office, because steeped in the rebellion; and they had the haughty pride of old families, which revolts against encouraging the aspirations of unknown or odious upstarts. And, besides, while they made a great show of establishing civil government, the galling consciousness remained that, whether they
- 54. chose it or not, they must walk in a certain path, or be suppressed by the military. As the Enquirer itself said: “As long as the civil authority is subordinate to the military, there can not and ought not to be any politics or any principles among a people so unhappily situated. A paper that is not as free to censure as to approve, has no virtue in its support, and no importance attaches to its utterances. Approbation is worthless where censure is forbid. The politics of the Enquirer, therefore, must be deferred until the return of those good times when a free press is the bulwark of the State.” Even the hated “Radicals” would be apt to indorse so lucid a statement of so sound a principle. But they might possibly make the argument prove more than would be pleasing to Richmond. If there “ought not to be any politics among a people so unhappily situated,” neither ought there to be the farce of a form without the substance of State Government. Though not making exactly this deduction, many Virginians were still ready for almost any political arrangement that would secure them the quiet and established order of civil government, and leave them to the task of repairing their shattered private fortunes. Even yet they had scarcely begun to comprehend the policy of a plot for bringing the men who had just been trying to overturn a government into the complete control of it. Many were still ready to accept, as final, whatever orders the Government might issue, and to make haste to do their part in obeying them. “I tell you,” said a prominent man, “President Johnson can name his Senators and they will be straightway elected. He can say what he wants, and the Virginia Legislature, so-called, will register his edicts in legislative enactments. What we wish is to get settled, to know where we are and what we can depend upon, and then we want to go to work developing our material resources. We’re all poor; we want to regain our lost money, and we’ve got to let politics alone and go to work to do it.” Beneath all this lay, of course, never-abandoned hopes of regaining political supremacy, after the social authority that comes of wealth has been restored. But the first want of Virginians was a settlement;
- 55. something fixed on which capital could rely. They talked foolishly who said Virginia would not stand this, and the proud Virginians would revolt from that. The proud Virginians would stand anything, for the best of reasons. They could not help themselves. Statesmen might decide upon the course of statesmen for such emergencies; and whether it was pleasant or unpleasant, Virginia would submit, make the best of it, and go to work to improve her condition. Meantime it was at any rate considered politic to keep the natural leaders of the community in the back ground. A son of ex-President Tyler had published the following significant warning: “To the Editors of the Republic: “Without assigning special reasons, I take the liberty, respectfully, but most earnestly, to advise that no person who has held a commission in the civil or military service of the late Confederate Government, shall permit himself to be a candidate for the Legislature, either Federal or State, at the ensuing elections. “It is true, I believe, as a result of the recent struggle, that the entire people of Virginia have accepted the Union and the Government of the United States in good faith. The institution of slavery, too, has been extinguished. As matters now stand, I can not perceive what possible danger to the safety of the Union or the peace of the country could arise by allowing an absolute choice of Representatives to the whole constituent body; but there are circumstances in the present state of general and national politics which make it imperatively necessary, in my opinion, that those citizens who were prominently identified with the cause of the Confederacy should exercise a rigid political abstinence AT THIS TIME. “Very respectfully, “ROBERT TYLER.” The English of all this was plain: Stand back, now, gentlemen! Your patriotic course has made you a little odious to the Yankees, and we must be careful about offending them till we have got our State representation in Congress again. You’re all right personally; we’re proud of you, and you shall have plenty of offices by and by, but just “at this time” it isn’t expedient to embarrass our cause at Washington, by carrying your conspicuous services in the war on our shoulders! Even school-boys would scarcely be misled thus. They could not forget their
- 56. “Timeo Danaos, et dona ferentes.” “I was a Rebel,” said a conspicuous Southerner, “I submit because I was whipped, and have a great respect for the men that whipped me; but I shall have less respect for them if they prove such simpletons as to suppose that the Rebels of yesterday can to-day become fit men to be intrusted with the reorganization of a loyal government, by simply swearing an oath of allegiance.” Capital already began to come in from the North. One gentleman had purchased a large tract of woodland on the James River, with the plan of selling the wood on it in large quantities. Others were seeking to avail themselves of the magnificent water-power afforded by the James, just above the city. The business men were anxious for the establishment of cotton factories, and already saw, in imagination, the manufacture of the great Southern staple transferred from Northern to Southern hands. There was much talk of mineral lands in the southwestern part of the State, and real estate agencies were springing up, to aid in bringing these lands into the market. The papers announced, with many flourishes, that a Mr. Black, whom they styled “a great Scotch capitalist,” had leased the famous White House estate, on the lower James, and was about to introduce upon it the Scotch tenantry system. It was already considered certain that the confiscation law was to be a dead letter, and wealthy Rebels seemed to have no fear of the loss of their estates. But there were harassing confiscation suits, against which there was great outcry. “Are we never to see the end of those frightful lists of libeled property which the marshal and clerk are advertising?” exclaimed one of the papers. “Are costs to be piled, like Pelion upon Ossa, upon the heads of the gentlemen of Richmond and Petersburg, who have already been pardoned? A distinguished gentleman of this city has heard from President Johnson’s own lips, language of strong indignation at the wholesale confiscation proceedings which have been instituted against certain
- 57. classes of our people.” Here, as always, President Johnson’s will was to be taken as the final expression and force of law. An indignant correspondent of one of the newspapers[47] brought heavy charges against the Government and one of the United States Judges: “Major Nutt’s farm, near Alexandria, and Dr. Bowen’s farm, sold by decree of Judge John C. Underwood, are to be delivered up to Judge Underwood, Governor Pierpont, and Mr. Downey, the purchasers under the confiscation sale. It now appears that the principal property sold under Judge Underwood’s decrees, in and around Alexandria, was purchased by himself and those connected with him in the high position he holds, at a fractional part of its value only. “Rumor says, and I have never heard it doubted, that Judge Underwood, during the rebellion, obtained permission to raise a regiment of negroes in Alexandria, which he succeeded in getting at a low price, which regiment he turned over to one of the Northern States, at a large advance, thereby realizing a large sum of money, with which he has been buying up the property confiscated by himself, under his own decree, in fee simple.” The burnt district, comprising nearly all the business portion of the city, south and east of the capitol, was beginning to rise from its ruins. Between a fourth and a third of it would soon be better than before the conflagration, with which the Rebels signalized their abandonment of the city. But business was greatly overdone by Northern speculators who had rushed down with heavy supplies of goods immediately after the surrender. The first pressing necessities satisfied, the Virginians were too poor to trade largely. Thanks to Northern loans, in sums ranging as high (in one or two cases, at least,) as a half-million dollars, the railroads were rapidly getting into running order, and old lines of travel were reopening. Already the Virginia Central Railroad was open to Staunton, and the Orange and Alexandria through its whole length, over a score or more of our battle-fields. Rival lines of steamers for Baltimore swarmed in the James River. Southward, Wilmington could be reached by rail, and even Charleston, a few gaps being filled by stage lines. South-westward, an unbroken line extended through Chattanooga and Atlanta—historic names—to Mobile.
- 58. As was entirely natural, a great deal of sullen bitterness was displayed against the negro. Men did not feel kindly that their old slaves should take time to consider the question of hiring with them, and should presume to haggle about wages. The least manifestation of a disposition to assert obtrusively his independence, brought the late slave into danger. Murders of negroes were occasionally reported; and the late masters made many wrathful promises to kill that were never fulfilled. Half-a-dozen times, in the course of a single day, I observed quarrels going on between negroes and white men. The latter constantly used the most violent and domineering language; the negroes several times seemed disposed to resent it. Their schools were well attended, and the same good report of their progress was continually made. No man could fail to observe that the poor negroes were making much more earnest efforts to rise than the poor whites. The restoration of confiscated property was again leaving many of the freedmen houseless. During the convulsions of the war they had left their old homes, and the authorities had established them upon the confiscated estates of absent Rebels. Pardoned, and resuming possession of their property, it was not unnatural that their first step should be to eject the vagrant negroes from their premises. The superintendent of schools under the Freedmen’s Bureau estimated the entire number of persons thus rendered houseless in Eastern Virginia, at the beginning of winter, to be not less than seventy thousand. Small-pox was also making ravages among them. They had not yet learned to take care of themselves; the emancipation had removed them from the care of their masters, and exposure, neglect, and disease were rapidly thinning out the population on which the wasted State had to rely for labor. The prevalent tone of public feeling indicated indifference to this public calamity. Virginians had not yet learned that their interests in laborers did not end when they ceased to own them; and many seemed to gloat over the facts, as a proof of the wisdom of their own opinions, and of the folly of their
- 59. anti-slavery enemies. “This,” exclaimed a newspaper, “is one of the practical results of negro freedom—one of the curses that has fallen on this unfortunate race, and one for which somebody must be held responsible at the bar of God. Who that somebody is, must be determined by a higher authority than human, though many are disposed to believe that the responsibility rests not on the people of the South. But be that as it may, the ‘freedmen’ are dying by hundreds and thousands. Where are the philanthropists of the North? Where are the Christian Commissions of Boston, and the Freedmen’s Aid Societies of Philadelphia? Where are those who wanted an anti-slavery God and an anti-slavery Bible? Yes! where are they, when the negro is freed and is so sadly in need of their kind (?) offices?” Where it could, the Government was still issuing rations to these poor waifs of the war, but the suffering was beyond any governmental control. Some of the old masters did their best to care for former slaves; but they were themselves impoverished and destitute. November winds already blew sharply—what might be expected before the winter was over? 44. The “learned librarian of the House” had simply published a statement of the laws governing the organization of the House, showing the illegality of any attempt to have the names of the so-called Southern members placed on the roll, prior to the organization. This statement the Associated Press had chosen to pronounce semi-official. 45. Applications for pardon were first presented to the Attorney- General. 46. “And don’t you know—supposing your statement true—that she’d been soundly thrashed if she had attempted it?” interjected a quiet gentleman who had been attentively listening.
- 60. 47. Richmond Enquirer, 7th November, 1865.
- 61. CHAPTER XXXIII. Lynchburg—The Interior of Virginia. The direct road from Richmond to Lynchburg was not yet in running order again. “One of our fool Generals burnt a big bridge near Lynchburg,” explained a citizen, “when there wasn’t the slightest use for it, and the bridge has not been rebuilt. Some of our Generals thought if they couldn’t have everything their own way, they must ruin everything. They hadn’t sense enough to see that it was their own friends they were ruining.” The trains from Richmond to Gordonsville, however, and thence to Lynchburg were running with unexpected regularity. But, in at least one respect, Richmond was not to be moved from the good old ways. The train started from the middle of a street; and, in the absence of a depot, the passengers rendezvoused at the shops on the corner till they saw the cars coming along. Of course, the desolation of Virginia, even in the regions most exposed to the ravages of the war had been overrated. I do not think the white people were starving, or likely to starve, anywhere from Alexandria to Gordonsville, Richmond, Fredericksburg, or Lynchburg; and within these points Virginia had suffered more than in all the rest of the State. A little corn had been grown in the summer, and that little had been husbanded in a style at which a Western farmer would stare in amazement. Every blade had been stripped from the stalks, every top had been cut, and in the center of every little inclosure a stack of blades, thatched with tops,
- 62. supplemented the lack of hay and other forage for the cattle, while the abundant ears furnished the great staple of diet for the classes most likely to suffer. A few little patches of cotton whitened inclosures near the houses, at rare intervals; but the yield was light, and the cultivation had evidently been bad. Between Richmond and Gordonsville scarcely a dozen wheat-fields were seen. Great surface drains had been furrowed out all over the fields, as if the owners were afraid they had too much wheat in, and wanted a considerable portion of it washed away. Beyond Gordonsville, they became plentier, and the crops had been put in in better style. But in the main, between Richmond and Gordonsville, as between Fredericksburg and Richmond, abandoned fields alternated with pine forests, destroyed depots, and ruined dwellings. Imaginative writers have described the droves of wild beasts which they represent as having taken possession of these desolated regions; but the sportsman is likely to find nothing more formidable than abundant coveys of quails. Our train brought up from Richmond, and left at different points along the road, numbers of the decayed Virginia gentry, equipped with dogs and fowling pieces, and eager for this result of the war, if not for others of more consequence. Hanover Junction presented little but standing chimneys and the debris of destroyed buildings. Along the road a pile of smoky brick and mortar seemed a regularly recognized sign of what had once been a depot, and the train was sure to stop. Not a platform or water-tank had been left, and the rude contrivances hastily thrown up to get the road in running order were, in many cases, for miles and miles the only improvements visible. Young pines covered the old wheat-fields and corn-fields. Traces of breast-works wound off through the country in all directions. A coterie of young officers were constantly exclaiming, “Here we whipped the rebs.” “There’s a place where the rebs got after us mighty sharp.” Gray-coated, heavy- bearded, ragged-looking fellows listened in scowling silence, or occasionally beguiled the way by reminding each other how “Here the Yanks caught hell.”
- 63. At one or two points, where once had been considerable towns, the train was besieged by an outgrowth of the peculiar institution. A score or two of negro women, bearing trays on which were rudely arrayed what they called “snacks,” surrounded us, loudly announcing the merits of their various preparations. “Sad” biscuit and fried chicken; “sad” biscuit and fried bacon; “sad” pie-crust, covering wild grapes, constituted the main attractions; and, as a grey-coated passenger sullenly remarked, “played the devil” with the hen-roosts of the surrounding country. Doubtless this petty traffic kept the wolf from many a negro’s door through the winter. The railroads had been supplied with rolling stock bought mainly from the supplies of our United States military railroads, or from Northern shops. One or two cars, however, of the best among all the trains we met, bore the marks of a Richmond firm. The tracks were comparatively solid; but the rails were in the worst possible condition. Looking from the rear platform, one saw every few yards a rail bent outward till he wondered why it did not throw us off; while half of them were crushed at the ends or worn off the face till scarcely half an inch remained for the wheel to touch. The roads hardly pretended to make over twelve miles per hour, and even that was in many places a very unsafe rate of speed. The conductors were, of course, ex-Rebels, so were the engineers and brakemen, and any complaint as to the running of trains was very effectually silenced by a suggestion of the improvement “since six months ago.” Gangs of hands are at work on the roads, at distances of very few miles. Negroes and Rebel soldiers worked harmoniously side by side. “I tell you, sir,” said a Yankee to a Virginian who didn’t approve of this social equality, “a white man has got just the same right a nigger has—to starve if he won’t work!” Perched among its hills, and defended by nature’s fortifications, Lynchburg had seen little of the immediate horrors of war. Her sons had gone down to death, but her fields had not been ravaged, her barns had not been burned, her children had not been often startled by the cry of the Yankees at the gates. Men had consequently
- 64. escaped, to some degree, the impoverishing effects of the rebellion. Business seemed quite brisk; the farmers of the surrounding country were prosperous, and lands were not largely offered for sale. As our train approached the city, I fell into conversation with a citizen. He rather guessed this little town was in no fix for starving. Niggers might suffer, and doubtless would, if they grew too saucy (pronounced “sassy;”) but the people were all right. “Half a million of specie in that little town, sah, when the wah ended. What do you think of that for a little rookery among the mountains, sah?” I suggested that very few tobacco fields were to be seen along the road. “Plenty of tobacco stored, sah. Didn’t raise much last year, because there wa’nt many men at home to manage, but there’s plenty more tobacco hid away in this country than people ever dreamed of. Gold will bring it out, sah.” “Greenbacks,” it seemed, did not yet have the same magnetic power. Men who had been declaring for four years that the United States Government was overthrown, could not at once convince themselves that its money was good. Whoever wanted to trade with the Virginians in the rural districts, must prepare himself with gold. The town was swarming with representatives of Northern capitalists, looking for investments. Baltimoreans were also found frequently among them. The most went further South, over the Virginia and Tennessee road; but a few had ideas about the mineral resources of these mountains. Many seemed to think it necessary to adopt the coddling policy in their talk with the Virginians. “My policy for settling up these questions,” said a Yankee, “would be to banish all the leaders, and tell the rest that they had been soundly whipped, and, now, the best thing they could do would be to go to work and repair their ruined fortunes.” “But how could you punish those equally deserving of punishment at the North, who were just as guilty in bringing on the war?” The questioner was, not a pardoned Rebel, but a speculative Northerner.
- 65. “The Lynchburg Post-office is in a church. The Government, it seems, was not willing to pay the rent demanded for the building formerly used for postal purposes, and the rent on churches was not exorbitant. A route agent, whiling away his time while his mail was made up, told how he had taken the oath, and so become an employee of the Government again. “I was an old route agent, you see, and I wanted to go back to a nice berth. But I had been a magistrate under the Confederacy, and I was required to swear that I had never been. I went to see President Johnson. There was an awful crowd in the lobby, but I cottoned to Captain Slade, and played Yankee a little. Leaving out part of my name, I wrote on a card simply ‘Frederick Bruce,’ and made Slade promise to lay it before the President without a word. In a moment I was called in; but, as I approached the President, I thought I could see, by the twinkle of his eye, that I wasn’t the Frederick Bruce he had expected![48] Well, I told him that I took a magistrate’s office under the Confederate Government, to avoid having to go into the army. He said the word ‘voluntary’ occurred at the beginning of the oath, and its force ran through the whole of it, and applied to every clause. ‘Now, sir,’ said the President, ‘it’s with your own conscience to say whether you took that office voluntarily or not.’ Of course, I didn’t, for I was compelled to do it in order to keep out of the army, and so I told the President I would take the oath at once, and he said, ‘all right.’” The narration threw a flood of light on the style of Unionists, with whose aid the Southern States were being “reconstructed.” This map was one of the “stay-at-home” Rebels. He made no secret of his entire sympathy with the Rebel cause, but he wanted to keep out of the fight himself, and found it pleasanter to be a Rebel magistrate than a Rebel soldier. Not very many Virginians seemed disposed to abandon the pleasant mountain homes about Lynchburg, for the doubtful bliss of Mexico or Brazil. The discovery had suddenly been made that there was a good deal more danger of “nigger equality” in either than in the United
- 66. States, and the newspapers were dolorously warning the dissatisfied, that, if they should go to Brazil, they might happen to be brought before courts where negro judges presided, or be required to submit to laws enacted by the wisdom of negro legislators. It was bad to be forced to tolerate the presence of free negroes in the United States, but, really, it began to look as if they could go nowhere else without finding matters a great deal worse. In the main, the negroes seemed to be doing well. In the Lynchburg hotels they were paid twenty dollars a month—five dollars more than they received for similar services in Richmond. “Den, besides dat, we picks up ’siderable from gemmen dat gibs us half-dollar for toting deir trunk or blacking deir boots, as I’s shore you’s gwine to do, sah.”[49] These, however, were only the more intelligent. Through the country the negroes were by no means earning such wages, and, in fact, the most were earning none at all. They gained a precarious support by picking up occasional jobs, and by a pretty general system of pilfering. All had the idea that in January the lands of their former masters were to be divided among them; and it was, therefore, almost impossible to make contracts with them for labor on the farms through the ensuing year. The inhabitants charged that this idea had been sedulously spread among them by the Yankee soldiers, and that they had been advised never to contract for more than a month’s work at a time, until the division of property came. Here is a specimen of the way in which the Lynchburg papers treated the difficulty: “The refusal of these people to make contracts for labor another year completely deranges all the regular and matured plans of our farmers. They know not what provision to make for feeding their employees; what extent of soil to mark out for seed; what kind of crops to cultivate, or what calculations to make upon their operations. If they sow, they are not certain to what extent they can reap; and if they attempt a variety of crops, (including tobacco,) they have no assurance whatever that their labor will not forsake them at the very moment that it is most indispensable. “A friend in Amherst suggests that the powers that be should issue an order to the effect that all who do not get homes, or show they have a support within
- 67. themselves, by the 1st day of January, 1866, will, on the 10th of said month, (nine days’ notice being given,) be hired out to the highest bidder. Such an order would, in his opinion, cause all except the most worthless to secure homes before the 20th of December. These suggestions certainly seem to us to have wisdom in them, and to meet the difficulties, to some extent, that now so seriously embarrass and retard agricultural pursuits; and we respectfully commend them to the attention of the proper authorities. One thing is certain, that if the negroes are not made to enter into contracts, and to keep them when made, the most ruinous consequences will result to our farming interests, and provisions enough will not be made to feed our people another year. Some fanatics and deluded persons, we know, will laugh at this idea, and tell us that the South has never been so prosperous in the past as she will be in the future under our present system of labor. But taking the most favorable view of the subject, it is still manifest to every one at all familiar with the real condition of things, that freed negro labor never was and never can be made productive—that is to say, accumulative or progressive; and that any reliance upon the voluntary work of free negroes, beyond what is absolutely necessary to their sustenance, is both vain and foolish. And we predict now, with regret and pain, what the results will certainly show, that there will henceforth be a steady and permanent decline in all the productions of the South dependent upon negro labor, as there has been in the French and British emancipation islands; and that the negro himself will steadily lose all the civilization which contact with his master has given him, and finally relapse into his native barbarism.” At the same time they were busy inducing these people, who were steadily losing all civilization and about to relapse into their native barbarism, to emigrate to Liberia; by way, it should seem, of hastening the process. One colony had already been sent off, and the papers made much of an address, written by the negro emigrants to their “best friends,” to wit, their old masters,[50] wherein they were made to hint a conviction, in substance the same with that so current in the bar-rooms, that “Virginia is no place for free niggers.” The people of Lynchburg were all Johnson men. That is, they believed the President disposed to exact less of them than his party wanted, and they were bound to praise the bridge that promised to carry them safely over. Here, as elsewhere, “sound conservative views” were greatly in demand; these “views” being always found to
- 68. have a relation, more or less intimate, to the negro. “No man,” exclaimed one of the papers, “can fail to see that our future is pregnant with the most momentous issues, and that it will require the union of all right-thinking men to save our country from the blasting curse of a false and most destructive radical sentiment pervading it.” To resist this destructive radical sentiment, the union of all the old parties was urged. They felt sure their members would be promptly admitted, and thought it a very great outrage that any opposition should be made to their participation in the organization of the House. 48. His “playing Yankee” consisted in a clumsy attempt to make the President believe that Sir Frederick Bruce, the new British Minister, was waiting in the ante-room to see him. 49. “Intelligent contrabands” all seem to have the money-making faculty well developed. Here is a table of the incomes of some of the freedmen about Newbern, North Carolina, during the third year of the war: Three hundred and five persons, not employed by the Government, but working at trades of their own, returned a total income of $151,562, the average of all incomes being $496 92. George Hargate, turpentine farmer $3,000 Ned Huggins, tar and turpentine 3,150 E. H. Hill, missionary and trader 2,000 W. A. Ives, carpenter and grocer 2,400 George Gordon, turpentine 1,500 Adam Hymen, turpentine 1,300 Samuel Collins, dry goods and groceries 1,200 Benjamin Whitfield, grocery and eating-house 1,500 Hasty Chatwick, turpentine 1,000
- 69. Limber Lewis, staves, wood, and shingles 1,500 George Physic, grocer 1,500 Sylvester Mackey, undertaker 1,000 Charles Bryan, cartman 1,000 John H. Heath, shoemaker 1,000 William Long, lumberman 1,200 John Bryan, cotton farmer 1,100 Hogan Conedy, cooper and tar maker 1,000 Danzey Heath, grocer and baker 1,500 The average of the incomes of barbers was $675; the blacksmiths, $468; masons, $402; carpenters, $510; grocers, $678; coopers, $418, and of turpentine farmers, $446. While the negroes at Newbern, by patient toil, were putting such facts as these on record, the whole refugee white population was drawing rations. At Beaufort, of 1,592 blacks in the place, only 300 received help, while, at the same time, 1,200 whites were supplied with rations. The colony of Roanoke Island, in two years, made improvements whose cost value at the lowest figures was $44,000; more than would have bought the whole island before the war, with all the improvements which the “master class” had put upon it in two hundred years. In two years Sir Walter Raleigh’s colony, established here, became utterly extinct. The negroes in that region have generally preferred turpentine farming, the work being lighter and the returns earlier, as the product of the first dipping is ready for market before mid- summer. From three thousand to ten thousand trees have thus been leased to single individuals. Many have become rich, hundreds have lived in ease, and considering the difficulties in the way, a remarkable proportion supported themselves. The
- 70. same opportunities were open to the white refugees, and the result is seen in the report of the number of rations issued in Newbern, the largest camp for contrabands in the State, and the great city of refuge to the whole State. Of 8,000 negroes in camp, only 3,000 drew rations, while in the white camp every man, woman, and child was fed by the Government. 50. That is to say, written for them, and by the old masters themselves.