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lowed ours, and there was but one man who could control it the man who had carried the country through the war, and thereby acquired a boundless popularity. Such a strong hand was needed in the critical period of reconstruction. How he would have acted in this very matter, it is not difficult to see: for all his ideas and habits of mind were conservative, and with his sense of humor he would have received a proposal to give the suffrage to the blacks just off the plantation, as a huge joke! This was something which he never dreamed of. When he wrote his Emancipation Proclamation, he promised the slaves their liberty, to be maintained by all the military forces of the United States; but it never entered his head that he was to divide with the newly emancipated the business of the government! On this point we are not left to conjecture, for he had expressed himself in no doubtful language. Long before the war, in his famous joint debate with Douglas, in answering the question whether he was "really in favor of a perfect equality between the negroes and white people," he replied in words which could not be more explicit: "I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say, in addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality."

No doubt Mr. Lincoln's ideas may have been changed by the war, which brought an overturning of all things; but it could not change the "physical difference,” which, in his view, would "forever forbid the two races living together on terins of social and political equality." Remem

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bering this, it is safe to suppose that had he been living at the time this legislation was before Congress, his rugged common-sense would have perceived the fearful danger of committing political power to such untried hands. Here, as in the settlement of the many other difficult questions of reconstruction, the country was made to feel mournfully the want of that large, kind, gentle wisdom. The greatest calamity that ever happened to the South, was the assassination of Abraham Lincoln! When he was in his grave, another of quite a different stamp reigned in his stead, Andrew Johnson, who, with his perverse obstinacy and utter want of tact, soon succeeded in embroiling himself with Congress, where he was confronted in the House of Representatives by another man equally determined, Thaddeus Stevens, whose imperious will made him the ruling spirit in that stormy time, and able to lead his party to any extreme of rash legislation. Between the two, there was little place for prudence and moderation.

The plea for negro suffrage was one of necessity. It was the same argument that was used during the war to justify any violation of private rights or State rights, viz: that it was a war measure,” and was necessary to save the country! The ballot was declared to be a political necessity, "unless we would sacrifice the results of the war"! If all power in the Southern States were left in the hands of the whites, they would legislate the blacks back into slavery; or, if they did not, would impose such restrictions upon their liberty as would reduce them to a state of quasiservitude. For this fear there was good reason. Hardly had the war closed, and the machinery of legislation been put in motion, before there were movements here and there to pass such laws as to neutralize the benefits of freedom. The black man was no longer a slave, but an "apprentice," who could be "bound out" to hard labor under conditions

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almost as stringent as those of criminals in the chain-gang.* Against this there was no insurmountable barrier but to give the vote to the whole negro population. Ardent Ardent partisans reasoned that a people could not be juggled out of their rights to whom the ballot was given without qualification, restriction, or limitation! How greatly they were mistaken in this, the experience of a few years fully proved.

To make the matter worse, not only were the blacks let into the citadel of power, but many of the whites were shut out. To be sure, they could resume their former position on easy terms. Says Mr. Blaine in his History: "The great mass of those who had resisted the national authority, were restored to all their rights of citizenship by the simple taking of an oath of future loyalty; and those excepted from immediate reinstatement, were promised full forgiveness on the slightest exhibition of repentance and good works." But even this requirement grated harshly on the proud spirits that had been leaders in the war, who held back from taking the iron-clad oath; and when the blacks were admitted to the polls en masse, the whites found themselves swamped as by an inundation. This was a complete revolution. Power was taken away from the upper classes, and given to the lower--the course directly opposed to reason and common-sense. Nature seems to ordain that in political societies, as in all human affairs, intelligence shall rule over ignorance, and civilization over barbarism. But here this natural order was reversed. Ignorance was set to rule over intelligence, and thus the whole framework of society was turned upside down. That which had been at the top was savagely

* For a full account of this Southern legislation, see Mr. Blaine's "Twenty Years in Congress" (Volume II., Chapter V.), wherein he gives such details as justify him in describing it as "a virtual reenactment of the slave code."

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thrown down and put at the bottom, and the bottom was dug out and put at the top. This, whatever the political necessity that compelled it, I cannot but look upon as anything less than the triumph of barbarism, and a crime against civilization!

The effect was what might have been expected. The poor people who received the ballot hardly knew what it meant. They could not read the names that were written on it, and were ready to vote as they were told, for anybody living or dead-for Andrew Jackson, or George Washington, or Moses, or Melchisedek! Of course they were the easy prey of demagogues, who could flatter them by appeals to negro vanity, or (what they understood still better) pay them for a vote, as they would for a day's work; and they made a pretty mess of legislation. I was in Richmond soon after the war, and went up to the old Capitol, and saw both houses filled almost wholly with negroes. It was not a cheerful sight, and as I turned away, I could but ask myself, Is this the highest result of free institutions in the New World ?

Then the beauties of negro government were illustrated to the full. In South Carolina and the Gulf States it had a clean sweep; and if we are to believe the records of the time, it was a period of corruption such as had never been known in the history of the country. The blacks, having nothing to lose, were ready to vote to impose any tax, or to issue any bonds of town, county, or State, provided they had a share in the booty; and thus negro government, manipulated by carpet-baggers, ran riot over the South. It was chaos come again. The former masters were governed by their servants, while the latter were governed by a set of adventurers and plunderers. The history of those days is one which we cannot recall without indignation and shame. After a time the moral sense of the North was so

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THE NEGRO VOTE DEFEATS ITS OBJECT. shocked by these performances that a Republican Administration had to withdraw its proconsuls, when things at once resumed their former condition, and the management of affairs came back into the old hands.

Time is sure to bring its revenges; and there seemed a kind of Nemesis in the issue, by which the machinery so elaborately prepared to perpetuate a certain rule, had exactly the opposite effect. This amazing stroke of policy was intended to reduce the power of the white vote by raising up a colored vote to offset it. But owing to the greater skill of the whites in the manipulating of votes, or their power of coaxing or overawing their former servants, the course of the latter was speedily reversed, and thrown almost solidly on the side of their old masters. And inasmuch as the negroes were now counted in their full numbers-instead of at three-fifths, as before, in fixing the basis of representation-the addition of their votes swelled enormously the political power of the South in Congress and in the Electoral College, and thereby in the choice of President of the United States!

Here was a shifting of the scenes which completely upset the calculations of the politicians. The history of politics is full of surprises; but never was there a greater one than in the operation of negro suffrage at the South.

Since that time things have settled down into a regular "system," which is simply that of systematic disregard of the laws and the Constitution of the United States. But this slight discrepancy troubles no man's conscience, as every man, when questioned, declares himself, like the toper in Maine, "in favor of the law, but 'agin' its execution"! The matter is perfectly understood, and there need be no ambiguity about it. The negro vote, like the cotton crop, is always in the market, to be sold to the highest bidder. This seemed to be the first tangible idea which the