ted in the
North. From the timidity of the friends of the Union and the boldness
of the advocates of Secession, it is not difficult to understand how
the large class of poor whites in the South could be urged into a
contest in which every blow struck by them was in support of a system
to whose baleful influence they owed their own ignorance, their social
degradation, their pitiable poverty.

The wonder excited by the raising of the vast army which saved the
Union from destruction was even surpassed by the wonder excited by
its prompt and peaceful dissolution. On the day that the task of
disbandment was undertaken, the Army of the United States bore upon its
rolls the names of one million five hundred and sixteen men
(1,000,516). The killed, and those who had previously retired on
account of wounds and sickness and from the expiration of shorter terms
of service, aggregated, after making due allowance for re-enlistments
of the same persons, at least another million. The living among these
had retired gradually during the war, and had resumed their old
avocations, or, in the great demand for workmen created by the war
itself, had found new employment. But with the close of hostilities
many industries which had been created by the demands of war ceased,
and thousand of men were thrown out of employment. The disbandment of
the Volunteer Army would undoubtedly add hundreds of thousands to this
number, and thus still further overstock and embarrass the labor-market.
The prospect was not encouraging, and many judicious men feared the
result.

Happily all anticipations of evil proved groundless. By an instinct of
self-support and self-adjustment, that great body of men who left the
military service during the latter half of the year 1865 and early in
the year 1866 re-entered civil life with apparent contentment and even
with certain advantages. Their experience as soldiers, so far from
unfitting them for the duties and callings of Peace, seem rather to
have proved an admirable school, and to have given them habits of
promptness and punctuality, order and neatness, which added largely to
their efficiency in whatever field they were called to labor. After
the Continental Army was dissolved, its members were found to be
models of industry and intelligence in all the walks of life. The
successful mechanics, the thrifty tradesmen, the well-to-do farmers in
the old thirteen States were found, in great proportion, to have