scharged only
by men of extraordinary endowments. If any considerable number of them
had been gifted in a high degree as orators, they would have had great
advantages among a people who rate mere eloquence above its true value.
If any of them had been men of large fortune (invested in Southern
property), and able to make lavish expenditure, they could have
produced a deep impression upon a people more given to admiration of
mere wealth than the people of the North. But of the entire list of
Republican senators and representatives from the reconstructed States,
there was not one who was regarded as exceptionally eloquent or
exceptionally rich; and hence they were compelled to enter the contest
without personal prestige, without adventitious aid of any kind. They
were doomed to a hopeless struggle against the influence, the
traditions, the hatred of a large majority of the white men of the South.

The Fifteenth Article of Amendment to the Constitution, now pending and
about to be adopted, would confirm the colored man's elective franchise
and add the right of holding office. One of the senators just admitted
from Mississippi in advance of the ratification of the amendment
(Hiram R. Revels) was a colored man of respectable character and
intelligence. He sat in the seat which Jefferson Davis had wrathfully
deserted to take up arms against the Republic and become the ruler of a
hostile government. Poetic justice, historic revenge, personal
retribution were all complete when Mr. Revels' name was called on the
roll of the Senate. But his presence, while demonstrating the extent
to which the assertion of equal rights had been carried, served to
increase and stimulate the Southern resistance to the whole system of
Republican reconstruction. Those who anxiously and intelligently
studied the political situation in the South could see how unequal
the contest would be and how soon the men who organized the rebellion
would again wield the political power of their States--wield it
lawfully if they could, but unlawfully if they must; peaceably if that
would suffice, but violently if violence in their judgment became
necessary.

President Grant had scarcely taken a step in the duty of administration
before he realized that as soon as the current session of Congress
should terminate his hands would be completely tied, respecting the
removal and appointment of Federal officers, by the Tenure-of-office
Act. With his prompt and d