people with shouts of
satisfaction and openly indorsed by the press."

These representations of the prevailing spirit in the South and of
the conduct of Southern men were not the loose and exaggerated
statements of Northern partisans put forth in influence political
opinion in the loyal States. They were the deliberate and
conscientious statements of an eminent committee of the two Houses of
Congress, of which Senator Fessenden of Maine was chairman. The
quotations already made are from the same official report--a report
based upon exhaustive testimony and prepared with scrupulous care.
In that report, which is to be taken as an absolutely truthful
picture of the Southern States at the time, it is averred that
"witnesses of the highest character testify that, without the
protection of United-States troops, Union men, whether of Northern or
Southern origin, would be obliged to abandon their homes. The feeling
in many portions of the country toward the emancipated slaves,
especially among the ignorant and uneducated, is one of vindictive
and malicious hatred. The deep-seated prejudice against color is
assiduously cultivated by the public journals and leads to acts of
cruelty, oppression, and murder, which the local authorities are at
no pains to prevent or punish."

It was further declared by Mr. Fessenden's committee "that the evidence
of an intense hostility to the Federal Union, and an equally intense
love for the late Confederacy, nurtured by the war, is decisive. While
it appears that nearly all are willing to submit, at least for the time
being, to the Federal authority, it is equally clear that the ruling
motive is a desire to obtain the advantages which will be derived from
a representation in Congress." It was also proved before the
committee, on the testimony, or rather the admissions, of witnesses
who had been prominent in the Rebellion, that "the generally prevailing
opinion in the late Confederacy defends the legal right of secession
and upholds the doctrine that the first allegiance of the people is due
to the States and not to the United States." It was further admitted
by the same class of witnesses that "the taxes levied by the United
States will be paid only on compulsion and with great reluctance," and
that "the people of the rebellious States would, if they could see a
prospect of success, repudiate the National debt." It was stated by
witnesses from the South, with evident pride, that "offi