man beings without clothing,
shelter, homes, and, alas! most of them without names. The galling
harness of slavery had been cut off of their weary bodies, and like a
worn-out beast of burden they stood in their tracks scarcely able to
go anywhere. Like men coming from long confinement in a dark dungeon,
the first rays of freedom blinded their expectant eyes. They were
almost delirious with joy. The hopes and fears, the joys and sorrows,
the pain and waiting, the prayers and tears of the cruel years of
slavery gave place to a long train of events that swept them out into
the rapid current of a life totally different from the checkered
career whence they had just emerged. It required time, patience, and
extraordinary wisdom on the part of the Government to solve the
problem of this people's existence--of this "Nation born in a day."
Their joy was too full, their peace too profound, and their
thanksgiving too sincere to attract their attention at once to the
vulgar affairs of daily life. One fervent, beautiful psalm of praise
rose from every Negro hut in the South, and swelled in majestic
sweetness until the nation became one mighty temple canopied by the
stars and stripes, and the Constitution as the common altar before
whose undimmed lights a ransomed race humbly bowed.

The emancipated Negroes had no ability, certainly no disposition, to
reason concerning the changes and disasters which had overtaken their
former masters. The white people of the South were divided into three
classes. _First_, those who felt that defeat was intolerable, and a
residence in this country incongenial. They sought the service of the
Imperial cause in war-begrimed Mexico; they went to Cuba, Australia,
Egypt, and to Europe. _Second_, those who returned to their homes
after the "affair at Appomattox," and sitting down under the
portentous clouds of defeat, refused to take any part in the
rehabilitation of their States. _Third_, those who accepted the
situation and stood ready to aid in the work of reconstruction.

In the unsettled condition of affairs at the close of hostilities, as
there was no legal State governments at the South, necessity and
prudence suggested the temporary policy of dividing the South into
military districts. A provisional military government in the conquered
States was to pursue a pacific, protective, helpful policy. The people
of both races were to be fed and clothed. Schools were to be
established; agriculture and ind