g a proper plan
for reconstructing the Southern States. To couple general amnesty to
the rebels with suffrage to the Negroes was a most fatal policy. It
has been shown that there was but one class of white men in the South
friendly to reconstruction,--numerically, small; and mentally, weak.
But it was thought best to do this. To a triple element Congress
committed the work of reconstruction. The "_Scalawag_," the
"_Carpet-bagger_," and the _Negro_. Who were this trio? The scalawag
was the native white man who made up the middle class of the South;
the planter above, the Negro below. And between this upper and nether
millstone he was destined to be ground to powder, under the old
regime. A "nigger-driver," without schools, social position, or money,
he was "the poor white trash" of the South. He was loyal during the
war, because in the triumph of the Confederacy, with slavery as its
corner-stone, he saw no hope for his condition. Those of them who
fought under the rebel flag were unwilling conscripts. They had no
qualifications for governing--except that they were _loyal_; and this
was of no more use to them in this great work, than _piety_ in the
pulpit when the preacher cannot repeat the Lord's prayer without
biting his tongue. The carpet-baggers ran all the way from "good to
middling." Some went South with fair ability and good morals, where
they lost the latter article and never found it; while many more went
South to get all they could and keep all they got. The Negro could
boast of numerical strength only. The scalawag managed the Negro, the
latter did the voting, while the carpet-bagger held the offices. And
when there were "more stalls than horses" the Negroes and scalawags
occasionally got an office.

The rebels were still in a swoon.

The States were reconstructed, after a manner, and the governments
went forward.

In 1868 Gen. U. S. Grant carried these States. It was like the handle
on a jug, all on one side. The rebels took no part; but after a while
a gigantic Ku Klux conspiracy was discovered. This organization sought
to obstruct the courts, harass the Negroes, and cripple local
governments. It spread terror through the South and made a political
graveyard of startling dimensions. The writ of _habeas corpus_ was
suspended; arrests made, trials and convictions secured, and the
penitentiary at Albany, New York, crowded with the enemies of law and
order. A subsidence followed, and the scalawag-carpetbag-Ne