oke of useful work in all their lives. In the North there
are, I believe, no _men_ who would make such a boast; but I think
there are many women--beautiful, fascinating _lazzaroni_ of the parlor
and boudoir--who make their boast of elegant helplessness and utter
incompetence for any of woman's duties with equal naivete. The
Spartans made their slaves drunk, to teach their children the evils of
intoxication; and it seems to be the policy of a large class in the
South now to keep down and degrade the only working class they have,
for the sake of teaching their children to despise work.

"We of the North, who know the dignity of labor, who know the value of
free and equal institutions, who have enjoyed advantages for seeing
their operation, ought, in true brotherliness, to exercise the power
given us by the present position of the people of the Southern States,
and put things thoroughly right for them, well knowing, that, though
they may not like it at the moment, they will like it in the end, and
that it will bring them peace, plenty, and settled prosperity, such
as they have long envied here in the North. It is no kindness to an
invalid brother, half recovered from delirium, to leave him a knife to
cut his throat with, should he be so disposed. We should rather appeal
from Philip drunk to Philip sober, and do real kindness, trusting to
the future for our meed of gratitude.

"Giving equal political rights to all the inhabitants of the Southern
States will be their shortest way to quiet and to wealth. It will
avert what is else almost certain,--a war of races; since all
experience shows that the ballot introduces the very politest
relations between the higher and lower classes. If the right be
restricted, let it be by requirements of property and education,
applying to all the population equally.

"Meanwhile, we citizens and citizenesses of the North should remember
that Reconstruction means something more than setting things right in
the Southern States. We have saved our government and institutions,
but we have paid a fearful price for their salvation; and we ought to
prove now that they are worth the price.

"The empty chair, never to be filled; the light gone out on its
candlestick, never on earth to be rekindled; gallant souls that have
exhaled to heaven in slow torture and starvation; the precious blood
that has drenched a hundred battlefields,--all call to us with warning
voices, and tell us not to let such sacr