ng power, in its
turn, was farmed out to dummy legislatures, which in their constitution,
if not in the modus of their creation, were _fac-similes_ of the great
"rump" model which had made laws before them, and which, with its
two-thirds majority and grand faculty for caucusing, was quite equal to
all the devices of vetoing chief magistrates. The provision disfranchising
the white men of the South had been contemporaneously declared, and was a
part of that remarkable series which had empanoplied the negro race with
all the political belongings of freedom.

The policy adopted by the Southern people in concerting resistance to the
attacks of these modern Sejanus was the only one which could have
succeeded, and, whatever else may be said regarding its morality, was just
to themselves and disinterested mankind. They did not as a class, nor as
individuals, conceive for a moment that their allegiance to the
constitution and laws of their country was involved in the issues of the
political war which they waged against Radicalism, though constantly
reminded to that intent by their enemies, whose vocabulary of loyal
epithets included such choice terms as "rebel," "traitor," "guerilla,"
"Southern bandit," etc., and their integrity as citizens of the United
States government they never ceased to insist upon, though their leaders
foretold (and it has since been verified) that they would never succeed in
_establishing_ it until the movement, which they had inaugurated under so
many difficulties, had accomplished the _disestablishment_ of Radicalism
at the national capitol.

The details of the political strife of those years are unimportant to our
narrative; but the intelligent reader will perceive nothing occult in our
purpose if we call attention to the long imprisonments to which many of
the leaders of the Southern movement were subjected, the causeless
sequestration of public and private properties, the numberless criminal
prosecutions inaugurated in obedience to the whims of the "trooly loil,"
the immense peculations chargeable to the State governments under Radical
rule, and, lastly, the open robberies perpetrated under the name and with
the sanction of the national legislature.

The governments in the South--State, district, and municipal--were negro
governments, and if, in a few exceptions, this characterization was but
partial, it was where the negro alternated with that pestiferous
nomad--the carpet-bagger--in administeri