are in the government of the country, felt a thrill
of sadness when I saw the Legislature of Louisiana in session
in the winter of 1873.

There was a good deal to provoke them also in the character
of some of the Northern men who had gone to the South to take
an active part in political affairs. Some of them were men
of the highest character and honor, actuated by pure and unselfish
motives. If they had been met cordially by the communities
where they took up their abode they would have brought to
them a most valuable quality of citizenship. If Northern
immigration and Northern capital had been welcomed at the
South it would have had as helpful and influence as it had
in California and Oregon. But the Southern men treated them
all alike. I incline to think that a large number of the
men who got political office in the South, when the men who
had taken part in the Rebellion were still disfranchised,
and the Republicans were still in power, were of a character
that would not have been tolerated in public office in the
North. General Willard Warner of Alabama, a brave Union soldier,
a Republican Senator from that State, was one of the best
and bravest men who ever sat in that body. Governor Packard
of Louisiana was I believe a wise and honest man. But in
general it was impossible not to feel a certain sympathy with
a people, who whatever else had been their faults never were
guilty of corruption or meanness, or the desire to make money
out of public office, in the intolerable loathing which they
felt for these strangers who had taken possession of the high
places in their States.

President Grant gave the influence and authority of his Administration
toward maintaining in power the lawfully chosen Republican
State Governments. But in spite of all he could do they had
all been overthrown but two when the Presidential election
was held in 1876. Those two were South Carolina and Louisiana.
The people of those two States had chosen Republican Governors
at the State election held on the same day with the election
of the President. But these Governors could not hold their
power twenty-four hours without the support of the National
administration. When that was withdrawn the negro and carpet-
bag majority was powerless as a flock of sheep before a pack
of wolves to resist their brave and unscrupulous Democratic
enemy, however inferior the latter in numbers.

In attempting to give a dispassionate account of the