dmission to their ancient rights in the Union had already
done or were prepared to do was sufficient evidence that moderation and
an accessible temper were predominant in their counsels.

The other fear was even more groundless. There might in the South be a
certain bitterness against the Northerner; there was none at all against
the Negro. Why should there be? During the late troubles the Negro had
deserved very well of the South. At a time when practically every active
male of the white population was in the fighting line, when a slave
insurrection might have brought ruin and disaster on every Southern
home, not a slave had risen. The great majority of the race had gone on
working faithfully, though the ordinary means of coercion were almost
necessarily in abeyance. Even when the Northern armies came among them,
proclaiming their emancipation, many of them continued to perform their
ordinary duties and to protect the property and secrets of their
masters. Years afterwards the late Dr. Booker Washington could boast
that there was no known case of one of his race betraying a trust. All
this was publicly acknowledged by leading Southerners and one-time
supporters of Slavery like Alexander Stephens, who pressed the claims of
the Negro to fair and even generous treatment at the hands of the
Southern whites. It is certain that these in the main meant well of the
black race. It is equally certain that, difficult as the problem was,
they were more capable of dealing with it than were alien theorizers
from the North, who had hardly seen a Negro save, perhaps, as a waiter
at an hotel.

It is a notable fact that the soldiers who conquered the South were at
this time practically unanimous in support of a policy of reconciliation
and confidence. Sherman, to whom Johnstone surrendered a few days after
Lincoln's death, wished to offer terms for the surrender of all the
Southern forces which would have guaranteed to the seceding States the
full restoration of internal self-government. Grant sent to the
President a reassuring report as to the temper of the South which Sumner
compared to the "whitewashing message of Franklin Pierce" in regard to
Kansas.

Yet it would be absurd to deny that the cleavage between North and
South, inevitable after a prolonged Civil War, required time to heal.
One event might indeed have ended it almost at once, and that event
almost occurred. A foreign menace threatening something valued by both
section