ghouls, making their nocturnal rounds in their hideous masks
and uniforms, frightened all but the most hardy. Any who showed fight
were whipped, maimed, or killed, treatment which extended on occasion to
their "carpet-bag" and "scalawag" friends--these titles denoting
respectively northern and southern men bold enough to take the negroes'
side. The very violence of the order, which it at last turned against
the old Southrons themselves, brought it into disrepute with its
original instigators, who were not sorry when federal marshals, put up
to it by President Grant, hunted den after den of the law-breakers to
the death.

Yet, after all, one cannot see how the giant problem of resuscitating
the South could, under the circumstances, have been solved more
successfully. The plan proposed by President Johnson had sufficient
trial to show that it must have led to ills worse than those actually
experienced. A qualified colored suffrage would, as things then were,
have been abused. It must be remembered that the war left in the South
much less of white loyalty than it found, and Congress was certainly
justified in insisting that the revived States should be placed on the
most loyal basis possible.

Withal, considering the stupendous upheaval in southern society marked
by the erection of bondmen into full citizens, dark days were few.
Schools arose, partly from the application of a large fund left by Mr.
George Peabody for that purpose, partly from the beneficence of the
various religious denominations interested in the elevation of the
blacks, and partly from provision by the southern States themselves. The
ballot itself proved an educator, rough but thorough. The negro vote,
now that it had become a fixed fact, was little by little courted by the
jarring factions of whites, and hence protected. Political parties,
particularly in state elections, more and more divided on other lines
than that of color. The administration of President Cleveland taught the
negro that even in National affairs he had nothing to fear from
democratic dominance. And it was plainly to the freedman's infinite
advantage, meanwhile, that he was fighting not to acquire status and
rights, but for acquired status and rights guaranteed in the organic law
of his State and the Nation.

[1875]

Among the white people loyalty to the old flag increased with the days.
Of course none of them would ever confess regret at having drawn the
sword, or cease to thin