igher conceptions of man's relation to his fellow found
echo or inscription in either the common or written law. Locality,
nationality, race, sex, religion, or social manner may differ, but the
accord of desire for civil liberty--the "torch lit up in the soul by the
omnipotent hand of Deity itself"--is ever the same. Constitutional law
"was not attained by sudden flight," but it is the product of reform,
with success and restraint alternating through generations. It is the
ripeness of a thousand years of ever-recurring tillage, blushing its
scarlet rays of blood and conquest ante-dating historic "Runny Meade."

It is well to occasionally have such reminiscent thought; it makes us
less pessimistic and gives life to strive and spirit and hope. We cannot
unmake human nature, but can certainly improve conditions by
self-denial, earnest thought, and wise action.

CHAPTER XII.

Previous to my resolve to settle in the South I had read and learned
much of politics and politicians; the first as being environed by
abnormal conditions unstable and disquieting--the class that had
established and controlled the economy of the Southern States; had been
deposed in the wage of sanguinary battle on many well contested
fields--deposed by an opponent equally brave, and of unlimited
resources; defeated, but unsubdued in the strength of conviction in the
rightfulness of their cause. A submission of the hand but not of the
heart. New constitutions granting all born beneath the flag equality of
citizenship and laws in unison adopted, and new officers alien to local
feeling were the executors.

It is unnecessary here to remark that if a succession of love feasts had
been anticipated, they had been indefinitely postponed.

For the officers of the new system were by their whilom predecessors
ordered to go "nor stand upon the order of their going," the bullet at
times conveying the order. Assassinations, lynchings, and reprisals by
both parties to the feud were of daily occurrence. The future for life,
liberty, and pursuit of happiness in busy city or sylvan grove, was not
alluring. My subsequent career makes it necessary for me to arise to
explain. Taking at the time a calm survey of the situation, an addition
to the column of martyrs seemed to me unnecessary. I believed in the
principles of the Republican party and as a private I was willing to
vote, work, and be slightly crippled; but had not reached the bleeding
and dying point.