white folks indulge in. The country negroes flocked to the
towns and cities in great numbers, and the freedmen's bureau, active
as its agents were, had a great deal more than it could attend to. Such
peace and order as existed was not maintained by any authority, but grew
naturally out of the awe that had come over both whites and blacks at
finding their condition and their relations so changed. The whites could
hardly believe that slavery no longer existed. The negroes had grave
doubts as to whether they were really free. To make matters worse, a
great many small politicians, under pretense of protecting the negroes,
but really to secure their votes, began a crusade against the South in
Congress, the like of which can hardly be found paralleled outside of
our own history. The people of the South found out long ago that the
politicians of the hour did not represent the intentions and desires of
the people of the North; and there is much comfort and consolation to
be got out of that fact, even at this late day. But at that time the
bitterest dose of reconstruction was the belief that the best opinion of
the North sustained the ruinous policy that had been put in operation.

The leading men of the State were all disfranchised,--deprived of
the privilege of voting, a privilege that was freely conferred on the
negroes. A newspaper editor in Macon was imprisoned, and his paper
suppressed, for declaring, in regard to taking the amnesty oath, that
he had to "fortify himself for the occasion with a good deal of Dutch
courage." The wife of General Toombs was ordered by an assistant
commissioner of the freedmen's bureau to vacate her home with only two
weeks' provisions, the grounds of the order being that the premises were
"abandoned property," and, as such, were to be seized, and applied
to the uses of the freedmen's bureau. The superior officer of this
assistant commissioner, being a humane and kindly man, revoked the
order.

These were the days when the carpet-bagger and the scalawag
flourished,--the camp followers of the Northern army, who wanted money
and office; and the native-born Southerner, who wanted office and money.
There is no doubt that the indignities heaped on the people led to acts
of retaliation that nothing else could excuse; but they were driven
to desperation. It seemed, in that hour, that their liberties had been
entirely withdrawn. Governor Brown, who had formerly been so popular,
was denounced because he