Then, the leaders had succeeded in ripening the people for a revolution against law and order, if that were necessary for the maintenance of issues, differing in character, but similar in design and spirit, to those sought to be gained by the war of the rebellion.
Then, a reign of terror had been inaugurated in the community which compelled the tacit acquiescence of those who, desiring to express their opinions, were denied the right through the fear of social and political ostracism and physical violence.
Then, the Government was in the hands of Andrew Johnson, and the hopes of good and just men everywhere, in all sections of the country, of arriving at a peaceful solution of the difficulties through reconstruction, were blasted, and gave no signs of verification in fruition.
Then, the same spirit was rampant that plunged the country into a sanguinary war, and did not hesitate to express itself in a determined resistance to the new order of things produced by that war.
Then, men embraced and kissed their wives and children at night, as if leaving them for a far-off journey, not knowing, when they lay down, whether they should awake to peaceful sunlight or to a cabin strewn with the bodies of the loved ones.
Then had begun the first fruits of the great judgments through which the people were eventually to pass, and by which alone, it appeared they could be redeemed.
And now came the promise of a new order of things. The political situation of the country had changed. The reins of government passed into the hands of men of whom much was expected. Three years have intervened. The false issues that had been raised among the masses are now being swept away. The disorganizing elements are tottering to a fall, and those who had fostered them are seeking to excuse and palliate their course.
They complain that the civil government of the Southern States had passed into the hands of carpet-baggers, who had been forced upon them, who were engaged in plundering the people, encouraging the negroes to pillage and destroy the property of the country, and placing them in positions where they could rule over white men.
But this was not in any manner the real trouble. The same oppressive spirit that actuated these men during the days when slavery was a recognized institution among them, still obtained. Neither the men of the South nor the sojourners from the North were allowed in those days to freely express their opinions, if those opinions chanced to be in opposition to slavery.
What was treason then against the social and political rights of these would-be-masters of a race, is treason now in their minds; for they have not yet learned to tolerate the free expression of sentiments in such exact antipodes to their early educational training.