The entire amount expended by the National government, by States, counties and towns, and contributed in other ways to the comfort or sustenance of the army, is computed at $4,000,000,000. The support of the Southern army cannot be ascertained, but it is thought that those expenses and the destruction of property inflicted about an equal loss on them.
These losses in life and property are fearful; but they are the price of Freedom and of Nationality. The general prosperity of the country has made it richer than before, while natural increase and immigration have filled the places vacant by death.
The South was hopeless and exhausted at the close of the war. It had been feared that a guerrilla war, the most desolating and bloody of all wars, would follow the defeat of the great armies. It could result only in destruction of what remained to the Southern people, and they submitted quietly to their fate. Various excesses and deeds of blood were indeed committed, but they were not sympathized with by the mass of the people. It was only the desperate and lawless class that came to the surface naturally in war.
Many of the influential Southern leaders counseled submission to inevitable necessity, and themselves set the example. The policy of reconstruction adopted by the National government, excluded, at first, all who had taken a part in the rebellion from political influence. The loyal element, small as it was, was alone to restore the Southern States to their place in the Union. It was, however, proposed to admit others, both individuals and classes, to participation in political action as they proved themselves trustworthy and loyal to the new order of things. After some years, and when it was felt to be quite safe, these disabilities were nearly all removed.
The most distasteful act of the General Government, to the people of the South, was clothing the blacks with the rights of citizens. They received the elective franchise, and assisted to rule over their former masters. It was considered necessary, since they had now no masters to be interested in them, to give them the power to protect themselves, and to elevate them to something of influence and respectability by force of the ballot. That advantage given them, they must take their chances with others, and win their own way. They had been loyal to the Union, which strongly recommended this policy to the government. The Northern people who now settled in the South and the blacks mainly reorganized the State governments. This was the chief punishment inflicted on the Southern people in retaliation for the war they had waged with such fearful energy. It was a clemency quite unexampled in history. No blood was shed after they laid down their arms. The assassination of the beloved President Lincoln made the North thoroughly angry, but no vengeance was taken except on those believed to be immediately connected with the atrocious deed. The most lively indignation had long been felt at the dreadful treatment experienced by prisoners of war in some of the prisons of the South; but the government and the people contented themselves with the punishment of the governor of Andersonville prison, on due civil trial and conviction.
On the whole, the conduct of the Northern people was extremely magnanimous. The dissolution of the Union would have been an irreparable loss to them; they resolved not to suffer it; and, with extraordinary energy, they put in the field more than a million and a half of men, and near 700 vessels, to subdue it, and suffered no reverses to discourage them until this was done. When resistance ceased and the Union was secure, they exacted only the pledges necessary to keep it safe. Appreciating the unfortunate condition to which nearly all the before prosperous classes of the South were reduced, they aided them in their distress, ceased at once all hostile action, and left them to recover from their disasters under as favorable circumstances as their own conduct warranted. The South naturally felt an affection for her Lost Cause, proportionate to the sacrifices she had made and the suffering she had endured for it. Time, and busy care to develop the vast resources that slavery had, in great part, neglected, would gradually restore them to right feeling, and the state of mind fitting them for citizenship. This, in part, has already taken place, and, by and by, the Bonds of the Whole Union will be more firmly cemented than ever before. May it be soon.
CHAPTER XXIX.
HISTORY OF THE U. S. FROM 1865 TO 1874.
May 13—During the week ending with this day there was subscribed to the U. S. seven-thirty loan $98,000,000. It was an expression of the enthusiastic confidence of the people in the government and its resources.
” 22-23—Grand review of Gen. Sherman’s army at Washington. There were 200,000 men.