The hand of revenge reached for the shot-gun, and before its deadly presence white leaders were intimidated, driven out, or destroyed. Before 1875 came, the white element in the Republican party at the South was reduced to a mere shadow of its former self. Thus abandoned, the Negro needed the presence of the United States army while he voted, held office, and drew his salary. But even the army lacked the power to inject life into the collapsed governments at the South.
The mistake of reconstruction was twofold: on the part of the Federal Government, in committing the destinies of the Southern States to hands so feeble; and on the part of the South, in that its best men, instead of taking a lively interest in rebuilding the governments they had torn down, allowed them to be constructed with untempered mortar. Neither the South nor the Government could say: "Thou canst not say I did it: shake not thy gory locks at me." Both were culpable, and both have suffered the pangs of remorse.
FOOTNOTES:
[116] I am preparing a History of the Reconstruction of the Late Confederate States, 1865-1880. Hence I shall not enter into a thorough treatment of the subject in this work. It will follow this work, and comprise two volumes.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE RESULTS OF EMANCIPATION.
The Apparent Idleness of the Negro Sporadic rather than Generic.—He quietly settles down to Work.—The Government makes Ample Provisions for his Educational and Social Improvement.—The Marvellous Progress made by the People of the South in Education.—Earliest School for Freedmen at Fortress Monroe in 1861.—The Richmond Institute for Colored Youth.—The Unlimited Desire of the Negroes to obtain an Education.—General Order organizing a "Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands."—Gen. O. O. Howard appointed Commissioner of the Bureau.—Report of all the Receipts and Expenditures of the Freedmen's Bureau from 1865-1867.—An Act incorporating the Freedman's Bank and Trust Company.—The Business of the Company as shown From 1866-1871.—Financial Statement by the Trustees for 1872.—Failure of the Bank.—The Social and Financial Condition of the Colored People in the South.—The Negro rarely receives Justice in Southern Courts.—Treatment of Negroes as Convicts in Southern Prisons.—Increase of the Colored People from 1790-1880.—Negroes susceptible of the Highest Civilization.
SURELY some good did come out of Nazareth. The poor, deluded, misguided, confiding Negro finished his long holiday at last, and turning from the dream of "forty acres and a mule," settled down to the stubborn realities of his new life of duties, responsibilities, and privileges. His idleness was sporadic, not generic,—it was simply reaction. He had worked faithfully, incessantly for two centuries and a half; had enriched the South with the sweat of his brow; and in two wars had baptized the soil with his patriotic blood. And when the year of jubilee came he enjoyed himself right royally.