The result of
his policy.
Order and peace were quickly established everywhere, and the plundered and impoverished South could at last take hope and feel courage to make a new effort to recover some degree of prosperity and some measure of domestic content. For ten years the dark night of domination by the negro and adventurer had rested upon the unhappy section, until it had been reduced to the very abomination of desolation. Broken in health and fortune, sick at heart, conscious of the terrible degradation which had been imposed upon them, and politically ostracized, the better part of the white population of the South had staggered and groped through the hideous experiences of this period, and such of them as had not perished during the awful passage had now at last been relieved of the frightful scourge, and half dazed, as if just recovering from a terrible nightmare, found themselves again in the places of power and responsibility. But they brought with them, as their dominant passion, undying hatred of the Republican party as the author of all their woes, and as their dominant policy, the stern and unbending resolve to stand together as one man against every movement which had even the slightest tendency toward a restoration of the hated conditions from which they had escaped. No sane mind can wonder at "the solid South," or at the Democratic South. Life, property, happiness, honor, civilization, everything which makes existence endurable demanded that the decent white men of the South should stand shoulder to shoulder in defending their families, their homes and their communities from any return of the vile plague under which they had suffered so long and so cruelly; and human instinct determined that this should be done in connection with that party which was hostile to the Republican party. The differences which lead to a fair fight and the wounds which are received in it are easily healed, but indignities heaped upon a fallen foe create a bitterness of heart that lasts so long as life endures.
Slavery was a great wrong, and secession was an error and a terrible blunder, but Reconstruction was a punishment so far in excess of the
Reconciliation between
the North and the South.
CHAPTER XIV
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES BETWEEN 1867 AND 1877
[The Purchase of Alaska]—[The Contention of the House of Representatives in Regard to its Power over Treaties]—[The Senate's Position and the Compromise]—[Irritation of the American People against Great Britain]—[The Johnson-Clarendon Treaty]—[President Grant's Statements in His First Annual Message and in His Second Annual Address]—[Sir John Rose's Mission to the United States—The Joint High Commission]—[The Treaty of Washington]—[The Alabama Claims and the Geneva Convention]—[Triumph of the Diplomacy of the United States]—[Organization of the Tribunal and Filing of the Cases]—[The Controversy between Mr. Fish and Lord Granville]—[The Filing of the Counter Cases and the Argument]—[Obstacles—Decision of the Tribunal in Regard to National and Indirect Damages]—[The Decision of the Tribunal in the Case of the Florida]—[The Decision in the Case of the Alabama]—[The Decision in the Case of the Shenandoah, and other Vessels]—[International Principles Settled by the Geneva Tribunal]—[The Northwest Boundary Question]—[The Fisheries Question]—[The Halifax Commission and Award]—[The Burlingame Treaty with China]—[The Attempt to Annex the Dominican Republic to the United States]—[The Treaty]—[The Treaty before the Senate]—[Its Rejection]—[The President's Attempt to Renew Negotiations]—[The Committee of Inquiry]—[The Report of the Committee]—[The Abandonment of the Scheme].