So it was
a life of hard work upon which I entered when I took my seat
in the House of Representatives on the 4th of March, 1869.
The thirty-four years that have followed have been for me
years of incessant labor.
CHAPTER XVII
RECONSTRUCTION
The reconstruction policy of the Republican Party has been
bitterly denounced. Some men who supported it are in the
habit now of calling it a failure. It never commanded in
its fullest extent the cordial support of the whole party.
But it was very simple. So far as it applied to the Southern
whites who had been in rebellion it consisted only of complete
amnesty and full restoration to political rights. No man
was ever punished for taking part in the rebellion after
he laid down his arms. There is no other instance of such
magnanimity in history. The War left behind it little bitterness
in the hearts of the conquerors. All they demanded of the
conquered was submission in good faith to the law of the land
and the will of the people as it might be constitutionally
declared.
Their policy toward the colored people was simply the application
to them of the principles applied to the whites, as set forth
in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution
of nearly every State in the Union.
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