It has been claimed with great sincerity and not without
plausible reason that a great hardship and wrong was inflicted
by the victorious North on their fellow citizens when the
political power in their States was given over to their former
slaves. This consideration had great force in the minds of
many influential Republicans in the North. Governor Andrew
of Massachusetts, Governor Morton of Indiana, afterward Senator,
men whose influence was probably unsurpassed by any other
two men in the country, save Grant and Sumner alone, were
of that way of thinking. They thought that our true policy
was to let the men who had led their States into the Rebellion
take the responsibility of restoring them to their old relations.
It is not unlikely that the strength of the Republican Party
would have been seriously impaired, perhaps overthrown, by
the division of sentiment on this subject. But the white
Democrats in the South were blind to their own interest. President
Johnson permitted them in several States to take into their
hands again the power of government. They proceeded to pass
laws which if carried out would have had the effect of reducing
the negro once more to a condition of practical slavery.
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