I know of no instance in the various history of mankind which equals in absurdity the presumption of the originators of our “Reconstruction policy” that the master class would accept cordially the conditions forced upon them, or that the enfranchised class would prove equal to the burden so unceremoniously forced upon them.  On the one hand, a proud and haughty people, who had stubbornly contested the right of the government to interfere with the extension of slavery, not to say confiscation of slave property—­a people rich in lands, in mental resources, in courage; on the other, a poor, despised people, without lands, without money, without mental resources, without moral character—­these peoples equal, indeed!  These peoples go peaceably to the ballot-box together to decide upon the destiny of government!  These peoples melt into an harmonious citizenry!  These peoples have and exercise mutual confidence, esteem and appreciation of their common rights!  These peoples dissolve into one people! The bare statement of the case condemns it as impracticable, illusory, in the extreme.  And, yet, these two peoples, so different in character, in education and material condition, were turned loose to enjoy the same benefits in common—­to be one!  And the wise men of the nation—­as, Tourgee’s Fool ironically names them—­thought they were legislating for the best; thought they were doing their duty.  And, so, having made the people free, and equal before the law, and given them the ballot with which to settle their disputes, the “wise men” left the people to live in peace if they could, and to cut each other’s throats if they could not.  That they should have proceeded to cut each other’s throats was as natural as it is for day to follow night.

I do not desire to be understood as inveighing against the manumission of the slave or the enfranchisement of the new-made free man.  To do so, would be most paradoxical on my part, who was born a slave and spent the first nine years of my life in that most unnatural condition.  What I do inveigh against, is the unequal manner in which the colored people were pitted against the white people; the placing of these helpless people absolutely in the power of this hereditary foeman—­more absolutely in their power, at their mercy, than under the merciless system of slavery, when sordid interest dictated a modicum of humanity and care in treatment.  And I arraign the “Reconstruction policy” as one of the hollowest pieces of perfidy ever perpetrated upon an innocent, helpless people; and in the treatment of the issues growing out of that policy, I arraign the dominant party of the time for base ingratitude, subterfuge and hypocrisy to its black partisan allies.  With the whole power of the government at its back, and with a Constitution so amended as to extend the amplest protection to the new-made citizen, it left him to the inhuman mercy of men whose uncurbed passions, whose deeds of lawlessness and defiance, pale into