Texas annually expends about $2,778,000 for the support of public free schools. Notwithstanding the negroes own but little property and pay scarcely any taxes-not even a poll tax -and the burden of sustaining the free schools is borne by the white population almost exclusively, yet in the disbursement of the school funds no discrimination is made against colored children, but they and the white children fare alike.

Complete reports were not made to the Superintendent of public instruction of the state from all the counties last year, but from what were made, we learn that during the year, 364,744 children, between the ages of eight and sixteen attended the free schools, of which number, 280,281 were white, and 84,463 were colored children. Considering the respective number of whites and blacks in the state, this is a good showing for the colored people.

During the administration of E. J. Davis, the taxes levied for the support of free schools for one year were many times greater than the annual tax levied by the state under Democratic rule, and more school-houses are now built each year, than were built during the entire period of the Davis administration, while the schools are incomparably better.

The white people of Texas believe that the best remedy for all the evils which may flow from "universal suffrage, is "universal education," and in the interests of good government, they have thought proper to give the colored people the advantages of a common, school education, with the hope that it may help to qualify them for the discharge of the duties incumbent upon American citizens.

In Texas the relations between the white and colored people have always been amicable and peaceable. In a few localities in the state, disturbances have occurred, but there has been no serious conflict between the white and colored races, nor is any such conflict apprehended. With the exception of the Washington County case before the Senate of the United States at its last session, (and which was not sustained by evidence) it has never been charged that in Texas colored men have been prevented from voting as they pleased; nor has it been alleged that their votes were not properly counted. Texas has entered upon an era of unexampled prosperity

Her delightful climate, which permits outdoor work in every month of the year, and her cheap and productive lands, together with light taxation and exceptional educational institutions, have attracted white immigrants from every state in the Union, as well as from Europe, and this immigration is increasing so rapidly, that with us the negro will soon fail to excite solicitude upon the part of any political party. What we want in Texas is to be let alone by the Federal Government and to be allowed to manage our local affairs.

Our people earnestly hope that no policy will be adopted by the present or any future Administration of the Federal Government that does not embrace within its scope the whole country.

We have had enough of a "Southern policy" during the "reconstruction period," the evils of which, at least to some extent, I have endeavored to describe in this paper. We trust that the people of no section of the United States will ever again be willing to see a Government of any of the States in this Union, established by the people thereof, supplanted by a military despotism.

CHAS. STEWART.

THE

CHAPTER XIV.

RECONSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA.

I. INTRODUCTORY.

HE loss of Lincoln was a calamity to the South second only to the war. But for that sad event, the States, with their autonomy, would, in fact and law, have continued self-government in union, on the line that he had marked, and the horrors of reconstruction would have been avoided.

Providentially, the leadership of the dominant political party was then in the hands of Lincoln, Seward, Chase, and such like, the former holding the executive power and the supreme command and direction of all federal forces, with the entire military and executive duty and responsibility imposed upon him, by the Constitution and the laws passed in pursuance of it, of closing the war, establishing peace, and securing the fruits of victory; the most important of these being to restore the Union, which in constitution and in nature, could but be, at any given time, as Article I. phrases it, "the several states which may be included within this union." There was actually no opening for any reconstruction that was not unlawful and revolutionary; and, indeed, there was nothing to reconstruct; the states were complete, and the "union" "included" them all. This absolute truth, the Government declared and proclaimed as a fact accomplished -a truth-under the seal of the United States, on April 2d, 1866.

What "Course" did Congress Mark?

The answer is gravely important. In July, 1861, Congress resolved, (every Republican, in the House but two, and all in the Senate but one, voting yes), that this war is not

waged in "a spirit of oppression, or for conquest or subjugation, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several states unimpaired; and that, as soon as these objects are attained the war ought

to cease.

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What was then the Actual Situation,

according to the Constitution and laws? Congress had always treated secession as a nullity and as rebellion, and had pledged its faith that the war was purposed only to save the Union, and was not for oppression, conquest or subjugation. Lincoln had, throughout the war, held secession to be null, and the states to be in the Union, but acting rebelliously.

Johnson, as history shows, "took the position that a state could not secede, and that, therefore, none of the Southern States had ever been really out of the Union."

And, finally, the Supreme Federal Court settled the matter forever, in never-varying wisdom and justice, in the cases of Texas v. White (7 Wall., 700), White v. Hart (13 Wall., 651), United States v. Ins. Co. (22 Wall., 99), Keith v. Clark (97 U. S., 454), and many others, holding the nullity of secession, the continuance of the Union during the war, the indestructibility of the states, and the validity of all their acts during the war which were not hostile to the Union or conflicting with the Constitution. And in 22 Wallace, 99, they cite the above cases and others, and say: "After these emphatic utterances, controversy on this subject should cease."

When the laying down of arms was completed, the dawn which had cheered the close of Lincoln's life had become the full day of peace; the Confederates had surrendered and been paroled. They were to go home, obey the laws there, pursue the arts of peace, keep their parole, and wage war no more. Habituated to institutional liberty, and relying on the good faith and magnanimity of the victors, the subdued states and their citizens went to work earnestly and honorably, in gradually restoring order, law and justice; and they ever afterwards adhered to the terms and obeyed them, without any attempt at evasion or murmur of discontent; and neither

their good faith, nor their obedience to the "supreme law," was ever impugned.

Look Now at the Terms and Conditions.

1. Lay down your arms and submit to the Constitution. 2. Resume your action in the Union, observe its requirements, and abandon secession as a remedy under it.

3. Abolish slavery.

4. Agree to the sacredness of the Federal war debt, and the nullity of the Confederate one.

History shows that these terms were fully complied with; and that the unity called "the Government," representing the United States, so declared on the second of April, 1866. "The United States," an association of equals, had resumed business, and Congress was, at best, its agent, with "defined duties" and "designated objects of attention," (to use the very words of Washington, on this subject, in his first inaugural), to which "duties" and "objects" every Congressman had sworn to confine himself.

The Government of the United States is a unit; Congress acts and binds it; so does the executive, and so does the judiciary-each in its sphere. The executive holds the seal of the United States; and by affixing it, and promulgating the act, it binds the whole Government, and makes any attempt of Congress to undo or frustrate the same, unconstitutional, if not revolutionary.

II. STEPS FROM WAR TO PEACE.

After the Confederate arms were laid down, the triune personality called "the Government of the United States," took many steps in the establishment of peaceful conditions, beginning early in 1865, and ending in what may be called! de jure peace that of April 2, 1866-all being done with the universal wish of the people. De facto peace had been enjoyed for nearly a year, with its increasing order, industry, prosperity and content; and it had convinced every mind, and made every heart feel, not only that "the Southern people could be trusted," but that they were as fit as ever for liberty and self