erans had returned to their homes, to engage again in the productive pursuits of peace.
The legitimate work of armies had ended, and the crowning work of statesmen had begun. To reconstruct the Union, so as to secure the fruits of victory was no easy task. The enduring interests of the Nation seemed imperatively to demand that the equality of rights and privileges of all citizens, without distinction of race, color or previous condition, should be secured and the ascendency of loyalty assured. This great work demanded patience, foresight and the highest qualities of statesmanship.
Had the President, Congress and the loyal people acted in complete harmony, the temper of the people of the rebel states, and the disordered condition of these states, together with the emancipation of more than three million slaves, and the losses, poverty and suffering of the masses, would have made the work of a reconstruction, which should bring peace, order, law and security, one of great delicacy and difficulty. But the task of reconstruction had been complicated by the President; he had early entered upon what he called an experiment, but he soon came to regard that experiment as a governmental policy. The Republicans deemed the experiment premature, and the policy wholly inadequate to meet the wants of the country. That policy had resulted, as the leading Republicans warned the President it would result,