Reconstruction: Political & Economic, 1865-1877

IN a short history of the period covered by this volume the chief problem is that of just proportion as to affairs in the two lately warring sections. Many things contributed to keep conditions in the South in the forefront of contemporaneous interest; and the historian cannot but feel the influence of this fact. Moreover, few episodes of recorded history more urgently invite thorough analysis and extended reflection than the struggle through which the southern whites, subjugated by adversaries of their own race, thwarted the scheme which threatened permanent subjection to another race. From the point of view of social and political science in general, the South bulks largest in the history of reconstruction. But our point of view in the present volume is different. We must regard the period as a step in the progress of the American nation. In this aspect the North claims our principal attention. The social, economic, and political forces that wrought positively for progress are to be found in the record, not of the vanquished, but of the victorious section. In this record there is less that is spectacular, less that is pathetic, and

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