rposed, that carping criticism would be
indulged, that gross outrages would be perpetrated, that absurd
conditions would be demanded, and that finally a postponement of the
whole procedure would be hazarded, indeed its utter failure secured,
by the lack of tact, by the willfulness, and by the apparent ignorance
of the Southern men who were in control.

The kindness, consideration, gentleness of Mr. Seward's
recommendations, instead of securing a return of like feeling, seemed
rather to inflame the misjudging men of the South with a new sense of
resentment. Instead of calling forth the natural and proper response,
it appeared rather to impress them afresh with that vain imagination
of Northern timidity which had always been the besetting weakness of
the South. It seemed impossible at the time, it seems even more
plainly impossible on a review of the facts after the lapse of years,
that any body of reasonable men could behave with the ineffable folly
that marked the proceedings of the Reconstruction Conventions in the
South, and the still greater folly that governed the succeeding
Legislatures of the lately rebellious States.

In the President's proclamation accompanying the appointment of
provisional governors he had taken the ground that "the Rebellion, in
its revolutionary progress, has deprived the people (of the revolting
States) of all civil Government." It is evident, therefore, that the
President--eager and even impatient as he was for the process of
reconstruction to be completed--expected that a new Government would
be built on the full recognition of the new order of things, casting
behind all that pertained to the old, or had the spirit of the old.
"No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that
which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent
is made worse." This Scripture was exactly applicable to the Southern
Conventions which assembled for reconstruction. They could begin anew
with organic laws adapted to the great revolution which had swept over
them, or they could patch up the old constitutions now become
indissolubly associated with a rebellion which had been fostered and
protected under their provisions. In every State the Southern leaders
chose the latter form of procedure. They assumed that the old
constitutions were still in full force and vigor, and they made only
such amendments to them as would in their judgment promptly insure to
their States the ri