the old
slavery impossible, and it was probably the only quick method of doing
this. It gave the freedmen's sons a chance to begin their education. It
diverted the energy of the white South slavery to the recovery of
political power, and in this interval, small as it was, the Negro took his
first steps toward economic freedom.

The difficulties that stared reconstruction politicians in the face were
these: (1) They must act quickly. (2) Emancipation had increased the
political power of the South by one-sixth. Could this increased political
power be put in the hands of those who, in defense of slavery, had
disrupted the Union? (3) How was the abolition of slavery to be made
effective? (4) What was to be the political position of the freedmen?

The Freedmen's Bureau in its short life accomplished a great task. Carl
Schurz, in 1865, felt warranted in saying that "not half of the labor that
has been done in the South this year, or will be done there next year,
would have been or would be done but for the exertions of the Freedmen's
Bureau.... No other agency except one placed there by the national
government could have wielded that moral power whose interposition was so
necessary to prevent Southern society from falling at once into the chaos
of a general collision between its different elements."[99]
Notwithstanding this the Bureau was temporary, was regarded as a
makeshift, and soon abandoned.

Meantime partial Negro suffrage seemed not only just, but almost
inevitable. Lincoln, in 1864, "cautiously" suggested to Louisiana's
private consideration "whether some of the colored people may not be let
in as, for instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who fought
gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help in some trying time to
come, to keep the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom." Indeed, the
"family of freedom" in Louisiana being somewhat small just then, who else
was to be intrusted with the "jewel"? Later and for different reasons
Johnson, in 1865, wrote to Mississippi, "If you could extend the elective
franchise to all persons of color who can read the Constitution of the
United States in English and write their name, and to all persons of color
who own real estate valued at not less than two hundred and fifty dollars,
and pay taxes thereon, you would completely disarm the adversary and set
an example the other states will follow. This you can do with perfect
safety, and you thus place the South