1. Those who, although having yielded submission to the national
government only when obliged to do so, have a clear perception of the
irreversible changes produced by the war, and honestly endeavor to
accommodate themselves to the new order of things. Many of them are not
free from traditional prejudice but open to conviction, and may be
expected to act in good faith whatever they do. This class is composed, in
its majority, of persons of mature age--planters, merchants, and
professional men; some of them are active in the reconstruction movement,
but boldness and energy are, with a few individual exceptions, not among
their distinguishing qualities.

2. Those whose principal object is to have the States without delay
restored to their position and influence in the Union and the people of
the States to the absolute control of their home concerns. They are ready,
in order to attain that object, to make any ostensible concession that
will not prevent them from arranging things to suit their taste as soon as
that object is attained. This class comprises a considerable number,
probably a large majority, of the professional politicians who are
extremely active in the reconstruction movement. They are loud in their
praise of the President's reconstruction policy, and clamorous for the
withdrawal of the federal troops and the abolition of the Freedmen's
Bureau.

3. The incorrigibles, who still indulge in the swagger which was so
customary before and during the war, and still hope for a time when the
southern confederacy will achieve its independence. This class consists
mostly of young men, and comprises the loiterers of the towns and the
idlers of the country. They persecute Union men and negroes whenever they
can do so with impunity, insist clamorously upon their "rights," and are
extremely impatient of the presence of the federal soldiers. A good many