would, perhaps, be worth while for the government to order up reports
about the number of oaths administered by the officers authorized to do
so, previous to the elections for the State conventions; such reports
would serve to indicate how large a proportion of the people participated
in the reconstruction movement at that time, and to what extent the masses
were represented in the conventions.

Of those who have not yet taken the oath of allegiance, most belong to the
class of indifferent people who "do not care one way or the other." There
are still some individuals who find the oath to be a confession of defeat
and a declaration of submission too humiliating and too repugnant to their
feelings. It is to be expected that the former will gradually overcome
their apathy, and the latter their sensitiveness, and that, at a not
remote day, all will have qualified themselves, in point of form, to
resume the right of citizenship. On the whole, it may be said that the
value of the oaths taken in the southern States is neither above nor below
the value of the political oaths taken in other countries. A historical
examination of the subject of political oaths will lead to the conclusion
that they can be very serviceable in certain emergencies and for certain
objects, but that they have never insured the stability of a government,
and never improved the morals of a people.

FEELING TOWARDS THE SOLDIERS AND THE PEOPLE OF THE NORTH.

A more substantial evidence of "returning loyalty" would be a favorable
change of feeling with regard to the government's friends and agents, and
the people of the loyal States generally. I mentioned above that all
organized attacks upon our military forces stationed in the south have
ceased; but there are still localities where it is unsafe for a man
wearing the federal uniform or known as an officer of the government to be