an operation would have required more time than I was able to devote to
it.

My facilities for obtaining information were not equally extensive in the
different States I visited. As they naturally depended somewhat upon the
time the military had had to occupy and explore the country, as well as
upon the progressive development of things generally, they improved from
day to day as I went on, and were best in the States I visited last. It is
owing to this circumstance that I cannot give as detailed an account of
the condition of things in South Carolina and Georgia as I am able to give
with regard to Louisiana and Mississippi.

Instead of describing the experiences of my journey in chronological
order, which would lead to endless repetitions and a confused mingling
of the different subjects under consideration, I propose to arrange my
observations under different heads according to the subject matter. It
is true, not all that can be said of the people of one State will apply
with equal force to the people of another; but it will be easy to make
the necessary distinctions when in the course of this report they become
of any importance. I beg to be understood when using, for the sake of
brevity, the term "the southern people," as meaning only the people of
the States I have visited.

CONDITION OF THINGS IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE CLOSE OF THE WAR.

In the development of the popular spirit in the south since the close of
the war two well-marked periods can be distinguished. The first commences
with the sudden collapse of the confederacy and the dispersion of its
armies, and the second with the first proclamation indicating the
"reconstruction policy" of the government. Of the first period I can state