vaguely anticipated, until at last the appearance of the North Carolina
proclamation substituted new hopes for them. The development of this
second period I was called upon to observe on the spot, and it forms the
main subject of this report.

RETURNING LOYALTY.

It is a well-known fact that in the States south of Tennessee and North
Carolina the number of white Unionists who during the war actively aided
the government, or at least openly professed their attachment to the cause
of the Union, was very small. In none of those States were they strong
enough to exercise any decisive influence upon the action of the people,
not even in Louisiana, unless vigorously supported by the power of the
general government. But the white people at large being, under certain
conditions, charged with taking the preliminaries of "reconstruction" into
their hands, the success of the experiment depends upon the spirit and
attitude of those who either attached themselves to the secession cause
from the beginning, or, entertaining originally opposite views, at least
followed its fortunes from the time that their States had declared their
separation from the Union.

The first southern men of this class with whom I came into contact
immediately after my arrival in South Carolina expressed their
sentiments almost literally in the following language: "We acknowledge
ourselves beaten, and we are ready to submit to the results of the war.
The war has practically decided that no State shall secede and that the
slaves are emancipated. We cannot be expected at once to give up our
principles and convictions of right, but we accept facts as they are,
and desire to be reinstated as soon as possible in the enjoyment and
exercise of our political rights." This declaration was repeated to me