Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/357

Rh ing a return to power of the negro element, which was in a majority in many sections of the South.

To accomplish this required the greatest skill, courage and patience. The means resorted to at times varied as, the occasion demanded, not always approved by the best citizenship, but deemed necessary generally to effect the, purpose. This period was a very trying one, and brought out prominently the leading characteristics of the Southern people in their resolve never again to submit to negroism and its baneful results. The Southern people knew that they alone could solve the great social problem of the races. They, white and black, lived together; they had seen that the effort made by strangers from the North, who had attempted to administer their affairs when local self-government had been suppressed, had proved to be a woeful failure.

They felt that the people of the North would soon see that it was better to permit the people of the South to solve their own difficult problems themselves and without further interference. As the people felt more secure, a more liberal legislation and policy were adopted toward the negro race, and they themselves see how much better everything works since they ceased to give so much attention to politics and more to their material wants and education. This period from 1885 to 1895 was really a period of readjustment to normal conditions in the South, and the people were really too busy and too anxious in their hard work of restoration and in making permanent their new boon of self-government, to take any great interest in national affairs.

The year 1895 was really the year when the North and South were again permanently cemented together in good feeling and in a broad national spirit. It is true this feeling had grown steadily since the inauguration of President Cleveland, but it bore substantial fruit in 1895. Then were the three prominent events of the year to emphasize fraternal feeling, and to encourage and broaden