The condition that faced the country at the close of the Civil War was a sad and serious illustration of the proverb that it is easier to destroy than to create, easier to pull down than to build up. To weld again the states into an harmonious union was a great task, made more difficult by the injection of a problem that was new, grave and without precedent. No nation had ever before been called upon to meet such a situation. Here were four millions of Negroes, recently emancipated, to be in some way absorbed in the body politic. How this could be done to the advantage of the freedmen, their former owners and the country, became a question of national proportions. The situation, too, presented a political phase, complicated by race antagonism, which made the work of the restoration and the reconstruction of the southern states not only difficult, but extremely uncertain. “It was most emphatically untrodden ground, an unexplored sea; and there were neither land-marks nor chart.” It was inevitable that whatever was done would be experimental and tentative. And, as if to paralyze and destroy any effort that might be made to adjust conditions so that a permanent peace and prosperity and happiness might follow, fell assassination came and struck down the great emancipator—the man best prepared to guide the ship of state through such difficulties and dangers. It is easy enough for the men of our time to criticise, to find fault with and to underrate the efforts of the statesmen of forty years ago who devised the plan for the reconstruction of the states which had been in rebellion. But when one considers the intrinsic difficulties of the situation, he cannot but be impressed with the patriotism, the justice and the earnestness of purpose of such men as Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens and Oliver P. Morton. The splendid legislation which their giant intellects matured and their indefatigable efforts helped to enact is the best evidence of their power of perception, foresight and judgment. The whole country owes a debt of gratitude to the superb statesmanship of these men, but the Negro race is preeminently the beneficiary of their mighty thoughts and prodigious labors. For out of the conflicts of purposes and plans for rebuilding a shattered nation, there were evolved with their aid the three great war amendments, guaranteeing to the Negro freedom, citizenship and the elective franchise. To weave into the organic law these marks of manhood for the black man was a fit return of a grateful country for the support he had given it in time of its distress. He had protected the government with the bayonet, it was right he should be granted the privilege of serving it with the ballot.