The boom of batteries in the harbor of Charleston on a beautiful April day in 1861 was the beginning of a bloody fraternal strife which laid desolate the happy homes of the people everywhere, brought about the sacrifice of a half million lives and cost the country ten billions of money. The war between the Confederate States and the United States brought about the greatest political and social revolution known to history. That revolution brought political, industrial and financial ruin upon the South. When peace came a race of servile slaves were made masters of her political destiny. The Anglo Saxon has never bowed his head to the yoke of an inferior race and he never will. We see now that it was cruel to condemn a brave though fallen people to the suffering and humiliation which became their portion. The enfranchisement of the negro was a mistake. It was a stupendous blunder, and is now recognized as such by thoughtful students of events everywhere. After the negro had been clothed with the right of suffrage the Southern people made an honest effort to give him a fair trial. If he proved to be a worthy citizen the fears of the people would be groundless. The Confederate States had given up their struggle for an independent nationality upon a basis of freedom for the negro race. While the best and most thoughtful men of the South believed that the experiment of negro suffrage would ruin the country and prove fatal to the negroes they knew that the trial must be made. They felt that they were bound to the soil of the South for life, and they wanted to sleep in its bosom after death. They tried to make that noble sentiment, which a great man has given the world, their guide: "He who does the best his circumstances allow does well, acts nobly; angels could not do more." The South had suffered through four years of war. The blood of the best and bravest had deluged the land. The whitened bones of her sons lay upon the hilltops of Virginia and were strewn over the fertile valleys of Mississippi. The people thought that they had suffered enough. The bitter and humiliating chalice of negro rule was yet to be pressed to their lips. At the end of the war there was no ill will against the negro in the hearts of the Southern people. The following extract from the charge of Judge Clayton of Alabama to the grand jury of Pike County, made September 9th, 1866, shows the prevailing statement: