The leading white men of the South, therefore, now went to work to reverse the system that had driven so many of the colored people out of the land, and to do every possible thing to regain their confidence, because there was no one who could fill the empty places, and do the needful work. And not only was it now necessary to gain the confidence of the colored man, but even to regain the confidence of white men who had any intention of going South and settling down in that part of the country. There were many men of capital, besides thousands of accomplished artisans, who could both enrich themselves and the Southern States by going and settling down there, but who were now justly alarmed, when they saw whole hosts of orderly and industrious people of color moving away from these self-same States on account of robbers and murders by the very same men among whom they had been planning to go and settle down, to labor and toil, and there to end their days. It was perfectly clear to the most obtuse Southern mind that no Northern man would ever go South and invest his capital where those who ran his mills and cultivated his plantations were liable to be brought down by the shot-gun of the old soldiers of Lee and Jackson, because they voted the Republican ticket—if they even dared to go to the polls at all on election day! This was as bad, or worse, than despotic Russia or Turkey; and therefore Southern men wisely decided to reverse the policy they had adopted towards the colored population, for they now saw that if they did not do so, no capitalists or artisans would ever come South, but remain at home or go elsewhere. On the other hand the exodus was a benefit to the colored race; at least, to a portion of them. Those who emigrated from the Southern States found an abundant entrance, and a warm welcome to the fertile lands of Kansas and other Northern cities and Western States, where there was plenty of land calling for nothing so much as cultivation, and where the oppressed pilgrims and refugees built up for themselves comfortable homes, and they and their children are there to this day. In Kansas and the other States whither they emigrated, the spirit of freedom and justice prevailed, and every man could abide under his own vine and fig tree without having any midnight thugs about to make him afraid. And those who remained behind were also benefited by the exodus, because there was now more room for those who were left there; and inasmuch as the white leaders of the South had decided upon possessing a wiser and more Christian policy, the prospect of good treatment in every respect was far brighter than ever; they need not emigrate to the North and West, as their brethren had done, but could remain at home in safety.