Was it wise to give the ballot to the ex-slaves? The answer that came in the hour it was given, from the Congress that gave it, from the Northern people that sustained it, and from the colored people that enjoyed it, was an emphatic and enthusiastic “Yes!” The answer that came at that hour from the Southern white man was in a suppressed voice, and was an execration hissed out between grinding teeth. Since that hour the voice of the Southern white man has grown firmer, and, as it came up from misgoverned South Carolina and Louisiana, has rounded out into a full-toned “No!” Nay, more, it has been re-echoed from the North, and recently with special emphasis from the lips of one of the purest Christian scholars on the heights of Christian learning in New England. What answer do I give? Unhesitatingly, “Yes!” I say nothing about the mere party reason given either then or since, for I do not write as a partisan. I put the wisdom of the ballot on more substantial grounds. 1. It saved the Freedmen from being again reduced to slavery. Vagrant laws were passed, which confined them to the plantations on which they had engaged to work, the end of which would have been a serfdom attaching them to the soil. The ballot saved them from this. 2. It gave the Freedmen and the South a free school system—a greater boon than Southern legislation ever gave them before—a boon without which all else would have been well-nigh in vain. That system was modeled after the best patterns at the North, and although it has been somewhat modified and enfeebled in practical operation, is yet a solid corner-stone in the foundation of the new superstructure which the South is rearing. 3. The ballot gave the Freedman a sense of self-respect, and commanded for him the respect of others. To him it was an education and an inspiration. It gave him the standing of a man among men, and prompted him to become worthy of his position. It was a power to him in the early days of his freedom, when he needed every help to sustain him in that freedom; and to-day, though it is held in check and almost useless, yet it is a slumbering giant, and is watched with respectful caution by the whites. For who can tell what such a slumbering power might do if aroused?