AND NOW CAME THE PROMISE of a new order of things. The political situation of the country had changed. The reins of government passed into the hands of men of whom much was expected. Three years have intervened. The false issues that had been raised among the masses are _now_ being swept away. The disorganizing elements are tottering to a fall, and those who had fostered them are seeking to excuse and palliate their course. They complain that the civil government of the Southern States had passed into the hands of carpet-baggers, who had been forced upon them, who were engaged in plundering the people, encouraging the negroes to pillage and destroy the property of the country, and placing them in positions where they could rule over white men. But this was not in any manner the real trouble. The same oppressive spirit that actuated these men during the days when slavery was a recognized institution among them, still obtained. Neither the men of the South nor the sojourners from the North were allowed in those days to freely express their opinions, if those opinions chanced to be in opposition to slavery. What was treason _then_ against the social and political rights of these would-be-masters of a race, is treason _now_ in their minds; for they have not yet learned to tolerate the free expression of sentiments in such exact antipodes to their early educational training. To preach the principles of republicanism, to advocate the education of the negro, to urge his right to the elective franchise, were deemed seditious practices, and were opposed _then_ just as they are _now_; there is simply a difference in the mode by which this opposition is manifested. THEN, it was by argument, supported by local and Federal legislation. NOW, it is by violence, and the subversion of all law. THEN the North reasoned and counselled with the South; endeavored to show them the great wrongs done to the bondman, and that the nation could not prosper under the terrible curse of slavery. NOW the strong arm of the Government is put forth to compel a respect for the rights accorded to _all_ under the law; a situation which, it appears, nothing but the determined front presented by the Administration will lead the people of the South finally to accept. The efforts of the wicked leaders to misguide the masses are persistent. Many right-minded people of the South are misled by the false statements put forth by those who should, and do know, better, and the pernicious results of whose influence time and the dissemination of truthful intelligence can alone eradicate. In many instances Republicans have been elected to office, and these are the so-called carpet-baggers. In some localities negroes and mulattoes have been elevated to places of power and trust, and, for this, the people of the South are largely indebted to their own willful neglect.