In both of these States, therefore, an earnest, thoughtful attempt was designed by the former ruling class of whites, to rebuild the political structure, at the same time readjusting the Negroes to the changed condition brought about by emancipation. But, before considering this much berated effort of the vanquished, a short sketch of conditions in South Carolina in the spring and summer of 1865 will show to some extent the increasing complexities and difficulties of the problem, which Lincoln’s death saved him from, and which Andrew Johnson had to face. Even before Lincoln’s assassination there was evidence of a strong disposition, upon the part of the pronounced abolitionists, to humiliate the overthrown, and, in particular, that State and city which for three decades had led the fight for “Slavery as we know it in the Southern States.” On April 6, 1865, William Lloyd Garrison, United States Senator Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, Judge Kelly of Pennsylvania, Theodore Tilton and his intimate friend Rev. Henry Ward Beecher of New York, with George Thompson of England, visited Charleston. By General Saxton of Massachusetts, they were personally conducted to the Citadel Green on Calhoun Street, a circumstance calling for some facetious remarks by Major Delany, a very remarkable colored member of the General’s Staff, and there the general presented the great abolitionist to the immense throng that had gathered to hear him. But, as thoroughly as the general and his distinguished guests considered that they understood conditions, it is possible, they were slightly surprised by the aplomb with which Samuel J. Dickerson (as a slave a bricklayer, but as a local freedman, dropping his tools for a higher pursuit and destined to become the mountebank of the bar) thrust himself and his two daughters into the very centre of the picture. In a fluent speech, Dickerson presented Garrison with a wreath. The great man complimented him in his reply, exalted the State of Massachusetts and himself introduced Senator Wilson, as one of the “mudsills” of Massachusetts, who had from such condition risen to the eminence he had attained. Then the great abolitionist gave way to the Senator, who proclaimed the occasion “the proudest day of his life.” Shouting to the excitable throng before him that he felt “the slave power under his heel” he bellowed out his sentiments as follows: “I want the proud and haughty chivalry of South Carolina to know ... that the black men and black women of South Carolina are as free as they are.... And further that they are loyal to the flag of the country, while they are false and traitorous.... We have beaten; we have whipped them; their power is broken and they are lost forever.”[180]