Though a Northerner by parentage and education, I have been long convinced that the operations of the Klux Klan have not been interpreted properly by historians of my section. A lack of unprejudiced source materials, a failure to comprehend the inherent virtues of the men and women of the South, and a misunderstanding of the social and economic problems of post-bellum days have been the chief causes, rather than sectional prejudices. Within my limited range of influence, the opinions ventured in the following lecture have been accepted by Northerners with enthusiasm. A sincere sympathy and true brotherly feeling have taken the place of the misunderstandings of the past. To widen the possible influence of my words, and to tell the South of the true friendship of the North, I have ventured the publication of the following conclusions. Yet it must be remembered that I am only one of many Northern historical students attempting to read history with the heart and eyes both.
With April, 1865, came the collapse of the Confederacy. Northern soldiers were taken to their homes with every comfort and convenience, permitted by the times and conditions. Everywhere they were received with the most heart-felt rejoicing. They returned to a North more prosperous than when the struggle had begun, and fortunately were soon absorbed in the new economic life of their section.
The number of manufactories had increased during the war. Railroads had opened up the western country. Thousands of recent immigrants were supplying labor for both factory and farm. The North had passed through one of the most destructive wars in the history of the world, and yet had increased its wealth, its population, and its power.
The southern soldiers, defeated, sorrowful, ill-clad, ill-fed, sick in mind and in body, labored slowly and painfully to their homes mostly on foot. They found the South desolated—prostrate. During the war northern armies had destroyed the economic system of the South. Along the lines of invasion slaves had been constantly emancipated, and thousands left the farms, in spite of crops to be cultivated, stock to be cared for, or food to be provided, to test their new freedom, following the Union army, though wasting away in idleness, vice, want and disease. The lives of even the well-to-do classes had been reduced to a pitifully primitive—even barbarous—level. Parched rye and dried blackberry leaves had, in many sections, taken the place of coffee and tea. Women drew out the spinning wheels and hand looms and made clothing. The old men and the more skilful slaves learned to make shoes. Public property was destroyed or confiscated. Bridges were down, factories in ashes, railroads in ruins, and steam boats were no longer seen on the rivers. Bank stock and deposits, bonds of all sorts were worthless, and confederate currency had not even the value of a souvenir on a glutted market. The South was in a pitiable condition.
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