Part 8.. _the First Decade of Freedom._

THE FIRST DECADE OF FREEDOM.

CHAPTER XXI.

RECONSTRUCTION--MISCONSTRUCTION. 1865-1875.

The War over, Peace restored, and the Nation cleansed of a Plague.--slavery gives Place to a Long Train of Events.--Unsettled Condition of Affairs at the South.--The Absence of Legal Civil Government necessitates the Establishment of Provisional Military Government.--An Act establishing a Bureau for Refugees and Abandoned Lands.--Congressional Methods for the Reconstruction of the South.--Gen. U. S. Grant carries these States in 1868 and 1872.--Both Branches of the Legislatures in all the Southern States contain Negro Members.--The Errors of Reconstruction chargeable to both Sections of the Country 377