The Civil War changed the whole organization of Southern society, it is true, but it did not modify its essential attributes, to quote the ablest of the carpetbaggers, Albion W.Tourgee.Reconstruction strengthened existing prejudices and created new bitterness, but the attempt failed to make of South Carolina another Massachusetts.

The people resisted stubbornly, desperately, and in the end successfully, every attempt to impose upon them alien institutions.
The story of Reconstruction has been told elsewhere.[1] A combination of two ideas--high-minded altruism and a vindictive desire to humiliate a proud people for partisan advantage--wrought mischief which has not been repaired in nearly half a century.

It is to be doubted, however, whether Reconstruction actually changed in any essential point the beliefs of the South.

Left to itself, the South would not, after the War, have given the vote to the negro.

When left to itself still later, it took the ballot away.