Their property during the War had been neglected, and what had not been destroyed was in a state of decay.

This was especially true of those who had been the owners of large landed estates and of many slaves.

Many of these people had been the acknowledged representatives of the wealth, the intelligence, the culture, the refinement and the aristocracy of the South,--the ruling class in the church, in society and in State affairs.

These were the men who had made and molded public opinion, who had controlled the pulpit and the press, who had shaped the destiny of the State; who had made and enforced the laws,--or at least such laws as they desired to have enforced,--and who had represented the State not only in the State Legislature but in both branches of the National Legislature at Washington.

Many of these proud sons, gallant fathers, cultured mothers and wives and refined and polished daughters found themselves in a situation and in a condition that was pitiable in the extreme.