But the radicals skillfully postponed a test of strength until Stevens and Sumner were ready.

The latter declared that a generation must elapse "before the rebel communities have so far been changed as to become safe associates in a common government.

Time, therefore, we must have.

Through time all other guarantees may be obtained; but time itself is a guarantee." To the Joint Committee were referred without debate all measures relating to reconstruction, but the Committee was purposely making little progress--contented merely to take testimony and to act as a clearing house for the radical "facts" about "Southern outrages" while waiting for the tide to turn.

The "Black Laws" and the election of popular Confederate leaders to office in the South were effectively used to alarm the friends of the Negroes, and the reports from the Bureau agents gave support to those who condemned the Southern state governments as totally inadequate and disloyal.
So apparent was the growth of radicalism that the President, alarmed by the attitude of Sumner and Stevens and their followers, began to fear for the Constitution and forced the fight.