This letter shows the inward feeling which Governor Andrew had toward the Southern States. There was nothing in his nature unkind or ungenerous; no one understood better than he did the position of affairs, both North and South. Pre-eminent in his devotion to his country while the war lasted, he was the advocate of carrying it on by vigorous measures to the end. When the South laid down its arms, and acknowledged its defeat, he was equally pre-eminent in generosity and good-will. He believed, as many others did, that the true way to bring about a genuine and true re-union was by kindness and generosity. Instead of sending standing armies to the South to usurp the sway of civil government, he was for sending money and men to aid the defeated to make glad the waste places, and to build up a new Zion. Had his ideas prevailed, much of the difficulty and subsequent distraction in regard to the re-establishment of government would have been avoided. We find in the last volume of his letters one addressed to Mr. Conway, who had charge of the commissary department of the Freedmen's Bureau in Louisiana. The first page of the letter in the copying-book is so indistinct that it cannot be read; but, from the subsequent pages, we judge that it had reference to the condition of affairs in the South, and from those we quote:—
The waste of war has left the land-owners poor in all save their lands. Floating capital has disappeared in the South. Their mules, machinery, fences, buildings, tools, have been absorbed by the enemy, or destroyed, or worn out to an extent hardly to be appreciated. And just now, when they need credit more than ever to replace them, they are without bankers, factors, or lenders. Without money or credit, the planter can neither buy mules, corn, bacon, small stores, cloth for the support of the freedmen, nor can he pay them their needful wages, while making the crop. To aid in meeting these present wants, and help restore industry, and to help emancipation prove an early and
