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[424] resistance to wrong, it became out and out an advocate of negro manhood. That was its theory; that was its practice; that was its sanguine hope. How could these Southern white people, who had not even believed in emancipation, enter heartily into sympathy with me, a commissioner, as they claimed, of a party of radical Republicans? How could the conservatives of the North, who wanted the care of the freed people left entirely to their old masters and to the Southern State governments, favor my theory? To them, even to those who had confidence in my integrity and in the distinguished officers who were my assistants, the whole system of dealing seemed wrong. It appeared to be cruelty and oppression. Their sympathetic minds always stopped with the white population. Again, the prospect of suffrage for the late slaves seemed to all such intolerable. Though my officers and myself had no responsibility for the gift of suffrage, yet we had to bear no small part in its introduction. We were at court the friends of the freedmen and had to bear that odium. I think these simple statements are enough to account for all the antagonism that occurred. An officer in charge of any district where the negroes were in considerable majority met with the distrust of the Southern whites; he was maligned by the local press the instant he differed from the prevailing opinion among them; he was ostracised; he was accused; if he favored universal suffrage and it became known, his life even was in peril. The accumulations of this odium, enveloping me in their murky cloud, soon attacked my reputation, though, of course, they could not affect my character. I defended my officers and agents and teachers with all my heart both publicly and privately, and that fact made it desirable for the

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