Reconstruction and Union, 1865-1912 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK On the 4th of March, 1885, a great throng gathered before the east front of the Capitol to witness the inauguration of the first Democratic president since Buchanan. Southerners were present in much larger numbers than had long been customary on such occasions, and mingled with the crowd were "not a few gaunt figures of an old-time quaintness, intense and fanatical partisans from remote localities, displaying with a sort of pride the long white beards which, years before, they had vowed never to shave until a Democratic president should be inaugurated." When Cleveland took the oath of office from Chief-justice Waite, the assembled clans exulted in the thought that after weary years of waiting they had at last passed out of the Wilderness into the Promised Land. Republicans had indulged in gloomy prophecies regarding the make-up of Cleveland's cabinet; some simple souls had even feared that the results of the war would be undone and the negroes reenslaved. Cleveland quickly confounded all such absurd predictions. His selection for secretary of state was Senator Thomas F. Bayard, of a justly famous Delaware family that for five generations had been distinguished in national affairs. The secretary of war, William C. Endicott, the secretary of the navy, William C. Whitney, the secretary of the treasury, Daniel Manning, and the postmaster-general, William F. Vilas, were all Northern men of fair abilities, and Vilas had been a Union soldier. Only two members were from the South--Senator L. Q. C. Lamar, the secretary of the interior, from Mississippi, and Senator Augustus H. Garland, the attorney-general, from Arkansas. Both had been active Confederates, but were now patriotic Americans. Lamar, a scholarly, ...