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power of the United States over them at this day is the power of might over right, the power of the strongest, a dominion to be submitted to until there arises a [[strikethrough]] reasonable [[/strikethrough]] favorable opportunity for successful revolution. Consequently they are likely to look upon the freedom of the negro as a wrong perpetrated against them by the United States, only to be acquiesced in so long as it is enforced by the sword. For they are not such fools as to be ignorant of the principle which all history teaches, that nothing in politics is settled until it is settled right.
To all their late slaves now free, those who were so lately completely subject to their will, now exalted into something like an equality of rights, and a sword held over their heads to protect them in their newly acquired rights must be galling. I do not see how a sincere believer in the rightfulness of slavery can look with any complacency upon the freedmen. It would be asking too much of human nature to expect former slaveholders to enter heartily into the work of elevating the condition of their former serfs, who have been torn from them by the strong hand. Yet many of these master are truly good men.
For these reasons, and because they are reduced to poverty by the war, they cannot be expected to cooperate heartily and efficiently at once in any schemes for the permanent amelioration of the condition of the blacks. For the most part they feel unable and unwilling to establish schools for their education