the author has made no effort to draw upon the imagination, nor to
gratify the wishes of those whose chief ambition is to magnify the
faults and deficiencies in some and to extol the good and commendable
traits and qualities in others. In other words, his chief purpose has
been to furnish the readers and students of the present generation with
a true, candid and impartial statement of material and important facts
based upon his own personal knowledge and experience, with such comments
as in his judgment the occasion and circumstances warranted.

Was the enfranchisement of the black men at the South by act of Congress
a grave mistake?

Were the reconstructed State Governments that were organized as a result
thereof a disappointment and a failure?

Was the Fifteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution premature and
unwise?

An affirmative answer to the above questions will be found in nearly
everything that has been written about Reconstruction during the last
quarter of a century. The main purpose of this work is to present the
other side; but, in doing so, the author indulges the hope that those
who may read these chapters will find that no extravagant and
exaggerated statements have been made, and that there has been no
effort to conceal, excuse, or justify any act that was questionable or
wrong. It will be seen that the primary object the author has sought to
accomplish, is to bring to public notice those things that were
commendable and meritorious, to prevent the publication of which seems
to have been the primary purpose of nearly all who have thus far written
upon that important subject.