absolute. Neither considered the Constitution as of any validity in this
crisis.

As a rule the former abolitionists were in 1865 advocates of votes and lands
for the Negro, in whose capacity for self-rule they had complete confidence.
The view of Gerrit Smith may be regarded as typical of the abolitionist
position:

"Let the first condition of peace with them be that no people in the rebel
States shall ever lose or gain civil or political rights by reason of their
race or origin. The next condition of peace be that our black allies in the
South--those saviours of our nation--shall share with their poor white
neighbors in the subdivisions of the large landed estates of the South. Let
the only other condition be that the rebel masses shall not, for say, a dozen
years, be allowed access to the ballot-box, or be eligible to office; and that
the like restrictions be for life on their political and military leaders . .
. . The mass of the Southern blacks fall, in point of intelligence, but
little, if any, behind the mass of the Southern whites . . . . In reference to
the qualifications of the voter, men make too much account of the head and too
little of the heart. The ballot-box, like God, says: "Give me your heart." The
best-hearted men are the best qualified to vote; and, in this light, the
blacks, with their characteristic gentleness, patience, and affectionateness,
are peculiarly entitled to vote. We cannot wonder at Swedenborg's belief that
the celestial people will be found in the interior of Africa; nor hardly can
we wonder at the legend that the gods came down every year to sup with their
favorite Africans."

One of the most statesmanlike proposals was made by Governor John A. Andrew of
Massachusetts. If, forgetting their theories, the conservatives could have
united in support of a restoration conceived in his spirit, the goal might