It is easily understood that, under such circumstances, Unionists of the
consistent, uncompromising kind do not play an enviable part. It is a sad
fact that the victory of the national arms has, to a great extent,
resulted in something like a political ostracism of the most loyal men in
that part of the country. More than once have I heard some of them
complain of having been taunted by late rebels with their ill fortune; and
it is, indeed, melancholy for them to reflect that, if they had yielded to
the current of public sentiment in the rebel States instead of resisting
it, their present situation and prospects would be much more pleasing. Nor
is such a reflection calculated to encourage them, or others, to follow a
similar course if similar emergencies should again arise.

WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED.

While the generosity and toleration shown by the government to the people
lately in rebellion has not met with a corresponding generosity shown by
those people to the government's friends, it has brought forth some
results which, if properly developed, will become of value. It has
facilitated the re-establishment of the forms of civil government, and led
many of those who had been active in the rebellion to take part in the act
of bringing back the States to their constitutional relations; and if
nothing else were necessary than the mere putting in operation of the mere
machinery of government in point of form, and not also the acceptance of
the results of the war and their development in point of spirit, these
results, although as yet incomplete, might be called a satisfactory
advance in the right direction. There is, at present, no danger of another
insurrection against the authority of the United States on a large scale,
and the people are willing to reconstruct their State governments, and to
send their senators and representatives to Congress.