made whole; the one-that of restoration, confronting the Thirty-ninth Congress at its first meeting-ignored the fact that the former slaves were now free and equal citizens; on this theory the laws cited above were partially based; the other-which developed into reconstruction-not only recognized that fact, but made provision for the protection of these freedmen as citizens. The great mass of the northern people sympathized much more with the poor, innocent whites of the south, because of the distresses that the war-for which they were not responsible-had entailed upon them, than they did with the freedmen, who had lately received the great boon of having their shackles stricken off. This sentiment was so strong and so pervading during the nine months between the close of the Thirty-eighth Congress and the first meeting of the Thirty-ninth, that the northern people might, with some modifications, have acquiesced in the President's policy of restoration, and might not have been so radical in respect to the political status of the freedmen, as was afterward adopted in reconstruction.

Reasons soon appeared that changed the opinions of the northern people. The hostile spirit manifested by the members of Congress and the Senators-elect from the lately rebellious states caused the Thirty-ninth Congress to hesitate; meanwhile, portions of the laws quoted above were appearing in the newspapers. The character of these laws excited misgivings in the minds of intelligent people in the north in relation to the danger that would be incurred in handing over the freedmen and their posterity to these states without guarantees for their protection. Had the law givers referred to treated the freedmen kindly and justly, recognized them in their new relation as citizens, and manifested a desire to give them even a moderate chance to make their living and elevate themselves and their children by education and industry, the impression made would have been far different. On the contrary, the peculiar character and probable influence of these laws in the future led thinking minds to recognize the vast importance of the crisis. The experience of the past had just proclaimed, and in no uncertain voice, that the re-adjusted Union, if it would preserve its integrity, must be based on justice to all, on intelligence, as well as on common-sense legislation. Was it right, or even expedient, under the policy of restoration, to incorporate in the new Union an element of social and political gangrene, that was certain in time to poison the prosperity and peace of the nation; to put the freedmen in a position whence they could never be extricated, except, in all probability, by a bloody revolution? In three distinct senses they were no longer slaves: they could not be bought and sold; as citizens they

could live where they pleased; nor could they be hindered from learning to read and write. Had restoration been adopted, the stimulus for self-improvement and industry would have been virtually taken away, as they scarcely would have had an inducement to labor.

Seemingly many intelligent people do not fully understand why the privilege of suffrage was conferred upon the freedmen. One explanation is, that the reasons for that act of Congress have not been published in such form as to reach the reading public. In consequence of this lack of information, the political and social evils that have since occasionally appeared in the recent Confederate states have often been, and most erroneously, attributed to reconstruction. It is evident that had restoration been adopted there would have been no Ku Klux outrages, but instead the same class that enacted the laws we have cited would have still been utilizing for their own benefit the labor of the freedmen, while the latter would have had no means of redress worth naming, and but little opportunity of making known their wrongs to the nation. Let it therefore be borne in mind that reconstruction was made the occasion for committing these crimes, and that it never could have been the cause, since the Ku Klux outrages, and other annoyances of similar character, were designed to neutralize the effects of the amendments embodied in the policy of reconstruction, as these deeds of violence were intended to deter from voting the freedmen and those native whites who had dared stand up for the Union.

There was still another view of the subject-the political. In the time of slavery, three-fifths of the slave population were counted as citizens, and they had at the commencement of the civil war twenty-one representatives in the Lower House of Congress-but they had had no voice in electing them. According to the theory of restoration all the colored population would be represented in the Lower House, but still they would have no vote in choosing their own members of Congress. This would be grossly unjust in respect to those states wherein all men had the privilege of voting.

It has been sometimes assumed that Reconstruction was a failure, and Congress made an enormous mistake in admitting the illiterate freedmen to the privilege of the ballot. This objection would have greater force if Congress had not long before permitted illiterate white men to vote, who, though nearly all foreigners, were so numerous in the free-labor states that they held the balance of power between the two leading political parties of the Union. We admit that these white illiterates, because of their coming in contact with intelligent people, and with whom in a political sense they

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were on an equality, knew more of politics and general subjects than the freedmen.

Congress, fully alive to this feature of the case, took measures to prepare the freedmen and their posterity for their new position by means of an education, and accordingly it made efforts to establish public schools throughout these states, not only to teach the freedmen, but the illiterate whites, and the children of both classes. At that time Congress did not have a surplus of numerous millions, a portion of which could be appropriated to aid the people of the south in bearing this burden; the latter were poor, yet for the most part they have done nobly. As a partial aid, great numbers of the benevolent in the north entered upon the work of teaching the colored people, as well as the illiterate whites, and this good work has been going on for twenty years. Said Mr. Cable some years since: The private charities alone of the other states have $20,000,000 in the same good cause. Their colored seminaries, colleges and normal schools dot our whole southern country, and furnish our public colored schools with a large part of their teachers."

The Hon. Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, introduced into the United States Senate about twenty years ago a bill designed to aid public schools, especially those in the south, the funds to be drawn from the sales of the public lands. Since then more than half a generation has passed away, and the bill, so amended as to appropriate $77,000,000, has passed the Senate under different forms half a dozen times-more recently at the close of the first session of the Forty-eighth Congress, and again at the first session of the Forty-ninth, and also at the first session of the Fiftieth-and at this writing it is on the calendar of the House of Representatives. One of the objections to the bill, as manifested in the Senate, was the ghost of the effete state sovereignty dogma, which professed to fear "centralization!"

It will take two generations, at least, to educate the children of an illiterate people up to the ordinary standard of to-day, demanded of the graduates of our public schools. But that policy, if fully carried out as already begun, will enhance the material progress of the South, and indirectly of the whole nation.

Why may not the era of reconstruction, with education-moral and intellectual--in its train, be recognized by the future historian as a new departure in the nation's progress?

Jacob Harris Patton

CANADA'S FINANCIAL AND BUSINESS CONDITION

RESULTS OF NATIONAL PROTECTION

The business condition of the Canadian Dominion at present is a subject of great interest to this Republic, as well as to Great Britain, with which it is closely connected, not only by political ties but commercial relations. A considerable portion of the last session of our neighbor's parliament was taken up by discussions in relation to that condition, for which a large amount of information had been collected from committee investigations and other reliable channels. Undoubtedly differences of opinion with respect to the actual state of the country still prevail, but this may be partly due to the colored political media through which they are regarded by the rival parties.

It has always been the rule in Canada to judge of the merits and success of any government by its financial management, the effects of which have been mainly tested by the condition of the country's trade and commerce at some suitable period. This practice, though probably in the main a safe one, may be sometimes carried too far; for in a country of different races, with exceptional problems to work out occasionally, ruling parties should be tried by other considerations than the nature of their financial excellence, which may be, in some cases, the only thing laudable to set against a host of errors and shortcomings. But in Canada all parties are sensible on the financial situation; each shows an anxiety, truly remarkable as well as proper, to prove itself right in its views and actions.

That this should be the case is not strange, for the country is of immense extent, possessing a rugged climate and a population hardly numerous enough to present, over the larger and newer portion of it, adequate signs of possession. The population could all be accommodated easily in the eastern provinces, while obliged to keep up the machinery of government and means of communication needed by a numerous and wealthy people. Consequently, the population is poor, and, regarded from the experience of the American Republic, grows slowly as to numbers and resources-a fact which produces in many of the most intelligent and calculating Canadians a natural feeling of depression which, with other unfortunate effects, checks local enterprise and discourages foreign investments.

No wonder all parties agree that, in view of the phenomenally rapid growth and development of this Republic, the only chance for the separate

existence and even moderate growth of the Dominion depends upon its prudent financial administration, with a fairly rapid increase of its popula tion. To this end not only is a larger immigration than Canada has hitherto known necessary, but a termination of that emigration of Canadians to the United States which has for many years naturally constituted a telling theme of censure with the opposition critics and orators.

Now, coming to the practical issue, in the style of the average Canadian politician-what is the actual financial situation, and what are the prospects for the ensuing few years? To find a reliable answer to the most important inquiry, official documents as well as the late Budget speech of Sir Charles Tupper, made toward the close of last April, are used in this article with perfect fairness, and the leading views of the Liberal opposition being also given, in order that justice may be done to their side of the case. At the outset it may be remarked that even ministerial journals observed, in their reviews of the budget, that the understanding that no tariff changes were designed robbed it of much of that interest it usually commands. In truth, the ruling party were afraid to take any liberties with it on this occasion, aware of their incessant high claims of its excellence, of late years, no less than of the danger of raising the duties on any commodity largely imported at present. Of course all parties expect any alterations to take the direction of increase, as the public outlay ever expands, and must thus continue during many years, though the opposition contend now, as they have held ever since quitting office in 1878, that this expansion is far too rapid, and its rate unnecessarily oppressive.

The Financial minister had no serious errors to defend since his assumption of the office, over a year ago, when he found the existing tariff in operation, with a fiscal and general policy upon which he could have exerted little or no influence, even if so disposed. He had, moreover, no little assistance in accounting for the hard times, or the particular extent of their inflictions, by reference to the Ontario bank failures of the year, the curtailment of lumbering and other industries, in consequence, the cessation of useful outlays, from the stoppage of railroad building by the Canadian Pacific Railway and other companies, and by the reduction of the average harvest, in that province. He might have included Quebec and other provinces, where grain crops, owing to summer droughts principally, fell from 15 to 35 per cent. below the usual average.

Sir Charles Tupper ventured to claim for the financial year 1886-87 (ending 30th June) a surplus of $97,313-the revenue mounting to $35.754,903, and the expenditure to $35,657,080. But, this favorable showing was partly attributable to the unusually large release from bond of goods