They would have received white troops, not indeed with rejoicing, but with kindness, satisfaction, and respect; but when they saw their own slaves freed, armed, and put on guard over them, they treated all hope of Federal magnanimity or justice as an idle dream.
Reid discusses the complex feelings of Southern citizens towards the Federal government's actions during Reconstruction.
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A paper that is not as free to censure as to approve, has no virtue in its support, and no importance attaches to its utterances.
These Southern Rebels have their fate in their own keeping, and they are nursing their wrath to keep it warm.
With her, then, we should most sedulously cherish a cordial friendship, and nothing would tend more to knit our affections than to be fighting once more, side by side, in the same cause.
Public sentiment was against the sale of lands to the Yankees; “Get white laborers,” they urged, “and in a year you’ll make enough to be able to hold on to your lands.