Restoring the Civil Authority

While there have been seven accepted states into the Union, the military control in these states has not changed.

Restoring the Civil Authority. Now that seven of the seceded States are restored to the Union, and have their representatives in Congress, - now that the military are declared to be subordinate to the civil authorities, and a soldier no better than any other man, - one would suppose that the people of those States, were at free to do their own will. But not so. The same boys in blue are there that control affairs in Virginia, Mississippi, and Teaxas. There isn't a shadow of a shade of difference between the condition of the people of the latter States, so far as military supremacy is concerned, and the condition of the people of the former States. They are all alike subject to the rule of General Grant. The reconstructed States will be required to vote for him for President, while the unreconstructed will have the privilege of not voting for anybody. The fact is, Uncle Sam has got himself into a snarl, owing to the corruptness, rascality, and scoundrelism of his agents. He has got hold of those States, and he is afraid to let go. He would, perhaps, like to do so. He may even be anxious to do so, and perspiring freely at every pore because he cannot. But so it is. He is afraid ; and as long as his fears control him, there can be no real restoration of the Union. We trust that the Democratic orators and editors in the North will keep their eyes upon the South. They will thus be enabled to get much good political capital. Her pretended reconstruction is all humbughumbug out and out. The military are still the real rulers.

“Restoring the Civil Authority,” Reconstructing Virginia, accessed June 1, 2023, https://reconstructingvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1085.