Its wisdom comes after action, as if engaged in a
series of experiments. But, happily for the nation, few blunders
are committed that with our young life and elasticity are
irreparable, and that, after all, are greater than are ordinarily
committed by older and more experienced nations. They are not of
the most fatal character, and are, for the most part, such as are
incident to the conceit, the heedlessness, the ardor, and the
impatience of youth, and need excite no serious alarm for the
future.
There has been no little confusion in the public mind, and in
that of the government itself, as to what reconstruction is, who
has the power to reconstruct, and how that power is to be
exercised. Are the States that seceded States in the Union, with
no other disability than that of having no legal governments? or
are they Territories subject to the Union? Is their
reconstruction their erection into new States, or their
restoration as States previously in the Union? Is the power to
reconstruct in the States themselves? or is it in the General
government? If partly in the people and partly in the General
government, is the part in the General government in Congress, or
in the Executive? If in Congress, can the Executive, without the
authority of Congress, proceed to reconstruct, simply leaving it
for Congress to accept or reject the reconstructed State? If
the power is partly in the people of the disorganized States who
or what defines that people, decides who may or may not vote in
the reorganization? On all these questions there has been much
crude, if not erroneous, thinking, and much inconsistent and
contradictory action.
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