Excerpt from Governor Chamberlain's Administration in South Carolina: A Chapter of Reconstruction in the Southern States This volume is what its title expresses; it is the record of the Administration of Governor Chamberlain in South Carolina, and nothing more. It was undertaken because it was believed that the period covered by it, though brief, had a character and significance making it worthy of study and remembrance. What is called "Reconstruction" was certainly a peculiar phase of our American civil life. It presented new questions, new difficulties, social, political, legal, and constitutional. The result of the overthrow and surrender of the armies of the South was to present at once the novel and perplexing question, how to deal with the civil Governments of the Southern States. The theories put forward at that time seem now, many of them, grotesque, - Mr. Sumner's theory of State suicide not the least so. The question of the legal relation of those States to the Union during and at the close of the war, has not yet passed beyond the line of discussion and controversy. The Supreme Court of the United States has announced the doctrine of "an indestructible Union, composed of indestructible States." Yet, the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 which proceeded on the theory of the destruction of the State Governments of the rebellious States, have been carried into effect and recognized as valid by all branches of the Federal Government. It is not necessary to reconcile conflicting theories. What is plain is that Reconstruction as it proceeded under the Acts of Congress, involved the most serious consequences to all the people of the South. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.