PREFACE. 



THE present volume of the ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA, for the year 1867, contains 

 the proceedings of Congress to secure a final settlement of the difficulties 

 with the Southern States by a reconstruction of those States ; the action of the 

 President in the execution of these several measures of Congress ; the admin- 

 istrations of the several commanders of the military districts thus created, and 

 the action of the people of the " sub -districts," or States, in compliance with 

 the laws and authority thus established, especially that portion of the colored 

 race who have in a brief period passed from a condition of servitude to the 

 active discharge of the duties of freemen at the ballot-box and in the Constitu- 

 tional Convention. These are circumstances which, owing to the numbers of 

 the colored people, are without a parallel -in the previous history of mankind. 

 They form the most important steps in the solution of a problem full of intense 

 interest. ' Under this view, all the measures proposed or adopted by Congress 

 in the work of reconstruction have been inserted in these pages, with the 

 debates on these measures ; the views of the Executive Department respecting 

 them; the conflict of opinion between the President and Congress, and the 

 numerous messages to the latter, and official letters to public officers, with legal 

 instructions incident thereto ; the gradual change in the social and industrial con- 

 dition of the people of the Southern States, arising from their new political rela- 

 tions, together with all those events which illustrate the history of this national 

 crisis. 



The details of the internal affairs of the United States embrace the financial 

 condition of the Government, with the operation of its system of taxation and 

 currency ; the public debt ; the banks ; commerce and agriculture ; the proceed- 

 ings in the Southern States to complete the reorganization of their civil and 

 social affairs ; the position of the freedmen ; the various political conventions of 

 the year, both national and State ; the acts of State Legislatures ; the results of 

 elections ; the progress of educational and charitable institutions under the care 



