The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 (Oxford History of the United States)

by Richard White

They were certain that with slavery erased they had perfected the republic. The ensuing years, however, had sobered them and turned them inward. They had become more inclined to self-scrutiny, fuller of experience, but not “morbid or despondent.”