Although the radical policy of reconstruction came to an end in 1877, some of its results were more lasting.The Southern States were burdened heavily with debt, much of which had been fraudulently incurred.There now followed a period of adjustment, of refunding, scaling, and repudiation, which not only injured the credit of the states but left them with enormous debts.The Democratic party under the leadership of former Confederates began its regime of strict economy, race fairness, and inelastic Jeffersonianism.There was a political rest which almost amounted to stagnation and which the leaders were unwilling to disturb by progressive measures lest a developing democracy make trouble with the settlement of 1877.
The undoing of reconstruction was not entirely completed with the understanding of 1877.There remained a large but somewhat shattered Republican party in the South, with control over county and local government in many Negro districts.Little by little the Democrats rooted out these last vestiges of Negro control, using all the old radical methods and some improvements,* such as tissue ballots, the shuffling of ballot boxes, bribery, force, and redistricting, while some regions were placed entirely under executive control and were ruled by appointed commissions.With the good government which followed these changes a deadlocked Congress showed no great desire to interfere.The Supreme Court came to the aid of the Democrats with decisions in 1875, 1882, and 1883 which drew the teeth from the Enforcement Laws, and Congress in 1894 repealed what was left of these regulations.
*See "The New South", by Holland Thompson (in "The Chronicles of America").
Under such discouraging conditions the voting strength of the Republicans rapidly melted away.The party organization existed for the Federal offices only and was interested in keeping down the number of those who desired to be rewarded.As a consequence, the leaders could work in harmony with those Democratic chiefs who were content with a "solid South" and local home rule.
The Negroes of the Black Belt, with less enthusiasm and hope, but with quite the same docility as in 1868, began to vote as the Democratic leaders directed.This practice brought up in another form the question of "Negro government" and resulted in a demand from the people of the white counties that the Negro be put entirely out of politics.The answer came between 1890and 1902 in the form of new and complicated election laws or new constitutions which in various ways shut out the Negro from the polls and left the government to the whites.Three times have the Black Belt regions dominated the Southern States: under slavery, when the master class controlled; under reconstruction, when the leaders of the Negroes had their own way; and after reconstruction until Negro disfranchisement, when the Democratic dictators of the Negro vote ruled fairly but not always acceptably to the white counties which are now the source of their political power.
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