Asserting that it was a contest between civilization and barbarism, and that the whites under the radical regime had no opportunity to carry an election legally, the conservatives openly made use of every method of influencing the result that could possibly come within the radical law and they even employed many effective methods that lay outside the law.Negroes were threatened with discharge from employment and whites with tar and feathers if they voted the radical ticket; there were nightriding parties, armed and drilled "white leagues," and mysterious firing of guns and cannon at night; much plain talk assailed the ears of the radical leaders; and several bloody outbreaks occurred, principally in Louisiana and Mississippi.Louisiana had been carried by the Democrats in the fall of 1872, but the radical returning board had reversed the election.In 1874 the whites rose in rebellion and turned out Kellogg, the usurping Governor, but President Grant intervened to restore him to office.The "Mississippi" or "shot-gun plan"* was very generally employed, except where the contest was likely to go in favor of the whites without the use of undue pressure.The white leaders exercised a moderating influence, but the average white man had determined to do away with Negro government even though the alternative might be a return of military rule.Congress investigated the elections in each State which overthrew the reconstructionists, but nothing came of the inquiry and the population rapidly settled down into good order.After 1875 only three States were left under radical government--Louisiana and Florida, where the returning boards could throw out any Democratic majority, and South Carolina, where the Negroes greatly outnumbered the whites.
* See "The New South", by Holland Thompson (in "The Chronicles of America").
Reconstruction could hardly be a genuine issue in the presidential campaign of 1876, because all except these three reconstructed States had escaped from radical control, and there was no hope and little real desire of regaining them.It was even expected that in this year the radicals would lose Louisiana and Florida to the "white man's party." The leaders of the best element of the Republicans, both North and South, looked upon the reconstruction as one of the prime causes of the moral breakdown of their party; they wanted no more of the Southern issue but planned a forward-looking, constructive reform.
To some of the Republican leaders, however, among whom was James G.Blame, it was clear that the Republican party, with its unsavory record under Grant's Administration, could hardly go before the people with a reform program.The only possible thing to do was to revive some Civil War issue--"wave the bloody shirt" and fan the smoldering embers of sectional feeling.Blame met with complete success in raising the desired issue.In January 1876, when an amnesty measure was brought before the House, he moved that Jefferson Davis be excepted on the ground that he was responsible for the mistreatment of Union prisoners during the war.Southern hot-bloods replied, and Blaine skillfully led them on until they had foolishly furnished him with ample material for campaign purposes.The feeling thus aroused was so strong that it even galvanized into seeming life the dying interest in the wrongs of the Negro.
The rallying cry "Vote as you shot!" gave the Republicans something to fight for; the party referred to its war record, claimed credit for preserving the Union, emancipating the Negro, and reconstructing the South, and demanded that the country be not "surrendered to rebel rule."Hayes and Tilden, the rival candidates for the presidency, were both men of high character and of moderate views.Their nominations had been forced by the better element of each party.Hayes, the Republican candidate, had been a good soldier, was moderate in his views on Southern questions, and had a clean political reputation.Tilden, his opponent, had a good record as a party man and as a reformer, and his party needed only to attack the past record of the Republicans.The principal Democratic weakness lay in the fact that the party drew so much of its strength from the white South and was therefore subjected to criticism on Civil War issues.
The campaign was hotly contested and was conducted on a low plane.Even Hayes soon saw that the "bloody shirt" issue was the main vote winner.The whites of the three "unredeemed" Southern States nerved themselves for the final struggle.In South Carolina and in some parishes of Louisiana, there was a considerable amount of violence, in which the whites had the advantage, and much fraud, which the Republicans, who controlled the election machinery, turned to best account.It has been said that out of the confusion which the Republicans created they won the presidency.
The first election returns seemed to give Tilden the victory with 184undisputed electoral votes and popular majorities of ninety and over six thousand respectively in Florida and Louisiana; only 185 votes were needed for a choice.Hayes had 166 votes, not counting Oregon, in which one vote was in dispute, and South Carolina, which for a time was claimed by both parties.Had Louisiana and Florida been Northern States, there would have been no controversy, but the Republican general headquarters knew that the Democratic majorities in these States had to go through Republican returning boards, which had never yet failed to throw them out.
