The lax election laws, framed indeed for the benefit of the party in power, gave the radicals ample opportunity to control the Negro vote.The elections were frequently corrupt, though not a great deal of money was spent in bribery.It was found less expensive to use other methods of getting out the vote.The Negroes were generally made to understand that the Democrats wanted to put them back into slavery, but sometimes the leaders deemed it wiser to state more concretely that "Jeff Davis had come to Montgomery and is ready to organize the Confederacy again" if the Democrats should win; or to say that "if Carter is elected, he will not allow your wives and daughters to wear hoopskirts." In Alabama many thousand pounds of bacon and hams were sent in to be distributed among "flood sufferers" in a region which had not been flooded since the days of Noah.The Negroes were told that they must vote right and receive enough bacon for a year, or "lose their rights" if they voted wrongly.
Ballot-box stuffing developed into an art, and each Negro was carefully inspected to see that he had the right kind of ticket before he was marched to the polls.
The inspection and counting of election returns were in the hands of the county and state boards, which were controlled by the governor, and which had authority to throw out or count in any number of votes.On the assumption that the radicals were entitled to all Negro votes, the returning boards followed the census figures for the black population in order to arrive at the minimum radical vote.The action of the returning boards was specially flagrant in Louisiana and Florida and in the black counties of South Carolina.
Notwithstanding the fact that the very best arrangements had been made at Washington and in the states for the running of the radical machine, everywhere there were factional fights from the beginning.Usually the scalawags declared hostilities after they found that the carpetbaggers had control of the Negroes and the inside track on the way to the best state and federal offices.Later, after the scalawags had for the most part left the radicals, there were contests among the carpetbaggers themselves for the control of the Negro vote and the distribution of spoils.The defeated faction usually joined the Democrats.In Arkansas a split started in 1869 which by 1872 resulted in two state governments.Alabama in 1872 and Louisiana in 1874-75 each had two rival governments.This factionalism contributed largely to the overthrow of the radicals.
The radical structure, however, was still powerfully supported from without.
Relations between the Federal Government and the state governments in the South were close, and the policy at Washington was frequently determined by conditions in the South.President Grant, though at first considerate, was usually consistently radical in his Southern policy.This attitude is difficult to explain except by saying that Grant fell under the control of radical advisers after his break with Johnson, that his military instincts were offended by opposition in the South which his advisers told him was rebellious, and that he was impressed by the need of holding the Southern radical vote against the inroads of the Democrats.After about 1869, Grant never really understood the conditions in the South.He was content to control by means of Federal troops and thousands of deputy marshals.For this policy the Ku Klux activities gave sufficient excuse for a time, and the continued story of "rebel outrages" was always available to justify a call for soldiers or deputies.The enforcement legislation gave the color of law to any interference which was deemed necessary.
Federal troops served other ends than the mere preservation of order and the support of the radical state governments.They were used on occasion to decide between opposing factions and to oust conservatives who had forced their way into office.The army officers purged the Legislature of Georgia in 1870, that of Alabama in 1872, and that of Louisiana in 1875.In 1875 the city government of Vicksburg and the state government of Louisiana were overturned by the whites, but General Sheridan at once intervened to put back the Negroes and carpetbaggers.He suggested to President Grant that the conservatives be declared "banditti" and he would make himself responsible for the rest.As soon as a State showed signs of going over to the Democrats or an important election was lost by the radicals, one House or the other of Congress in many instances sent an investigation committee to ascertain the reasons.The Committees on the Condition of the South or on the Late Insurrectionary States were nearly always ready with reports to establish the necessity of intervention.
Besides the army there was in every state a powerful group of Federal officials who formed a "ring" for the direction of all good radicals.These marshals, deputies, postmasters, district attorneys, and customhouse officials were in close touch with Washington and frequently dictated nominations and platforms.At New Orleans the officials acted as a committee on credentials and held all the state conventions under their control in the customhouse.
Such was the machinery used to sustain a party which, with the gradual defection of the whites, became throughout the South almost uniformly black.
At first few Negroes asked for offices, but soon the carpetbaggers found it necessary to divide with the rapidly growing number of Negro politicians.No Negro was elected governor, though several reached the office of lieutenant governor, secretary of state, auditor, superintendent of education, justice of the state supreme court, and fifteen were elected to Congress.* It would not be correct to say that the Negro race was malicious or on evil bent.Unless deliberately stirred up by white leaders, few Negroes showed signs of mean spirit.Few even made exorbitant demands.They wanted "something"--schools and freedom and "something else," they knew not what.Deprived of the leadership of the best whites, they could not possibly act with the scalawags--their traditional enemies.Nothing was left for them but to follow the carpetbagger.
* Revels, Lynch, and Bruce represent the better Negro officeholders;Pinchback, Rainey, and Nash, the less respectable ones; and below these were the rascals whose ambition was to equal their white preceptors in corruption.
