A History of the American People

nominating conventions. The new party and the imposed state were one. It was as though the
North, with its military power, had imposed one-party dictatorships on all the Southern states.
The vast majority of whites boycotted or bitterly opposed these undemocratic procedures. But for
the time being there was nothing they could do. Only in Mississippi did they succeed in rejecting
the new constitution.
By the summer of 1868 all Southern states except three (Texas, Mississippi, and Virginia) had
gone through this second, Congressional-imposed Reconstruction, and by an Omnibus Act seven
of them were restored to Congressional participation (Alabama had already passed the test). As a
result of the disenfranchisement of a large percentage of Southern white voters, and the addition
of black ones, organized as Republicans, the ruling party carried the elections of 1868. General
Grant, who had been nominated unanimously by the Republican Convention as candidate, won
the electoral college by 214 votes to 80 for the Democrat, Governor Horatio Seymour of New
York (1810-86). Without the second Reconstruction, it is likely Grant would have lost, and some
of the Republicans, such as Sumner and Stevens, admitted that Congress had recognized the
eight Southern states in 1868 primarily to secure their electoral votes. Thus America, after
abolishing the organic sin of slavery, witnessed the birth of an organic corruption in its executive
and Congress.
These transactions at least had the merit of enabling Congress to bully the South into ratifying
the Fifteenth Amendment, which stated that the right of American citizens to vote should not be
denied or abridged `on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.' On the other
hand, in evading its implications, Southerners could later cite, as moral justification, the fact that
they had ratified it only under duress-especially true in Georgia, for instance, which had to be
placed yet again under military occupation and Reconstructed for the third The consequences for
the South were equally destructive. The Acts of March 1867 led to a new Reconstruction along
Republican, anti-white lines. Registration was followed by votes calling conventions, and these
by the election of conventions, the drafting of constitutions, and their approval by popular vote.
But those who took part in this process were blacks, guided by Northern army officers, a few
Northerners, and some renegade whites. This new electorate was organized by pressure groups
called Union Leagues, which built up a Republican Party of the South. In fact, the state
constitutional conventions were almost identical with Republican nominating conventions. The
new party and the imposed state were one. It was as though the North, with its military power,
had imposed one-party dictatorships on all the Southern states. The vast majority of whites
boycotted or bitterly opposed these undemocratic procedures. But for the time being there was
nothing they could do. Only in Mississippi did they succeed in rejecting the new constitution.
By the summer of 1868 all Southern states except three (Texas, Mississippi, and Virginia) had
gone through this second, Congressional-imposed Reconstruction, and by an Omnibus Act seven
of them were restored to Congressional participation (Alabama had already passed the test). As a
result of the disenfranchisement of a large percentage of Southern white voters, and the addition
of black ones, organized as Republicans, the ruling party carried the elections of 1868. General
Grant, who had been nominated unanimously by the Republican Convention as candidate, won
the electoral college by 214 votes to 80 for the Democrat, Governor Horatio Seymour of New
York (1810-86). Without the second Reconstruction, it is likely Grant would have lost, and some
of the Republicans, such as Sumner and Stevens, admitted that Congress had recognized the
eight Southern states in 1868 primarily to secure their electoral votes. Thus America, after
abolishing the organic sin of slavery, witnessed the birth of an organic corruption in its executive
and Congress.