Ballot and Bullet: The "Redemption," 1868-1876

I. Introduction

A. By mid-1868, Republican governments were in operation in every one of the Confederate states. Within a decade, however, the entire South had been "redeemed" by conservative Democratic elements, and "home rule"—i.e., rule by white elites—restored. How did this come about?

B. Republican governments never regarded as legitimate, but rather an occupying force. Thus white southerners referred to them as "regimes" and historians have spoken of their "overthrow." Neither term is associated with ordinary electoral politics.

1. Republican governments saw their task as acquiring legitimacy, which is why they willingly reenfranchised many ex-Confederates even before the federal Amnesty Act of 1872.

2. Also had to behave as a legitimate government, observing the norms and legal restrictions that bind legitimate governments.

C. Their opponents, however, never felt obliged to conduct themselves within the framework of ordinary electoral politics. Illegitimacy of Republican regimes meant that any measures were permissible.

D. In 1868 a black speaker at a political meeting in Savannah declared that "a revolution gave us the right to vote, and it will take a revolution to get it away from us." Over the next nine years that is precisely what happened, by what V.P. Henry Wilson described in 1874 as "a Counter-Revolution."

E. This outcome--also described as a "retreat from Reconstruction"--had a number of causes, but it may usefully be thought of as the product of a "people's war"--a conflict waged along a variety of fronts--against the continuation of Republican rule.

F. In a people's war, resistance is carried out "in every field: military, economic, political and cultural," not only against the enemy but with the goal of fostering and exploiting a broad base of popular support.

1. Although the phrase has come into vogue relatively recently--one associates it primarily with the post-1945 "wars of national liberation"--the concept goes back at least as far as the eighteenth century and arguably much further.

2. The American Revolution was an example of such a war, as were the French Revolution and the Spanish revolt against Napoleon. Lincoln called the Civil War "a people's contest," and viewed it, at bottom, as a struggle for the hearts and minds of Southern civilians.

3. It is most clearly useful in understanding the Reconstruction period, when conservative Southerners tried to regain control by any means necessary--sometimes by the ballot, sometimes by the bullet.

G. Few conflicts are struggles for outright survival. In most instances there is a threshold beyond which one side or the other is unwilling to bear the cost. Northern civilians and policymakers alike ultimately proved unwilling to bear the cost of opposing this people's war.

II. The Ku Klux Klan

A. Political violence in the postwar South erupted within a year of Appomattox and continued even beyond the end of Reconstruction. The closest student of this subject is George C. Rable (But There Was No Peace, 1984). Rable's conception:

1. New Orleans riot (1866) shows potential efficacy of political violence.

2. KKK (formed 1866, became big in ‘67 and'68) also showed efficacy of pol. violence; attempted to do three things:

a. undermine state Republican gov't. Ineffective.
b. reassert white control over black labor. Better.
c. enforce white ideas of black subordination.

3. Rable: Despite its "invisible empire" pretensions, KKK really operated at a very local level; therefore had difficulty mounting a sustained assault on state gov't. (Eric Foner seems more respectful of KKK effectiveness.)

a. Tended to flourish mainly in counties where racial balance closely divided; otherwise generalizations are difficult.

4. Extremely active in upcountry SC. In York Co., SC, nearly every white man in the population joined the Klan. 500 men assaulted the Union county jail in Jan. 1871, lynched 8 black prisoners. Hundreds of whippings and beatings of blacks, as well as eleven murders. By February 1871 thousands of blacks took to woods at night to avoid assault.

a. Difficult to fight. Juries refused to convict Klansmen. Some blacks fought back, but ineffectually. In Blount Co. Alabama, Union army veterans organized an anti-Klan group that successfully threatened local Klansmen with deadly reprisal, but this was an isolated success.

B. Enforcement Acts 1870--extension of federal authority. Provisions

1. 1870-1871: Congress enacted three laws intended to enforce the 14th and 15th Amendments with federal marshals and troops if necessary. The laws made interference with voting rights a federal offense and defined as a felony any attempt by one or more persons to deprive another person of civil rights. Third law, passed April 1871—Ku Klux Klan Act—gave president power to suspend writ of habeas corpus and send in federal troops to suppress armed resistance to federal law.

2. So great an extension of power that some Republicans uncomfortable with it, inc. Lyman Trumbull.

3. Major effort to break KKK in SC. Grant suspended habeas corpus in nine SC counties. Thousands arrested; 3,000 indicted. Several hundred pled guilty in exchange for suspended sentences. 2,000 had their charges dropped so Justice Dept. could concentrate on worst offenders. Most KKK released in exchange for info about leaders. Leaders tried, imprisoned (all-black juries)

4. Maybe successful--maybe Klan went underground. Tallies of KKK incidents suggest KKK violence dropped off before crackdown.

III. The "Redemption"

A. The Reconstruction Acts established the basis on which Confederate states could apply for readmission to the Union. These included writing new constitutions, ratification by a majority of registered voters, and ratification of the 14th Amendment. Since Virginia, Texas, and Mississippi had not yet completed the requirements by 1870, they were required to ratify the 15th Amendment as well.

B. Once back in the Union, the ordinary course of electoral politics was presumed to apply, and in states where whites were in a majority, the Republican governments were turned out fairly rapidly.

1. Of the 6 states with the largest white population, 5 had restored "home rule" by 1873, and the 6th did so the following year. Of the 4 with a black majority, 3 remained under Republican rule until 1877, 1 until 1876.

C.

1. Political violence in areas with a white majority tended to be minor and focused mainly on intimidation. Worst incident was in Little Rock, Arkansas, when rival factions fought for control of the state house after a disputed gubernatorial election (1874). In this instance, the Democratic faction won.

2. Violence worst in areas in which redemption difficult or impossible without intimidating African American vote.

3. Could be large-scale. In 1868, for example, 200 political murders in Arkansas; 1,000 in Louisiana (Small and Singer criteria place 1,000 as threshold for "war.")

D. Problems with State Republican Defense

1. Too interested in maintaining democratic norms in face of deadly threat.

2. Problem with legitimacy--both because many whites considered Republican gov'ts alien; also because they seemed unable to maintain order.

3. Vigorous action could backfire. Use of militia in Kirk-Holden War (Gov. Wm. W. Holden; former Union officer George W. Kirk) in west NC discredited regime--suspension of local courts; Dems appealed under Habeas Corpus Act of 1867, orig. enacted to protect blacks and white Unionists. Holden had to release 100 captured Klansmen.

4. Sight of blacks organizing for self-defense simply enraged white population. Colfax Massacre, 1873--after disputed gubernatorial election of 1872, freedmen in Grant Parish, fearful Dems would seize election, fortified county seat of Colfax and held it for three weeks under comd. of black veterans and militia officers. Easter Sunday--whites armed with rifles and small cannon overpowered them, killed 280 blacks (including 50 after they had surrendered). Two whites died.

E. The Mississippi Plan

F. Example: Mississipi, 1875: "Carry the election peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must." Mississippi Plan: Combined features of campaigns that had redeemed other southern states from Republican rule. First step: persuade 10-15 percent of whites who still called selves Republicans to switch to Democratic Party, mostly through economic pressures, social ostracism, and threats that made it "too damned hot for [us] to stay out. . . . No white man can live in the South in the future and act with any other than the Democratic Party unless he is willing and prepared to live a life of social isolation and remain in political oblivion.

G. Second step: intimidate black voters (55% voter majority). Economic coercion against sharecroppers and workers kept some away from polls. Violence most effective. Democratic "rifle clubs" showed up at Republican rallies, provoked riots, shot down dozens of blacks in ensuing melees.

H. Carpetbagger Gov. Adelbert Ames asked Grant for federal troops. Initially Grant planned to comply, but Ohio Republicans warned him that if he sent troops to Mississippi, Dems in Ohio would exploit issue of "bayonet rule" to carry state in fall elections. US Attorney General told Ames: "The whole public are tired out with these annual outbreaks in the South, and the great majority are now ready to condemn any interference on the part of the government. . . . Preserve the peace by the forces in your own state, and let the country see that the citizens of Mississippi, who are . . . largely Republican, have the courage to fight for their rights." Ames tried to organize a loyal state militia, but it was tough, would have to be mostly black—which he feared might just pour gasoline on situation. So he concluded: "Let them [the Dems] carry the state, and let us be at peace and have no more killing."

I. In 5 of state's counties with large black majorities, Republicans polled 12, 7, 4, 2, 0 votes respectively. 30,000 Republican majority in previous election became Dem majority of 30,000 in election of 1875.

J. Similar campaign in South Carolina. 15,000 whites in "rifle clubs" brazenly intimidated white and African American Republicans alike, engaged in wholesale voter fraud. Able to throw presidential electors in doubt and secure election of former Confederate general Wade Hampton as governor.

IV. Conclusion

A. Postwar South witnessed a campaign of calculated political violence that can aptly be seen as a form of "people's war."

B. North's changing agenda meant that by mid-1870s, significant portion of Northern elite disinterested in Reconstruction issues or sympathetic to white southerners. Other Northerners tired of fooling with Reconstruction and indifferent to African American rights. Strength of Liberal Republicans made it difficult for Grant administration to respond strongly even it possessed the will.

C. Equally challenging to continued Republican rule was the laudable commitment to democratic process. After a few years, it simply was not in the cards for former Confederates to remain disfranchised, and so in most Southern states it was likely that Democrats would again achieve control.

D. But this observation overlooks fact that most white southerners did not share this commitment to democratic process. Had they done so, Republicans would have remained in power in states with black majorities and would have remained a viable political party in the rest.

E. Instead, Redeemers substantially destroyed Republican parties throughout South. Impossible for whites to remain in party if they expected to play an effective role in politics. Blacks gradually disfranchised via devices that exploited black illiteracy; later poll tax, redistricting, grandfather clause, literacy tests.