am powerless to prevent and cannot
control. Henceforth I must act with the Democratic party or make myself
a martyr; and I do not feel that there is enough at stake to justify me
in making such a fearful sacrifice as that. It is, therefore, with deep
sorrow and sincere regret, Henry, that I am constrained to leave you
politically, but I find that I am confronted with a condition, not a
theory. I am compelled to choose between you, on one side, and my family
and personal interests, on the other. That I have decided to sacrifice
you and yours upon the altar of my family's good is a decision for which
you should neither blame nor censure me. If I could see my way clear to
pursue a different course it would be done; but my decision is based
upon careful and thoughtful consideration and it must stand."

Of course a stubborn and bitter fight for control of the Democratic
organization was now on between the antagonistic and conflicting
elements among the whites. It was to be a desperate struggle between the
former aristocrats, on one side, and what was known as the "poor
whites," on the other. While the aristocrats had always been the weaker
in point of numbers, they had been the stronger in point of wealth,
intelligence, ability, skill and experience. As a result of their wide
experience, and able and skillful management, the aristocrats were
successful in the preliminary struggles, as illustrated in the persons
of Stephens, Gordon, Brown and Hill, of Georgia; Daniels and Lee, of
Virginia; Hampton and Butler, of South Carolina; Lamar and Walthall, of
Mississippi, and Garland, of Arkansas. But in the course of time and in
the natural order of things the poor whites were bound to win. All that
was needed was a few years' tutelage and a few daring and unscrupulous
leaders to prey upon their ignorance and magnify their vanity in order
to bring them to a realization of the fact that their former political
masters were now completely at their mercy, and subject to their will.

That the poor whites of the ante-bellum period in most of the late
slaveholding or reconstructed States are now the masters of the
political situation in those States, is a fact that will not be
questioned, disputed or denied by anyone who is well informed, or who is
familiar with the facts. The aristocrats of ante-bellum days and their
descendants in the old slave States are as completely under the
political control and domination of the poor whites of the a