ext regular session of Congress.

But the task of enforcing obedience to laws, when obedience is not in
the hearts of the people, is the most difficult undertaking ever
imposed upon the governing power. If the South had been standing
alone, if it had not been receiving daily words of encouragement, of
aid, and of comfort, from the North, if it had not seen that the
Democratic party in Congress was fighting its battle, it might have
yielded to the prestige and power of the National Government. But the
situation invited, urged, induced men, to persist. They clearly saw,
as their co-operating friends in the North had seen long before, that
a compact vote of all the Southern States could be used as the sure
foundation of a formidable, and, as they hoped, irresistible political
power. It was this hope which nerved their arms for every encounter:
it was this prospect of domination that steadily encouraged them to
continue a battle which must at times have seemed desperate indeed. As
the Southern leaders of an earlier day had strenuously endeavored to
maintain equality of membership in the Senate, so now their successors
promised to themselves such solidification of their electoral vote, as
would by its very force attract sufficient strength in the North to
restore the South to a position of command in the National Government.

The instinctive hostility of the American people against the use of
troops at elections was not the only weapon of offense which the
Democratic party was able to use in this prolonged contest. As soon as
the war had closed there was a considerable influx of Northern men in
the States of the late Confederacy. The original motive which induced
the migration was financial and speculative. A belief was prevalent
in the North that great profit might be derived from the cotton-culture,
and that with the assured sympathy of the colored men they would
be able to command the requisite labor more readily than the
old slave masters. As a mere business enterprise cotton-growing at
that period, except in a very few instances, proved to be unprofitable.
The complete disorganization of labor throughout the South, consequent
upon emancipation, had embarrassed production and added largely to its
cost. It would inevitably require time to build up a labor-system
based on the new relation of the negro to the white race, and it was
the misfortune of the Northern men to embark on their venture at the
time of all o