epublican party of the North, and many leading journals, were urging
a change of policy toward the South. The great majority of Republicans
wanted a change, not because they did not sympathize with the Negro
governments, but because they saw some of the best men in the party
withdrawing their support from the administration of Gen. Grant. There
were other men who charged that the business failures in the country
were occasioned by the financial policy of the Republican party, and
in a spirit of desperation were ready to give their support to the
Democracy.

It was charged by the enemies of Gen. Grant that when he was elected
President he had a solid Republican South behind him; that under his
administration everything had been lost; and that he was responsible
for the political ruin which had overtaken the Republican party at the
South. The charge was false. The errors of reconstruction under the
administration of President Andrew Johnson, and the mistakes of the
men who had striven to run the State governments at the South had to
be counteracted by the administration of President Grant. This indeed
was a difficult task. He did all he could under the Constitution; and
when Congress endeavored to pass the Force Bill, the Hon. James G.
Blaine, of Maine, made a speech against it in caucus. Mr. Blaine had a
presidential ambition to serve, and esteemed his own promotion of
greater moment than the protection of the Colored voters of the
South. And Mr. Blaine never allowed an opportunity to pass in which he
did not throw every obstacle in the way of the success of the Grant
administration. Mr. Blaine has never seen fit to explain his
opposition to the Force Bill, which was intended to strengthen the
hands of the President in his efforts to protect the Negro voter at
the South.

When the National Republican Convention met at Cincinnati, Ohio, in
the summer of 1876, there was still lacking a definite policy for the
South. Presidential candidates were numerous, and the contest bitter.
Gen. Rutherford B. Hayes, at that time Governor of Ohio, was nominated
as a compromise candidate. There was no issue left the Republican
party, as the "bloody shirt" had been rejected by the Liberals, and
was generally distasteful at the North. But the initial success of the
Democratic party South, and the loss of many Northern States to the
Republicans, had emboldened the South to expect national success. But
a too precipitous preparation for a r