l honesty, and re-elected him, an
army of rogues throve under his lax administration.

The let-alone policy toward the South, to which Grant was prompted both
by his virtues and his limitations, would not on the whole have been
unacceptable to the mass of the Southern whites. Left wholly to
themselves, those States would soon have righted themselves from the
unstable equilibrium in which they had been placed by the imposition of
an ignorant electorate. Natural forces,--just or unjust, benignant or
cruel,--would soon have reversed the order. But the nation at large
would not at once abandon its protectorate over its recent wards, the
freedmen. For their greatest need, education, it assumed no
responsibility. But when stories were rife of abuse and terrorism under
the masquerade of the Ku-Klux, Congress interfered, even if by some
stretch of its constitutional power, to bring the raiders under the arm
of Federal law. When elections were reported to be controlled by fraud
and intimidation, it seemed incumbent on the national government to
protect the ballot-box by which its own members were chosen. When rival
bodies claimed each to be the legitimate government of a State, it was
necessary for the Washington authorities to decide which they would
recognize, and it was a natural sequence to back their decision by the
military force. And in all of these cases, the maintenance of law and
order easily became confused with the support of factions allied
politically with the party in power at Washington. As the Southern
Republicans were gradually outvoted or overpowered at home, their
appeals for help from the general government became more urgent, while
the continuance of such interference became more questionable to
thoughtful men.

Before this state of things, there was a gradual division of opinion
among Republicans at the North, and especially among their leaders.
Against the call to protect the freedmen and bridle the slave-holding
spirit in its new forms, rose the call to return to the old respect for
local rights, and let each Southern State manage its own affairs, as did
each Northern State. To this changed attitude came some of the
staunchest of the old anti-slavery leaders, and many of the younger
generation. During the early years of Grant's administration, the
question did not present itself in acute forms. The Ku-Klux law of 1870,
though it might strain the Constitution a little, received general
acquiescence beca