high one. Silently State after State was
wrested from Negro rule.

Later the Ku-Klux-Klan--for such is ever the peril of Secret Societies
and the great argument against them when not demanded by imperative
necessity--began to abuse its power. Reputable people dropped out of it,
and traitors were found in its ranks. About 1872 it disappeared. But its
work was done. In the great majority of the Southern States the voting
power of the Negro was practically eliminated. Negroid Governments
survived in three only--South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. For
these the end came four years later.

The professional politicians of the North, whose motive for supporting
the indefensible _regime_ established by the Reconstruction Act has
already been noted, used, of course, the "atrocities" of the
Ku-Klux-Klan as electioneering material in the North. "Waving the bloody
shirt," it was called. But the North was getting tired of it, and was
beginning to see that the condition of things in the conquered States
was a national disgrace. A Democratic House of Representatives had been
chosen, and it looked as if the Democrats would carry the next
Presidential election. In fact they did carry it. But fraudulent returns
were sent in by the three remaining Negro Governments, and these gave
the Republicans a majority of one in the Electoral College. A Commission
of Enquiry was demanded and appointed, but it was packed by the
Republicans and showed itself as little scrupulous as the scoundrels who
administered the "reconstructed" States. Affecting a sudden zeal for
State Rights, it declared itself incompetent to inquire into the
circumstances under which the returns were made. It accepted them on the
word of the State authorities and declared Hayes, the Republican
candidate, elected.

It was a gross scandal, but it put an end to a grosser one. Some believe
that there was a bargain whereby the election of Hayes should be
acquiesced in peaceably on condition that the Negro Governments were not
further supported. It is equally possible that Hayes felt his moral
position too weak to continue a policy of oppression in the South. At
any rate, that policy was not continued. Federal support was withdrawn
from the remaining Negro Governments, and they fell without a blow. The
second rebellion of the South had succeeded where the first had failed.
Eleven years after Lee had surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, Grant's
successor in the Presidency surrend