tingling sense of party injury.

The most eminent party leaders at this time--both standing high as
presidential possibilities--were James G. Blaine and John Sherman. In
a magazine article published in 1880 Mr. Blaine wrote: "As the matter
stands, all violence in the South inures to the benefit of one political
party.... Our institutions have been tried by the fiery test of war, and
have survived. It remains to be seen whether the attempt to govern the
country by the power of a 'solid South,' unlawfully consolidated, can be
successful.... The republic must be strong enough, and shall be strong
enough, to protect the weakest of its citizens in all their rights." And
so late as 1884, Mr. Sherman earnestly contended for the principle of
national intervention in the conduct of state elections. "The war," he
said, "emancipated and made citizens of five million people who had been
slaves. This was a national act and whether wisely or imprudently done
it must be respected by the people of all the States. If sought to be
reversed in any degree by the people of any locality it is the duty
of the national government to make their act respected by all its
citizens."

Republican party platforms reiterated such opinions long after their
practical futility had become manifest. Indeed, it was a matter of
common knowledge that negro suffrage had been undone by force and fraud;
hardly more than a perfunctory denial of the fact was ever made in
Congress, and meanwhile it was a source of jest and anecdote among
members of all parties behind the scenes. Republican members were
bantered by Democratic colleagues upon the way in which provision
for Republican party advantage in the South had actually given to the
Democratic party a solid block of sure electoral votes. The time at
last came when a Southern Senator, Benjamin Tillman of South Carolina,
blurted out in the open what had for years been common talk in private.
"We took the government away," he asserted. "We stuffed ballot boxes. We
shot them. We are not ashamed of it.... With that system--force, tissue
ballots, etc.--we got tired ourselves. So we called a constitutional
convention, and we eliminated, as I said, all of the colored people we
could under the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments.... The brotherhood
of man exists no longer, because you shoot negroes in Illinois, when
they come in competition with your labor, and we shoot them in South
Carolina, when they come in compet