rty or either race who was
bold enough to express the opinion that the Congressional Plan of
Reconstruction was a mistake, or that negro suffrage was a failure. To
the contrary it was admitted by all that the wisdom of both had been
fully tested and clearly vindicated. It will not be denied even now by
those who will take the time to make a careful examination of the
situation, that no other plan could have been devised or adopted that
could have saved to the country the fruits of the victory that had been
won on the field of battle. The adoption of any other plan would have
resulted in the accomplishment of nothing but the mere physical
abolition of slavery and a denial of the right of a State to withdraw
from the Union. These would have been mere abstract propositions, with
no authority vested in the National Government for their enforcement.
The war for the Union would have been practically a failure. The South
would have gained and secured substantially everything for which it
contended except the establishment of an independent government. The
black man, therefore, was the savior of his country, not only on the
field of battle, but after the smoke of battle had cleared away.

Notwithstanding the general acceptance of this plan after the
Presidential election of 1872, we find that in the fall of 1874 there
was a complete and radical change in the situation,--a change both
sudden and unexpected. It came, as it were, in the twinkling of an eye.
It was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky. It was the State and
Congressional elections of that year.

In the elections of 1872 nearly every State in the Union went
Republican. In the State and Congressional elections of 1874 the result
was the reverse of what it was two years before,--nearly every State
going Democratic. Democrats were surprised, Republicans were
dumbfounded. Such a result had not been anticipated by anyone. Even the
State of Massachusetts, the birthplace of abolitionism, the cradle of
American liberty, elected a Democratic Governor. The Democrats had a
majority in the National House of Representatives that was about equal
to that which the Republicans had elected two years before. Such veteran
Republican leaders in the United States Senate as Chandler, of Michigan,
Windom, of Minnesota, and Carpenter, of Wisconsin, were retired from the
Senate. When the returns were all in it was developed that the Democrats
did not have a clear majority on joint ballot