have not been
able to change. The writer is aware of the fact that thousands of
intelligent people are now laboring under the impression that there
exists at the South a bitter feeling of antagonism between the two races
and that this has produced dangerous and difficult problems for the
country to solve. That some things have occurred that would justify such
a conclusion, especially on the part of those who are not students of
this subject, will not be denied.

After the rejection of the Constitution no further effort was made to
have Mississippi readmitted into the Union until after the Presidential
and Congressional elections of 1868. The Democratic party throughout the
country was solid in its support of President Andrew Johnson, and was
bitter in its opposition to the Congressional Plan of Reconstruction.
Upon a platform that declared the Reconstruction Acts of Congress to be
unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void, the Democrats nominated for
President and Vice-President, Ex-Governor Horatio Seymour, of New York,
and General Frank P. Blair, of Missouri. The Republicans nominated for
President General U.S. Grant, of Illinois, and for Vice-President
Speaker Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana. These candidates were nominated
upon a platform which strongly supported and indorsed the Congressional
Plan of Reconstruction.

On this issue the two parties went before the people for a decision. The
Republicans were successful, but not by such a decisive majority as in
the Congressional election of 1866. In fact, if all the Southern States
that took part in that election had gone Democratic, the hero of
Appomattox would have been defeated. It was the Southern States, giving
Republican majorities through the votes of their colored men, that saved
that important national election to the Republican party. To the very
great surprise of the Republican leaders the party lost the important
and pivotal State of New York. It had been confidently believed that the
immense popularity of General Grant and his prestige as a brilliant and
successful Union general would save every doubtful State to the
Republicans, New York, of course, included. But this expectation was not
realized. The result, it is needless to say, was a keen and bitter
disappointment, for no effort had been spared to bring to the attention
of the voters the strong points in General Grant. A vote against Grant,
it was strongly contended, was virtually a vote against the Uni