e close to the appointing power, that I succeeded in finding out
definitely and authoritatively the name of the man that had been agreed
upon and would, no doubt, be appointed to that position. Ex-Senator
Key, a Democrat from Tennessee, was the man. When I informed Senator
Alcorn of that fact the manifestation of surprise, disappointment, and
disgust with which he received it can better be imagined than described.
This was not due so much to the fact that some other one than himself
had been selected, but to the fact that the fortunate man was a Southern
Democrat. For the first time the Senator became convinced that southern
Republicans had been made the subjects of barter and trade in the
shuffle for the Presidency, and that the sacrifice of southern
Republicans was the price that had to be paid for the peaceable
inauguration of Mr. Hayes. This, in Senator Alcorn's opinion, meant that
the Republican party in the reconstructed States of the South was a
thing of the past. There was no hope for it in the future.

"It would have been far better," said the Senator, "not only for the
Republican party at the South but for the country at large, to have
allowed the Democrats to inaugurate Tilden, and to have taken charge of
the Government, than to have purchased Republican victory at such a
fearful cost. What inducement can a southern white man now have for
becoming a Republican? Under the present state of things he will be
hated at home, and despised abroad. He will be rejected by his old
friends and associates, and discountenanced by his new ones. He will
incur the odium, and merit the displeasure and censure of his former
friends, associates, and companions with no compensating advantages for
the sacrifices thus made."

The Senator spoke with deep feeling. He could see that his efforts to
build up a strong Republican party at the South must necessarily fail
under such conditions, and that it was useless to make any further
effort in that direction. Under his influence and leadership very many
of the best and most influential white men in his state had identified
themselves with the Republican party. His efforts in that direction
would have been continued, in spite of the temporary defeat of the party
at the polls, however severe that defeat might have been, if those
efforts had been appreciated and appropriately recognized by the
national leaders of the organization. But when he saw that not only was
this not to be done, bu