he fact that the National Republican party made a grave
mistake when it abandoned any further effort to enforce by appropriate
legislation the war amendments to the Constitution. In opposing and
denouncing the questionable methods of the extreme and radical faction
of their own party, the conservative faction of the Democrats believed,
expected, and predicted that such methods would not be acquiesced in by
the Republican party, nor would they be tolerated by the National
Government. If those expectations and predictions had been verified they
would have given the conservative element a justifiable excuse to break
away from the radicals, and this would have resulted in having two
strong political parties in that section to-day instead of one. But
when it was seen that the National Republican party made no further
opposition to the enforcement of those extraneous, radical and
questionable methods, that fact not only had the effect of preventing
further opposition on the part of the conservative Democrats, but it
also resulted in many of the politically ambitious among them joining
the ranks of the radicals, since that was then the only channel through
which it was possible for their political aspirations to be gratified.

The reader cannot fail to see that under the plan in force in
Mississippi there is no incentive to intelligence; because intelligence
does not secure access to the ballot-box, nor does the lack of it
prevent such access. It is not an incentive to the accumulation of
wealth; because the ownership of property does not secure to the owner
access to the ballot-box, nor does the lack of it prevent such access.
It is not a question of intelligence, wealth or character, nor can it be
said that it is wholly a question of party. It is simply a question of
factional affiliation. The standard of qualification is confined to such
white men as may be in harmony with the faction that may happen to have
control for the time being of the election machinery. What is true of
Mississippi in this respect is equally true of the other States in which
schemes of various sorts have been invented and adopted to evade the
Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

CHAPTER XXVII

EFFECT OF THE MCKINLEY TARIFF BILL ON BOTH POLITICAL PARTIES

The Congressional elections of 1890 resulted in a crushing defeat for
the Republicans. This was due, no doubt, to the McKinley Tariff Bill
which became a law only about a month before