1868, succeeded in holding
the total vote below a majority. Congress then rushed to the rescue of
radicalism with the act of the 11th of March, which provided that a
mere majority of those voting in the State was sufficient to inaugurate
reconstruction. Arkansas had followed the lead of Alabama, but too late;
in Mississippi the constitution was defeated by a majority vote; in
Texas the convention had made no provision for a vote; and in Virginia
the commanding general, disapproving of the work of the convention,
refused to pay the expenses of an election. In the other six States the
constitutions were adopted.*

* Except in Texas, the work of constitution making was
completed between November 5, 1867, and May 18, 1868.

These elections gave rise to more violent contests than before. They
also were double elections, as the voters cast ballots for state and
local officials and at the same time for or against the constitution.
The radical nominations were made by the Union League and the Freedmen's
Bureau, and nearly all radicals who had been members of conventions were
nominated and elected to office. The Negroes, expecting now to reap some
benefits of reconstruction, frequently brought sacks to the polls to
"put the franchise in." The elections were all over by June 1868,
and the newly elected legislatures promptly ratified the Fourteenth
Amendment.

It now remained for Congress to approve the work done in the South
and to readmit the reorganized states. The case of Alabama gave some
trouble. Even Stevens, for a time, thought that this state should stay
out; but there was danger in delay. The success of the abstention
policy in Alabama and Arkansas and the reviving interest of the whites
foreshadowed white majorities in some places; the scalawags began
to forsake the radical party for the conservatives; and there were
Democratic gains in the North in 1867. Only six states, New York and
five New England States, allowed the Negro to vote, while four states,
Minnesota, Michigan, Kansas, and Ohio, voted down Negro suffrage after
the passage of the reconstruction acts. The ascendancy of the radicals
in Congress was menaced. The radicals needed the support of their
radical brethren in Southern States and they could not afford to wait
for the Fourteenth Amendment to become a part of the Constitution or
to tolerate other delay. On the 22d and the 25th of June, acts
were therefore passed admitting seven states, Alab