o make safe the Negro majorities in the South but
also gave the ballot to the Negroes in a score of Northern States
and thus assured, for a time at least, 900,000 Negro voters for the
Republican party.

When Johnson's term ended and he gave place to President Grant, four
states were still unreconstructed--Virginia, Texas, and Mississippi,
in which the reconstruction had failed, and Georgia, which, after
accomplishing reconstruction, had again been placed under military rule
by Congress. In Virginia, which was too near the capital for such
rough work as readmitted Arkansas and Alabama into the Union, the new
constitution was so severe in its provisions for disfranchisement that
the disgusted district commander would not authorize the expenditure
necessary to have it voted on. In Mississippi a similar constitution had
failed of adoption, and in Texas the strife of party factions, radical
and moderate Republican, had so delayed the framing of the constitution
that it had not come to a vote.

The Republican politicians, however, wanted the offices in these States,
and Congress by its resolution of February 18, 1869, directed the
district commanders to remove all civil officers who could not take
the "ironclad" oath and to appoint those who could subscribe to it. An
exception, however, was made in favor of the scalawags who had supported
reconstruction and whose disabilities had been removed by Congress.

President Grant was anxious to complete the reconstruction and
recommended to Congress that the constitutions of Virginia and
Mississippi be re-submitted to the people with a separate vote on the
disfranchising sections. Congress, now in harmony with the executive,
responded by placing the reconstruction of the three states in the hands
of the President, but with the proviso that each state must ratify the
Fifteenth Amendment. Grant thereupon fixed a time for voting in each
state and directed that in Virginia and Mississippi the disfranchising
clauses be submitted separately. As a result, the constitutions were
ratified but proscription was voted down. The radicals secured control
of Mississippi and Texas, but a conservative combination carried
Virginia and thus came near keeping the state out of the Union. Finally,
during the early months of 1870 the three states were readmitted.

With respect to Georgia a peculiar condition of affairs existed. In June
1868, Georgia had been readmitted with the first of the reconstructe