inds to get rid of Negro rule, the clashes came
frequently and always ended in the death of more Negroes than whites.*
They would probably have continued with serious consequences if the
whites had not eventually secured control of the government.

* Among the bloodiest conflicts were those in Louisiana at
Colfax, Coushatta, and New Orleans in 1873-74, and at
Vicksburg and Clinton, Mississippi, in 1874-75.

The lax election laws, framed indeed for the benefit of the party in
power, gave the radicals ample opportunity to control the Negro vote.
The elections were frequently corrupt, though not a great deal of money
was spent in bribery. It was found less expensive to use other methods
of getting out the vote. The Negroes were generally made to understand
that the Democrats wanted to put them back into slavery, but sometimes
the leaders deemed it wiser to state more concretely that "Jeff Davis
had come to Montgomery and is ready to organize the Confederacy again"
if the Democrats should win; or to say that "if Carter is elected, he
will not allow your wives and daughters to wear hoopskirts." In Alabama
many thousand pounds of bacon and hams were sent in to be distributed
among "flood sufferers" in a region which had not been flooded since
the days of Noah. The Negroes were told that they must vote right and
receive enough bacon for a year, or "lose their rights" if they voted
wrongly. Ballot-box stuffing developed into an art, and each Negro was
carefully inspected to see that he had the right kind of ticket before
he was marched to the polls.

The inspection and counting of election returns were in the hands of
the county and state boards, which were controlled by the governor, and
which had authority to throw out or count in any number of votes. On
the assumption that the radicals were entitled to all Negro votes, the
returning boards followed the census figures for the black population in
order to arrive at the minimum radical vote. The action of the returning
boards was specially flagrant in Louisiana and Florida and in the black
counties of South Carolina.

Notwithstanding the fact that the very best arrangements had been made
at Washington and in the states for the running of the radical machine,
everywhere there were factional fights from the beginning. Usually the
scalawags declared hostilities after they found that the carpetbaggers
had control of the Negroes and the inside track on the way to