the praises of the new invention: "The white
supremacy for which we have so long struggled at the cost of so much
precious blood and treasure is now crystallized into the constitution as
a fundamental part and parcel of that organic instrument, and that, too,
by no subterfuge or evasions. With this great principle thus firmly
embedded in the constitution and honestly enforced, there need be no
longer any fear as to the honesty and purity of our future elections."
The Supreme Court, in Williams _vs._ Mississippi (1898), and Giles _vs._
Teasley (1903), declined to go behind the innocent phraseology of the
clauses, and refused to overthrow them.

Before the courts had shown their unwillingness to interfere, Congress
had done the same. Two methods of redress were discussed during the
years of Republican ascendancy, 1889-91. One of these contemplated a
reduction of the Southern representation in the House, under that part
of the Fourteenth Amendment that requires such reduction in proportion
to the number of citizens who are disfranchised. Although urged angrily
more than once, this action was not taken, and would not have affected
cases in which the denial was by force and not by law. To meet the
former situation the Republican party pledged itself in 1888. A Force
Bill, placing the control of Southern elections in federal hands was
considered. It received the enthusiastic support of Henry Cabot Lodge,
and was the occasion for another waving of the "bloody shirt." It passed
the House, with the aid of Speaker Reed, but in the Senate was abandoned
by the caucus and allowed to die in 1891. The South was left alone with
its negro problem. In the words of a Southern governor, "There are only
two flags--the white and the black. Under which will you enlist?"

The New South removed the negro from politics, but he remained, in
industry and society, a problem to whose solution an increasing
attention was paid. At the time of emancipation he was almost
universally illiterate and lived in a bankrupt community. Northern
philanthropy saw an opportunity here. The teachers sent south by the
Freedmen's Bureau stirred up interest by their letters home. In 1867
George Peabody, already noted for his benefactions in England and in
Baltimore, created a large fund for the relief of illiteracy in the
destitute region. His board of trustees became a clearing-house for
educational efforts. Ex-President Hayes became, in 1882, the head of a
similar