which were essential to its existence and which could come only from the parent which had been seriously if not fatally wounded upon the field of battle.  After the Presidential election of 1872 Southern white men were not only coming into the Republican party in large numbers, but the liberal and progressive element of the Democracy was in the ascendency in that organization.  That element, therefore, shaped the policy and declared the principles for which that organization stood.  This meant the acceptance by all political parties of what was regarded as the settled policy of the National Government.  In proof of this assertion a quotation from a political editorial which appeared about that time in the Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion,—­the organ of the Democratic party,—­will not be out of place.  In speaking of the colored people and their attitude towards the whites, that able and influential paper said: 

“While they [the colored people] have been naturally tenacious of their newly-acquired privileges, their general conduct will bear them witness that they have shown consideration for the feelings of the whites.  The race line in politics would never have been drawn if opposition had not been made to their enjoyment of equal privileges in the government and under the laws after they were emancipated.”

In other words, the colored people had manifested no disposition to rule or dominate the whites, and the only color line which had existed grew out of the unwise policy which had previously been pursued by the Democratic party in its efforts to prevent the enjoyment by the newly-emancipated race of the rights and privileges to which they were entitled under the Constitution and laws of the country.  But after the State and Congressional elections of 1874 the situation was materially changed.  The liberal and conservative element of the Democracy was relegated to the rear and the radical element came to the front and assumed charge.

Subsequent to 1872 and prior to 1875 race proscription and social ostracism had been completely abandoned.  A Southern white man could become a Republican without being socially ostracized.  Such a man was no longer looked upon as a traitor to his people, or false to his race.  He no longer forfeited the respect, confidence, good-will, and favorable opinion of his friends and neighbors.  Bulldozing, criminal assaults and lynchings were seldom heard of.  To the contrary, cordial, friendly and amicable relations between all classes, all parties, and both races prevailed everywhere.  Fraud, violence, and intimidation at elections were neither suspected nor charged by anyone, for everyone knew that no occasion existed for such things.  But after the State and Congressional elections of 1874 there was a complete change of front.  The new order of things was then set aside and the abandoned methods of a few years back were revived and readopted.