So this most essential part of the reconstruction policy
of Sumner and Grant never took effect. Mr. Sumner deemed
this matter vital to success. He told me about a week before
his death that when the resolution declaring the provision
for public education at the National charge an essential part
of the reconstruction policy, was defeated in the Senate by
a tie vote, he was so overcome by his feelings that he burst
into tears and left the Senate Chamber.
Another part of the Republican plan for reconstruction was
never accomplished. That was the securing of a fair vote
and a fair ascertainment of the result in National elections
by National power. Some partial and imperfect attempts were
made to put in force laws intended to accomplish this result.
They never went farther than enactments designed to maintain
order at the polls, to secure the voter from actual violence,
and to provide for such scrutiny as to make it clear that
the vote was duly counted and properly returned, with a right
of appeal to the Courts of the United States in case of a
contest, the decision of the Court to be subject to the final
authority of the House of Representatives.
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