That was the whole of it.
But the Southern Democratic leaders, with great adroitness,
proceeded to repeat the process known as "firing the Southern
heart." They persuaded their people that there was an attempt
to control elections by National authority. They realized
that the waning power of their party at the South, many of
whose business men saw that the path of prosperity for the
South as well as for the North lay in the adoption of Republican
policies, might be reestablished by exciting the fear of negro
domination. The Northern Democrats, either very ignorantly
or wilfuly, united in the outcry. Governor William E. Russell
of Massachusetts, a gentleman of large influence and popularity
with both parties, telegraphed to President Cleveland a pious
thanksgiving for the defeat of this "wicked Bill."
Some worthy Republican Senators became alarmed. They thought,
with a good deal of reason, that it was better to allow existing
evils and conditions to be cured by time, and the returning
conscience and good sense of the people, rather than have
the strife, the result of which must be quite doubtful, which
the enactment and enforcement of this law, however moderate
and just, would inevitably create.
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