Southern people had been swept away, and the South was helpless and bankrupt. However, as soon as the white people realized that they again had control of their country, that the eleven years' trial of negro lawmaking and legislation was about ended, they at once went to work with a will to correct the corrupt and vicious legislation of the experiment of negro suffrage, in administering the affairs of the great States, and with heart and soul to reassert their influence and rights in the union of their fathers.
In so far as their material resources were concerned, they were about in the same fix that they were in 1865, in fact, worse off than when they laid down their arms. At that date the total debts of the States were about $87,000,000. They had been compelled to repudiate all debts contracted for carrying on the war. In the ten years of negro legislation and government, conducted under carpet-baggers, the additional debt of $300,000,000 was added to the burdens of the people of the South.
The Republicans in Congress gave the ballot to the negroes as a weapon of defense of their freedom and to keep the party in power. But the first result of negro suffrage was a saturnalia of ignorant and corrupt government such as the world has seldom seen. The debts of the Southern States were rolled up to enormous extent. At the close of the war the debts had aggregated $87,000,000. Reconstruction added $300,000,000, and a great part of this was squandered. (Judson.)
Public and private debts remained as a legacy to remind the people of the war and its consequences. These debts were paid by many, compromised by many, and in many cases could not be paid at all. As yet, the people were not sure that there were not to be further attempts at readjustment. Capital had long since fled from the South, and was diverted in other directions. Money could only be had at enormous rates of interest (75 per cent to 80 per cent). The North and West were enjoying the greatest financial prosperity in their history.
