Material Interests
was in part aroused because of the necessity of enacting and executing some strenuous laws for the enforcement of the new constitutional amendments and for the vindication of the equal civil rights of citizens in the South. A widespread and murderous conspiracy against such rights was organized, known as the Ku-Klux Klan, against which the national government was compelled to use much force. These disturbances made it inevitable that there should be further delay in removing all the political disabilities of all the former Confederates. In addition to these things, the comparative inexperience of President Grant in civil administration and the too great trust which he, in his own transparent honesty, sometimes reposed in other men led to some more or less serious acts of maladministration and even of corruption in the government, such as had been suffered by almost every preceding administration; and these were exploited and magnified for political purposes by the enemies of the President and his party.
As early as 1870 a number of disaffected Republicans in Missouri, calling themselves “Liberals,” united with the Democrats and defeated the Republicans in the state election. The movement was extended to other states and in consequence the Republican majority in Congress was somewhat reduced by that fall's elections. In 1872 various “Liberal Republican” conventions were held, and finally in May a national convention of that faction was held at Cincinnati, at which after much dispute and uncertainty Horace Greeley of New York and B. Gratz Brown of Missouri were nominated for President and Vice-President. Mr. Greeley was one of the most eminent newspaper editors of the country
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