642 Breakdown of " Carpet-bag" " governments. [1870-7 committees held inquests and collected testimony of such a character as to lead the majority to pass, in May, 1870, an "Enforcement Act," whereby any conspiracy to deprive the negroes of rights guaranteed by the Fifteenth Amendment was made punishable by Federal process. This not proving successful, a second Act, known as the " Ku Klux Act," still more drastic in its effect, was passed in April, 1871 ; and in 1875 a Supplementary Civil Rights Act was added, which aimed at enforcing full social equality for negroes in theatres, hotels, and public conveyances. At the same time, by Acts of 1871 and 1872, all Federal elections were placed under the control of Federal authorities ; and under these Acts hundreds of arrests were made and convictions secured. The President, on his part, used troops freely to aid the struggling "carpet-bag"" governments ; and scenes repellent to all but extreme partisans frequently took place, when Federal troops, at the word of a Republican governor, broke up legislatures claiming to be legally constituted, or ejected State officials. In Louisiana, especially, these interventions became habitual : but Grant grew weary of the "annual autumnal outbreaks," and oc- casionally in his second term refused aid. Under the " Ku Klux Act " Grant also proclaimed martial law for a while in part of South Carolina. But, though these measures succeeded in curbing the open outrages, they failed in effecting their main purpose. In spite of troops, Federal election laws, and the unscrupulous defence of the " carpet-baggers," the negro governments broke down one after another. The weaker race could not hold its own in such a contest; faction quarrels weakened the Republican organisations; and in the end the whites triumphed. Tennessee turned Democratic in 1869; West Virginia, Missouri, and North Carolina in 1870 ; Georgia in 1871 ; Alabama, Texas, and Arkansas, after a hard struggle, in 1874 ; Mississippi, after a desperate campaign, in 1875; and only Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina remained Republican in the election of 1876. These three played a decisive part in the presidential struggle of that year, as will be shown later; but, upon the withdrawal of troops from them in 1877, the Republican governments collapsed, and all three passed into the hands of the whites. In each State the overthrow of the "carpet-baggers" was followed by reforms in administration, reduction of expenses and taxation, and, in many cases, by new State constitutions and the re- pudiation of fraudulent debt. During the same period, in spite of Federal election laws, the number of Republicans in Congress from the reconstructed States ran rapidly down from 20 senators and 40 repre- sentatives in 1869 to two senators and four representatives in 1877. The ruin of Republican Reconstruction as a party policy was complete within ten years after its establishment. Meanwhile financial reconstruction had been endangered by a sudden industrial crisis, which, with its subsequent years of hard times, wrecked at a blow the Republican financial prestige. The panic of 1873 came as
