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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Politics - 20. Underlying Factors - 6. Memories of Reconstruction - 7. The Tradition of Illegality
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448 An American Dilemma
ican history have come down with such an evil reputation as that of Thad-
deus Stevens, the leader of the Republican party in the House of Repre-
sentatives until his early death in 1868. There are glimmerings of evidence
that Stevens had an enlightened plan of social reform far in advance of
his time, and that he was not at all violent in inciting Negroes to put their
former masters under heel. These few facts, and a consideration of the
conditions under which the history of the Reconstruction period has been
written, suggest that more efforts ought to be made by American historians
to write a complete and dispassionate history of that period, a history
which would have to rely on primary rather than on secondary sources.^^
The school book histories, as well as the more scholarly histories,
perpetuate the myths about the Reconstruction period. They still give, for
the most part, undue emphasis to the sordid details of the Reconstruction
governments but avoid mentioning their accomplishments. They exaggerate
the extent of ^‘black domination” and deprecate the Negro politicians even
more than they deserve, while they give subtle excuses for the cruelty and
fraud employed in the restoration of white supremacy. They usually make
all the errors found in the scholarly histories and omit all the complicating
qualifications that make the scholarly histories have a semblance of objec-
tivity. Particularly is this true of the history textbooks prepared for
Southern schools.^^ The present generation of Southerners, on the whole,
is given a more objective picture of the Civil War and Reconstruction
than the previous generation received. But their knowledge is still dis-
torted, and their attitudes toward the Negro and the North are corre-
spondingly unfriendly.
It is apparent that, quite independent of what he thinks happened
during Reconstruction, the average white Southerner resents the thought
of Negroes voting on a par with white men.®^ Yet the Constitution is very
clear in specifying that no one is to be kept from voting for reasons of
^‘race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Thus the Southerner is
forced to circumvent the Constitution if he is to keep the Negroes from
voting. But the Constitution and its principles have a grip on the South-
erner’s own soul. He therefore needs to believe that when the Negro
voted, life was unbearable. The myth of the horrors of Reconstruction
thus permits the Southerner to reconcile the two conflicting desires within
himself. They are, in our terminology, false beliefs with a purpose.
7. The Tradition of Illegality
While, as we said, the Northerner generally is likely to be less inclined
to discriminate against the Negro, the more formal and impersonal a
relation is and, specifically, when the relation is between public authority
and the individual Negro citizen,* the white Southerner is inclined to react
* See Section 3 of this chapter.
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