HE Republicans also hoped to increase their
political power by protecting the negro in the
exercise of his privilege to vote, or by reducing the
representation of the South in the House of Repre-
sentatives and the electoral college, in so far as the
negroes were in practice disfranchised. Ever since
the reconstruction policy was abandoned, in 1877, ¹
there had been a "solid south." In 1880 there were
but three Republican members in the House of
Representatives from the eleven states which once
belonged to the Confederacy; in 1885 there were six,
and in 1890 thirteen. In most of the southern states
the negro, for various reasons, did not vote: ignorance
and inertia kept many from the polls; deceit and
dishonesty of Republican leaders disgusted others.
The negroes had often been used as tools of schem-
ing white politicians who sought their support for
personal and selfish ends. Failing to receive the
promised forty acres and a mule, ² they lost interest

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