Page:Disunion and restoration in Tennessee (IA disunionrestorat00neal).pdf/76

 CHAPTER X

CLOSE OF THE RADICAL DOMINATION

After the recognition of the loyal government by Congress, the only hope of the disfranchised ex-Confederates of regaining political control of the State lay in a division in the ranks of the Union party. So long as Governor Brownlow remained at the head of affairs, no such division occurred. He served as Governor the full term of two years, and was re-elected. Before the expiration of his second term, he was chosen by the Legislature to represent Tennessee in the United States Senate. According to a provision of the State constitution, the vacant governorship descended to De Witt Senter, Speaker of the State Senate. Mr. Senter was inducted into office on the 29th of February, 1868.

Three years had now passed since the close of the war, and the restoration of civil government, but the majority of the white citizens still remained disfranchised, and no steps had been taken to remove their disqualifications. In speaking of this aspect of the situation, Mr. Fletcher, Secretary of the State, said: "Our mistake was that we made the franchise law sweeping and perpetual, offering no hope or inducement to the ex-rebel to become loyal. The man who is disfranchised in a republic is not apt to feel that it is his government, or to take pride or interest in it, nor apt to make a useful or even law-abiding citizen of it. I do not feel comfortable in a State where half of the people and two thirds of the tax-payers are publicly degraded by law, without motive to be proud of the State and government."

Upon the day of Governor Senter's inauguration, the air was filled with rumors and signs of coming changes. Whether