Uncivil rights

An edited extract from These Truths: A history of the United States discusses the fraud and failure of Reconstruction. Reconstruction failed, a century after the nation was founded, by the seedy compromises, underhand dealings, personal viciousness and outright fraud of small-minded and self-gratifying men. When Democrats agreed to throw their support behind the man ever after known as Rutherfraud B. Hayes, so that he could become President, in exchange for a promise from Republicans to end the military occupation of the South. For a minor and petty political win over the Democratic Party, Republicans first committed electoral fraud and then, in brokering a compromise, abandoned a century-long fight for civil rights.