Men's eyes were turned to the past, and on every stump were recounted again and again the horrors of Reconstruction and the valiant deeds of the Confederate soldiers.

What a candidate had done in the past in another field seemed more important even than his actual qualifications for the office to which he aspired.

A study of the _Congressional Record_ or of lists of state officers proves the truth of this statement.

In 1882, fourteen of the twenty-two United States Senators from the seceding States had military records and three had been civil officers of the Confederacy.
Several States had solid delegations of ex-Confederate soldiers in both houses.

When one reads the proceedings of Congress, he finds the names of Vance and Ransom, Hampton and Butler, Gordon and Wheeler, Harris and Bate, Cockrell and Vest, Walthall and Colquitt, Morgan and Gibson, and dozens of other Confederate officers.
The process of unifying the white South was not universally successful, however.