In 1868, with Virginia, Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas unrepresented, the first radical contingent in Congress from the South numbered 41, of whom 10 out of 12 senators and 26 out of 32 representatives were carpetbaggers.

There were two lone conservative Congressmen.

A few months later, in 1869, there were 64 radical representatives from the South, 20 senators and 44 members of the House of Representatives.

In 1877 this number had dwindled to two senators and four representatives.

The difference between these figures measures in some degree the extent of the undoing of reconstruction within the period of Grant's Administration.
How the Southern whites escaped from Negro domination has often been told and may here be sketched only in outline.