There was, however, both North and South, a tendency to see a connection between the freedom of the Negroes and their political rights and thus to confuse civil equality with political and social privileges.

But the great masses of the whites were solidly opposed to the recognition of Negro equality in any form.

The poorer whites, especially the "Unionists" who hoped to develop an opposition party, were angered by any discussion of the subject.

An Alabama "Unionist," M.J.Saffold, later prominent as a radical politician, declared to the Joint Committee on Reconstruction: "If you compel us to carry through universal suffrage of colored, men...

it will prove quite an *incubus upon us in the organization of a national union party of white men; it will furnish our opponents with a very effective weapon of offense against us." There were, however, some Southern leaders of ability and standing who, by 1866, were willing to consider Negro suffrage.