This success was due to the poor leadership of the conservatives and to the ability and solidarity of the radicals led by Stevens and Sumner.

The radicals had a definite program; the moderates had not.

The object of the radicals was to secure the supremacy in the South by the aid of the Negroes and exclusion of whites.

Was this policy politically wise?
It was at least temporarily successful.

The choice offered by the radicals seemed to lie between military rule for an indefinite period and Negro suffrage; and since most Americans found military rule distasteful, they preferred to try Negro suffrage.