Wheeler Compromise

The political disruption and continued violence in Louisiana was thought to show the unraveling of Reconstruction; Wheeler said it was the failure of trying to "promote peace with the sword.

Governor Kellogg then asked for federal aid to prevent violence when the state legislature met for the first time on January 4, 1875, to organize the following elections.

[3] As the situation in Louisiana worsened, Congressman William A. Wheeler of New York and other members of the House Committee on Southern Affairs went to New Orleans to investigate.

Governor Kellogg was permitted to remain in power, while the House Committee arbitrated the seats disputed by the Returning Board.

Representative Wheeler observed that northerners had expected too much from the South and declared that it was time to admit the failure of efforts to promote peace with the sword.

Thereafter the party concentrated on preserving its power in the North while scaling down its military efforts in the South, even if that meant abandoning the political rights of the freedman.

President Grant refused to recognize the Republicans in Louisiana and South Carolina, both states marked by excessive election violence.

The national Democratic Party agreed to a compromise to gain election of President Rutherford Hayes, and in early January 1877, Grant ordered the withdrawal of federal troops from New Orleans.