Therein lay the debate. Black Republicans were becoming increasingly disenchanted with the country's do-nothing policy concerning the South. Many Black men had lost their lives to Democratic forces while trying to vote in the election in 1874, yet representative Blacks such as Douglass and Pinchback were calling on Blacks to consider voting Democratic this time around to keep the Republicans from taking the Black vote for granted. As far as Vivid knew, few Blacks had crossed over.