Proponents of the New South, recognizing the drag illiteracy placed on the economy and confident of their ability to control the appropriations, by and large favored federal aid. Opponents, however, denounced the bill as unconstitutional, defended state’s rights and common schools, and condemned the bill as a Reconstruction measure—a federal intervention aimed at helping black people. Northern Democrats recognized that the bill was a way to maintain high tariffs and opposed it. In the 1880s the bill won in the Senate, but remained bottled up in the Democratic House.
