For all their stridency, Democrats appear to have profited little from the race issue in this election. For most undecided voters, the success or failure of the war was more salient than the possibility of blacks marrying their sisters. Republicans were far more successful in pinning the label of traitor on Democrats than the latter were in pinning the label of miscegenationist on Republicans. If anything, racism may have boomeranged against the Democrats this time, for after Sherman’s and Sheridan’s victories many northern voters began to congratulate themselves on the selflessness of their
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