 Beale argued that the carpetbaggers themselves were pawns in the hands of Northern industrialists, who were the real villains of Reconstruction.These industrialists had taken control of the nation during the Civil War, and set up high tariffs to protect their profits, as well as a lucrative national banking system and a railroad network fueled by government subsidies and secret payoffs.The return to power of the Southern whites would seriously threaten all their gains, and so the ex-Confederates had to be kept out of power.