Following the military defeat of the Southern Jeffersonians in
the Civil War and the war reparations placed upon their property
and livelihood, the American political world was left to the
Hamiltonians for a generation. There were few options left.
Jeffersonians in the North were tagged as Copperheads and rebel
sympathizers. Southern Jeffersonians were disenfranchised in
more ways than one. Tariff increases initiated by the Republican
Party sent long-time Jeffersonian strongholds into bankruptcy.
Many would later attempt to rebuild the lost economy of the
South with the few scraps left by the carpetbaggers of the
North; others left for the West in the hopes of finding better
opportunities. The power gained by the Republicans was to give
political control of the South and most of the other states
within the Union to the G.O.P. With this free hand, there was
little opposition to the special grants and privileges which
were sought by their supporters and interests. The next
political battle the Jeffersonians wer