The Progressive Movement in the Confederate States
One can hardly discuss the 20th century history of the Confederate States of America without discussing the Progressive Movement, a rising force in politics that would eventually permanently alter the course of Confederate and world history. The aftermath of President Mahone's assassination discredited the Redeemer movement, which collapsed shortly after for a variety of political and economic reasons. However, a new force would arise to challenge the status quo in the Confederate States. A young generation of intellectuals, although originally supporting Longstreet's challenge to Cleburne in 1897, quickly grew tired of the President and abandoned him. Although Longstreet came in with bold promises, he ultimately oversaw the same racial line as Cleburne, generally tolerated corruption, and continued most of Cleburne's economic problems. Where the two differed was primarily on
who would benefit from patronage and prohibition of alcohol. The Progressives quickly arose a third force, lambasting both major groupings in Confederate politics. They were quickly denounced as "Neo-Redeemers" by President Longstreet, but while they benefitted generously from ex-Redeemers, there were sufficient differences that made them a more formidable force in Confederate politics.
Both the Redeemers and the Progressives were relentlessly anti-black, often celebrating extrajudicial executions of black citizens (which were condemned at the national and state level, but sometimes tolerated by local sheriffs in certain areas). However, they justified their positions through different methods. The old Redeemers often appealed to tradition and religion, often citing religious justifications for slavery. Although many Southern clergy went along with this, this was always a flawed approach because Christian pastors and speakers in almost every other country in the world vociferously denounced slavery. Strict controls between 1865-1885 (as implemented by many states) censoring antislavery tracts and speakers threw thousands of antislavery agitators in jails across the Confederate States, but the image of local police beating clergy (especially those from Britain and the USA) severely hurt the religious justification for proslavery among many Confederates. Although antislavery was still a distinctly minority position in 1885, it had grown into a vocal minority, whereas many proslavery advocates simply became exhausted and doubtful and were willing to accept the Brazil-brokered compromise to phase out slavery.
In contrast, the Progressives found a different justification. Their justification was "science." Particularly influential was
Racial Hygiene Basics, a book by North German physician Alfred Ploetz, who quickly became a celebrity in the Confederate States. Instead of being based on traditional religion that drew little respect from intellectuals, the new scientific racism categorized humans into broad racial categories, presenting the black-white difference as being a fundamental biological difference. Moreover, they posited that blacks threatened the "racial hygiene" of the "Anglo-Saxon race", demanding a strict separation of the races. By 1900, although strong social distinctions existed between blacks and whites, the fraternization of poor whites and poor blacks increasingly alarmed Southern elites, who feared for their "racial hygiene." Although the Confederate upper-classes would keep to themselves, some of the state-funded elementary schools were mixed-race. In particular, the Progressives were outraged by the repeal of miscegenation laws in most states after the First Confederate Civil War. They adopted the moniker "Progressive" to describe their key focus on "racial hygiene" (arguing that only their 'reform platform' could "progress" the "white race").
This justification gave the Progressives one new strength - significant support from abroad. Confederate proslavery was an international pariah. Confederate scientific racism drew in support from abroad. Whereas American and British clergy rejected religious proslavery, American and British intellectuals were often the staunchest advocates of scientific racism. Eugenics was on the upswing in both the USA and UK, not only the CSA. Many leading progressive intellectuals were in fact educated in the USA, such as Woodrow Wilson, who was educated at John Hopkins University in Maryland (a formative experience, as many intellectuals, both in the USA and CSA, often used Maryland's tumultuous politics as an example of "negroid corruption"). The Progressive focus on the "Anglo-Saxon race", also meant that US and UK business elites eagerly sponsored them.
Finally, although the Old Redeemers were mostly small slaveowners with ultra-reactionary views on government, the Progressives were different. They were cosmopolitan, educated, urbane, and polished. The Redeemers were often inarticulate and unable to elucidate an agenda besides negationism, against the government, against the US, against industrialization. In the New South, the Progressives presented themselves as the force for change and reform. They weren't against industrialization - they merely alleged the state-led model of the CSA was too corrupt and in fact
emulated the United States. As a result, the civil war, Mahone's Nationalists were able to present themselves as energetic reformers and modernizers against a corrupt Southern political establishment and the provincial, backwards Provos. In the New South, the Nationalists were typecast both at home and abroad, as the status quo reactionaries - and the Progressives as the reforming modernizers. And they had one point: endemic political corruption in the Confederate States. Political offices were simply sold for patronage, the Confederate Congress engaged in huge amounts of pork barrel spending, and machine politics were the norm. In many ways, they were not actually always bad - much of pork barrel spending was essentially used to purchase the votes of poor communities (black and white), which often sent significant investments in the notoriously poor Confederate countryside.
But to most middle-class and upper-class Confederates, corruption was proof that their government was hopelessly backwards. In contrast, the Progressives campaigned on replacing political appointees with more experts, standardizing elections, anti-corruption laws, ethics laws, and some of them even pushed for women's suffrage, causing many reform-minded Confederates to view their agenda as serious. The Progressive promise that they could "reform" the Confederacy to resemble its much richer northern neighbor was also very appealing to many Confederates. As a result, Confederate Progressive Movement was also a "good government" movement - and it attracted many of those who were either repulsed or nonplussed about the Progressive racial agenda. Moreover - many also didn't take the racial agenda very seriously. Racial baiting wasn't exactly uncommon in Confederate politics (racism against blacks was commonplace - it was just that most nationalist politicians didn't let their own views get in the way of asking for their votes), but most politicians tended to drop the issue after taking power, the chief example being the third Confederate President himself, Nathan Bedford Forrest. However, they seriously underestimated how critical "racial hygiene" was to Confederate Progressive ideology.
The Progressives would first make their mark in Confederate politics in 1900. Calling on Progressives to abandon Longstreet for failing to deliver on his promises, Progressive Confederates organized a "third force" in the 1900 midterm elections. The results were a shock - they entered the House of Representatives by taking around 20% of the seats (mostly in upper-class districts ), grievously damaging Longstreet, whose bloc collapsed in the House of Representatives from 61% to 27% of the seats. Longstreet, furious at the Progressives, ended up cooperating more with the opposition than the third force, a perhaps fateful decision.
