Incidentally, if one is really keen on getting the Republicans to persist with Reconstruction, there could be a simpler way of doing it - get them to abolish the Electoral College.
This would have created a situation where "every vote counts", so the Reps would have needed every Black vote they could get. Iirc, it is believed that, had only white men voted, Grant would have lost the popular vote to Seymour, and this was certainly the case between 1876 and 1892, when the Reps frequently lost the popular vote even with significant numbers of negroes voting.
In this situation, the Republicans could not have written off the South, and allowed the Black vote there to be suppressed. OTL they could, because the Electoral College system enabled them to win elections w/o a single Southern vote. Thus the political rights of Southern Blacks were a frill, not a necessity, and as soon as public weariness with Reconstruction started to imperil their hold on key Northern States, it was abandoned like a shot. But with direct popular vote, they cannot do so.
BTW, I have a vague recollection that Senator Sumner actually advocated such an amendment, though I can't remember exactly when.
This would have created a situation where "every vote counts", so the Reps would have needed every Black vote they could get. Iirc, it is believed that, had only white men voted, Grant would have lost the popular vote to Seymour, and this was certainly the case between 1876 and 1892, when the Reps frequently lost the popular vote even with significant numbers of negroes voting.
In this situation, the Republicans could not have written off the South, and allowed the Black vote there to be suppressed. OTL they could, because the Electoral College system enabled them to win elections w/o a single Southern vote. Thus the political rights of Southern Blacks were a frill, not a necessity, and as soon as public weariness with Reconstruction started to imperil their hold on key Northern States, it was abandoned like a shot. But with direct popular vote, they cannot do so.
BTW, I have a vague recollection that Senator Sumner actually advocated such an amendment, though I can't remember exactly when.