Greg, you are absolutely correct about Steven Douglas, I meant to say Frederick A. Douglas, the black abolitionist, and self stated Republican who was a constant written and personal consultant to President Lincoln.

You are wrong about the Governors, Senators, and Representatives. For the first ten years after the Civil war, no person who had been in rebellion against the Union could run for office. As a result, unless a white person from the North moved South to run for office (called carpetbaggers) the vast majority of Federal offices were held by African Americans (hence the "Since Reconstruction" attachment to most Federal offices, newly won by blacks). Did you ever ask yourself why the papers, etc. always seem to include that comment?

As for the comments about the big Unions, their members had far more stolen from the inside, than they lost at any bargaining table, (a variation of a comment I recall first attributed to Robert Kennedy).

And as an additional exercise you might want to listen to the Johnson tapes currently being played on PBS as he constantly complains of the Democrats tactics to foil the Civil Rights bill, while his conversations with Everett Dirksen(R) were two master politicians attempting to do the right thing.