Arrival of more tobacco men in Congress

The arrival of men to Congress who wanted a reduction on the tax on whiskey and tobacco was heralded as a great victory for the Virginia and the South. Previously, according to the Daily Dispatch, “the South was then weak in representation and had the whole organization of the internal-revenue system against her interests.' The main goal of the new congressional arrivals was to get the taxes on tobacco and whiskey lowered and also to have this accomplished in separate bills. The south had been indignant with Washington since the Civil War because the profitable products of “tobacco and whiskey have been treated as luxuries and taxed exorbitantly as such.' This was part of the general belief the Daily Dispatch stated was that “since the war all the legislation of Congress has been against the leading products of the South.' Therefore, the arrival of more who supported Southern causes and reduced taxes for leading products was heralded as a victory.
This feeling that the national government was against the south and kicking her while down was common during the late 1870s. Many had suffered from Republican governments which they believed were illegitimately forced on them during Reconstruction and they hated them for it. Therefore, when it ended and the Republicans left, a swift and dramatic change occurred in the South. Democrats took back Southern governments and systematically began to undo all the potential progress of Reconstruction.