Politics of Alabama

The author chronicles a recent disputed gubernatorial contest and its aftermath, alleging ballot manipulation and canvass irregularities that displaced the popular winner. He traces partisan intolerance, mob tactics, editorial and ministerial suppression, and violent assaults on dissenters, while examining Democratic organizational methods and campaign cruelty. The narrative links these practices to postwar social and economic strains, argues that poverty produced independent political thought, and surveys election machinery, Bourbon orthodoxy, and factional labels. Concluding chapters assess rising Populist momentum and predict a continued challenge to entrenched party rule.