This being settled affirmatively, Louisiana was reconstructed with vigour. A Constitution of 1868 gave suffrage to the blacks, and disfranchised all whites made ineligible to office under the proposed 14th amendment to the national Constitution, and also (practically) those who had by word, pen or vote defended seces sion. Then the State ratified the 14th amendment, and was de clared readmitted to the Union in July 1868. Probably no other Southern State suffered equally with Louisiana from the corrup tion of "carpet-bag," "scalawag," negro legislatures. For four years (1868-72) the government expenses increased to ten times their normal volume, taxation was enormously increased, and about $57,000,000 of debt was created. But a quarrel broke out among the Republicans (1872), the result of which was the installation of two governors and legislatures, one supported by the Democrats and Liberal Republicans and the other by the radical Republicans, the former being certainly elected by the people. The rivalry of these two State Governments, clashes of arms, the recognition by the Federal authorities of the radical Republican government (Pinchbeck and Kellogg, successively governors) followed. One historic clash in New Orleans (Sept. 14, 1874) between the "White League" and the Republican police is commemorated by a monu ment, and the day is regarded by Louisianans as a sort of State independence-day. Finally, in the year 1876, Francis T. Nicholls, a Democrat, was chosen governor, but the Republican candidate, S. B. Packard, claimed the election, and with a Republican legisla ture for a time occupied the State House. In the national election of 1876 there were double returns (Republican : 75,315 for Hayes and 70,508 for Tilden ; and Democratic : 83,723 for Tilden and 77,174 for Hayes) from Louisiana, which, as was the case with the double electoral returns from Florida, Oregon and South Carolina, were adjudicated by the Electoral Commission in favour of the Republican electors voting for Hayes. Civil war being threatened within the State President Hayes sent to Louisiana a commission, composed of Wayne McVeagh, Gen. J. R. Hawley, Charles B. Lawrence, J. M. Harlan and John C. Brown, ex-Governor of Tennessee, which was instructed to promote "an acknowledgment of one government within the State." The rival legislatures united, organizing under the Nicholls government, which the commission found was upheld by public opinion. The president ordered the withdrawal of Federal troops from the capital on April 20, 1877, and the white party was thus left in control.
period occurred in the spring of 1927, inundating 1,300,000 ac., driving 300,000 people from their homes and destroying millions of dollars worth of property. The catastrophe prompted Congress to pass its $325,000,000 Mississippi Flood Control Act in 1928.
Among early political developments the progressive disfran chisement of the negro was most significant, but the fight against the Louisiana State Lottery Company (1868-93) attracted more attention. Louisiana has been overwhelmingly Democratic since 1877. One section or another has shown a readiness to revolt against specific grievances, as when the sugar cane area turned against the Democratic low tariff in 1913. The State ratified the Prohibition Amendment in 1918 and then voted strongly for Smith in 1928, in spite of his demand for its repeal, revealing the popu lous Catholic element in the State.
Local politics entered upon a tumultuous era in the same year with the election of Huey Pierce Long as governor. Leader of the back country, Long soon came into violent conflict with the older party leaders centred in the city. His determination to increase the State expenditures for education under the compulsory educa tion law of 1914 and to build roads and bridges throughout the State frustrated the hopes of many for government economy. The attempts of the opposition to secure Long's impeachment failed in 1929 and his grip on the State became more secure. After his election to the U.S. Senate Long refused to vacate the governor's office until the Senate convened a year later. In the succeeding election Long's candidate, 0. K. Allen, was chosen governor. The Roosevelt campaign of late 1932 and the rigours of the bank crisis of the following year brought a brief lull to the political struggle, but Gov. Allen was soon invoking martial law against the oppo sition dominant in New Orleans. Four legislative sessions were convened in 1934 and an unprecedented quantity of legislations was rubber stamped, concentrating in the hands of the governor control over State and local functions.
Continued activity of special sessions during the following year roused local and national concern over the future course of the dictatorship, but in 1935 Long was assassinated by Dr. Carl A. Weiss, Jr., ending a serious third party threat. The political ma chine abandoned the "Share the Wealth" campaign, returned to the Democratic fold, and carried the State for Roosevelt in 1936.