Dick Durbin Flunks History 

Last night on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) remarked that “The Senator from Texas [ref. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)] says, ‘We just want to create a little commission—ten days—we’re gonna audit all the states, particularly the ones in contention here, and find out what actually occurred.’” Durbin continued:

“And it [Cruz’s ‘commission’ proposal] really draws its parallel in 1876, Hayes and Tilden. Don’t forget what that commission, that so-called ‘political compromise’ achieved.  It was not just some ordinary governmental commission. It was a commission that killed Reconstruction, that established Jim Crow, that even after a Civil War that tore this nation apart, it re-enslaved African-Americans, and it was a commission that invited the same voter suppression we are still fighting today in America.”

Sen. Durbin is correct. The U.S. Presidential election of 1876 is parallel to the election of 2020 in that Cruz’s proposed “commission” does seek to alter the results of the apparently official Electoral College outcome.

The Compromise of 1877 stank to high heaven on both sides

Yes, the “Compromise of 1877” was odious. It did result in killing Reconstruction, ushering in Jim Crow, impoverishing African Americans, and inviting voter suppression. Sen. Durbin’s not-so-subtle implication is that Cruz and Republicans who support Cruz are racists. Now, it is more than curious that Sen. Durbin did not mention that the Compromise of 1877 resulted in the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes becoming President. I think he would not have wanted to invite an inquiry into what the Democrats got out of the deal. The Democrats were rewarded with the very evils he lists.  You see, what Sen. Durbin failed to mention was that in the odious Compromise of 1877, it was the Democrats who reaped the following rewards:  Democrats rejoiced at the Reconstruction-ending departure of Federal troops from the remaining states of Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina. Democrats were thus free to establish Jim Crow laws throughout the South. Democrats were successful in keeping African Americans in economic squalor. And Democrats suppressed the African American vote in the South for almost a hundred years. The Democrats got what they wanted. Durban’s distortion by omission is deceptive and offensive.  And with the Compromise of 1877, what did the Republicans get out of the deal?  The White House, and (perhaps more importantly) lucrative concessions to the railroad lobbies—a quintessentially Republican arrangement. The Compromise of 1877 stank to high heaven on both sides.  A pox on both their houses, then and today.  .

David Twellman is a guest columnist

Guest Column——Bio and Archives

Items of notes and interest from the web.