Reconstruction Revisted (Part 3): The End

 The Great Strike of 1877 brought out the worst of the new American system.  This new duopoly was the alliance between the federal government and the Republican Party.  And this Republican Party had became the party of big business in relatively quick order.

As strikes of aggrieved workers spread across the country and persisted, the Hayes administration was besieged with anxious requests from governors, towns, and business interests to protect factories and railroads from the strikers, both violent and non-violent.  President Hayes responded by sending in the army with few strings attached.  This allowed authorities to side with business owners against the workers, and after many battles -- pitched and otherwise -- to quash the workers' movement, if only temporarily.  

Thus, we see that along with suppression of the American Natives, every-day hard-working Americans were also confronted with armed encampments of federals. Gone was the army effort to protect Negro rights. In its place was a new order:  a unified Federal government and capitalist front determined to destroy workers' rights.  

We live with this legacy yet today.