I don't really agree with James that it is a common truth that politicians are scum sucking parasites. It's true that the Republicans ended Reconstruction for political power, but I think its worth asking how much longer Reconstruction could have lasted had they not done so. Without that deal a democrat would have taken the presidential seat, and it is unlikely that the democrats would have continued helping the Reconstruction governments, which created a stronger base of support for the Republican party. Reconstruction was dying in any case by the late 1870's, and we shouldn't blame politicians alone for its death, but just realize that it had gone about as far as it could go by that time.

Bearing that in mind, it is still tragic that black civil rights had to degenerate in the south when reconstruction ended and that more wasn't done to safeguard them. It would take a long time for them to get what they fully deserved.