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Sheridan was a racist against [[American Indians]] after the war, when he led troops in battle against them and notoriously said, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."<ref name="Generals"/>
Sheridan was a racist against [[American Indians]] after the war, when he led troops in battle against them and notoriously said, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."<ref name="Generals"/>
==Louisiana paramilitary insurrection==
During [[Reconstruction]], [[Louisiana]] was rife with politically and racially motivated violence. Following the quelling of the First [[Ku Klux Klan]] by Grant Administration Attorney General Amos T. Akerman, Democratic white supremacists reestablished paramilitary organizations, forming the White League in Louisiana. In the 1872 gubernatorial race, a "Liberal" unification movement of Democrats and lukewarm GOP members supported incumbent Republican Governor Henry C. Warmoth, whose reelection was opposed by the regular "customhouse" Republicans.<ref>Otten, James T. (1972). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4231282 The Wheeler Adjustment in Louisiana: National Republicans Begin to Reappraise Their Reconstruction Policy], pp. 350–51. ''JSTOR''. Retrieved March 12, 2023.</ref> Following a highly contested dispute after irregularities from both Liberal Republican Henry C. Warmoth and regular Republican William P. Kellogg, Kellogg was ultimately seated as governor.
Kellogg, inheriting deficits compiled by his Liberal predecessor, attempted to balance the budget by increasing taxes. The decision, combined with his pro-business policies and particularly his support for civil rights in a state whose white Democratic population saw as anathema, resulted in populist insurrections by the White League.
In April 1873, the paramilitary leagues of black Republican William Ward and Democratic white supremacist [[Christopher Columbus Nash]] clashed at Colfax, Louisiana, the county seat of Grant Parish.<ref>Chernow, Ron (2017). "Grant," pp. 758–59.</ref> Swarmed blacks, pleading for surrender, were viciously massacred in what since was known as the Colfax Massacre. White supremacist violence was accompanied with election fraud, embodied the subsequent year when Democrats seized control of the state legislature during the 1874 midterms amidst intense mob violence. General Sheridan, aligning with President [[Ulysses S. Grant]]'s hard line against insurrectionist Democrats, called for Grant to declare the White League "banditti" and to suspend the writ of ''habeas corpus'' to crush the terrorist group,<ref name=grant,pp.791-92>"Grant," pp. 791–92.</ref> following the military removal of five newly seated "Conservative" (Democratic/Liberal-aligned) representatives from the lower body of the legislature.
The majority of Northerners, growing discontent with [[Radical Republican]]ism, viewed the move and Sheridan's remark with abhorrence as a result of increasingly racist sentiments. Prominent newspapers (including Republican-affiliated ones), such as the ''New York World'' and ''The Nation'', denounced Grant's move as a violation of sovereignty, and Southerners hurled death threats against the Grant family.<ref name=grant,pp.791-92/> Sheridan's remarks, exemplifying farsighted righteous anger levied against Democratic white supremacist terrorists, became seized upon by anti-Reconstruction forces, whose political agenda soon overthrew "Grantism."
==References==
==References==