Only a fraction of Union troops occupied the South after the war, and the balance mustered out according to length of service. Because blacks were not admitted into ranks until the middle of the war, they were retained at a higher rate, making the occupying force "blacker" than the one that won the war. The roughly 200,000 black Americans who served in the Union Army comprised an estimated 10 percent of the North's total fighting force. But by the last quarter of 1865, blacks made up about one-third of the occupation army. Many Southerners took this as a deliberate Republican insult.<ref>https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/02/what-reconstruction-and-its-end-meant-for-black-americans-who-had-fought-for-the-right-to-keep-and-bear-arms.html</ref>
[[File:Democratic campaign poster CA 1867.png|thumb|right|300px|Democratic racism permeated throughout the nation. Here, California Democrats in a cartoon employ white supremacist tropes in a propaganda campaign against Republican gubernatorial nominee [[George C. Gorham]].]]
The Democrats lost consecutive presidential elections from 1860 through 1880 (but 1876 was in dispute); 1884 was their next victory. The Democrats were weakened by "The Cause" in the Civil War but benefited from resentment toward Republicans for its effort to promote equality for blacks in Reconstruction. The Republicans received the eternal hatred and hostility of Democrats, and shied away from social issues for the next 150 years, focusing instead on its original purpose of preserving the Union through national security, and on economic issues. The [[Redeemers]] gave the Democrats control of every Southern state. [[Ku Klux Klan|Democratic terrorism]] at first was focused on Republicans; once the Republicans had been chased out, the [[lynching]] of Blacks peaked about 1892 with over 150 victims, or about one every two days.