By December 1867 the Confederates faced defeat. Their fight to stay in power and also to retain the constitutional status they and their section had enjoyed before the war had been brought to an end by their inability either to prevent or to control reconstruction. But even in the hour of their defeat, the Southern conservatives refused to submit. The evidence of Northern reaction against Congress' measures were by this time tangible. Moreover, there still remained two opportunities to obstruct reconstruction, and at the very least these would gain time for the Northern conservatives to register their opposition against the Reconstruction Acts and the men who made them.

It was a wild hope and demonstrative of qualities which were far from statesmanlike. The conservatives' reckless and obstructionist motivations were evident in view of the realization widely understood that ‘We will not be surprised if the military bills are amended weekly hereafter to meet all contingencies that are probable. A body of men who perjure themselves by enacting such laws as the reconstruction acts, are capable of any enormity.’ Yet despite this editorial comment in the Arkansas Gazette, the conservatives in that State and in most of the others embarked on a frantic effort to stop reconstruction dead in its tracks. This was to be effected by defeating the new constitutions which had been formulated by the conventions and were then to be submitted for popular ratification.