Political Economy and Political Culture continued The New Blueprint Limitation and Fragmentation 1876 Constitution Reduced salaries for state officials Governor stripped of most appointive powers most offices made elective Terms of office shortened In order to ensure that their objectives were met the authors of the Constitution went into explicit detail Postbellum Texas Dominance of Agriculture Growth of railroads New Labor System Farm Tenancy and Sharecropping Tenants paid back loans and for rent with portions of the crops they harvested The Lost Cause The Bloody Shirt Cattle Populism a response to worsening conditions in the rural South and West organizations such as the southern Farmer s Alliance favored agricultural cooperatives a sub treasury system and a looser money supply Texas Railroad Commission 1891 a challenge to Democratic dominance The Post Reconstruction Order Segregation Plessy v Ferguson 1896 the Supreme Court upheld racial segregation arguing that separate but equal train cars and other facilities did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment s equal protection clause Democratic Dominance Political control by white Democrats was secured through the Poll Tax and White Primary 1904 Roosevelt R Parker D Democratic Dominance in the South Between 1900 and 1950 Republicans won only 80 of 2 565 congressional elections in the South 50 victories were in 2 E Tennessee districts 17 in W North Carolina and SW Virginia 6 were in a Texas district covering part of San Antonio and a number of German counties Excepting these districts southern Republicans won only 7 of 2 434 congressional elections Loose Factionalism Demagogues