During the 1870s, widespread economic and social unrest made the Reconstruction project untenable for many Republicans. The desire to minimize the federal presence in the South not only created a tension with the republican ideals and equality norms that Congress sought to impart on the states, but the lack of enforcement of these new political norms at a critical juncture undermined their ability to constrain political actors (even those who were once allies) moving forward. Chapter 7 shows that Congress’s hypocrisy and complicity in the treatment of Chinese people, women, and the initial beneficiaries of federal intervention – African Americans – diminished Congress’s standing as a counterpoint to the exclusionary tactics used by states.