In most cases, the carpetbaggers worn out, and many scalawags moved into the conservative or Democratic opposition. Most of the 430 Republican newspapers in the South were edited by scalawags—20 percent were edited by carpetbaggers.
The term “carpetbaggers” refers to Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War, during Reconstruction. Many carpetbaggers were said to have moved South for their own financial and political gains. Scalawags were white Southerners who cooperated politically with black freedmen and Northern newcomers.