U.S. HISTORY CHAPTER 12-3 THE COLLAPSE OF RECONSTRUCTION
OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION In 1866, the Ku Klux Klan was formed It was originally a social club for Confederate veterans As it spread throughout the South, however, it goal became to restore white supremacy
OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION They used violence to keep African Americans from voting From , the Klan killed thousands of men, women and children, most of whom were black The Klan also killed whites who helped African Americans in anyway
OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION The terror tactics kept blacks from voting By 1876, white Democrats took power 8 southern states These Democrats were known as “Redeemers” Redeemers were those who brought back southern power
OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION To stem the violence, Congress passed a series of Enforcement Acts in 1870 & 71 They provided for federal supervision of elections in Southern states Congress also passed the Amnesty Act in 1872 This returned the right to vote and hold federal offices to Confederates barred in the 14 th Amendment This undercut Republican governments in the South, as these Confederates almost all voted Democratic
THE GRANT ADMINISTRATION President Grant’s Administration was very corrupt Grant could not distinguish honest people Many of his family, staff & cabinet peddled their influence with the President in return for cash One such scandal was the Credit Mobilier Scandal
THE GRANT ADMINISTRATION The Union Pacific Railroad formed its own construction company It was called Credit Mobilier The railroad officers used Credit Mobilier to overcharge on government contracts
THE GRANT ADMINISTRATION They reaped huge sums in personal profits To prevent investigation, the company gave stock to those who could protect them These included members of Congress and Grant’s Vice President
THE GRANT ADMINISTRATION In 1875, the Whiskey Ring was exposed Internal-revenue collectors accepted bribes from whiskey distillers These distillers wanted to avoid paying taxes The ring defrauded the government of millions of dollars
THE GRANT ADMINISTRATION Of the 238 persons indicted in the scandal, one was Grant’s private secretary General Orville E. Babcock Grant could not accept his secretary was guilt and helped him avoid conviction In 1876, the Secretary of War William W. Belknap was impeached by the House He had accepted bribes from merchants who wanted to keep trade concessions in Indian Territory The Grant Scandals hurt the Republican party
THE SUPREME COURT The Supreme Court also set back reconstruction The Slaughterhouse cases decided most civil rights were protected by the state, rather than the federal government U.S. v. Cruickshank ruled the federal government had no power to punish whites who oppressed blacks In U.S. v. Reese, the court ruled the 15 th Amendment only limited the type of discrimination states could not use
THE SUPREME COURT All of these cases limited the 14 th and 15 th Amendment rights The Grant Scandals, Supreme Court set backs and Southern resistance caused Northerners to retreat from Reconstruction
THE COMPROMISE OF 1877 The 1876 Election was between Democrat Samuel Tilden & Republican Rutherford B. Hayes Tilden won popular vote, but was 1 vote short in electoral college There were accusations of voter fraud
THE COMPROMISE OF 1877 An electoral commission was formed to decide the election The commission decided on party lines and Hayes won
THE COMPROMISE OF 1877 To keep nation from violence, a compromise was reached According to the compromise: 1) 1)Democrats accepted Hayes as President 2) 2)Republicans agreed to remove federal troops from the south
AFTER RECONSTRUCTION The South became similar to what it was before Civil War Whites returned to power Segregation, separation of the races, became the way of life
AFTER RECONSTRUCTION The South passed “Jim Crow” laws These laws legally segregated blacks from whites The 14th and 15th amendments were just ignored