Reconstruction Collapses 12:4

Problems with Reconstruction

Terrorist groups in the South Terrorists wanted to undo the South’s new regime and restore the old political and social order. African Americans, especially local leaders, were the terrorists’ target. Many state and local officials resigned in fear. They faced threats, house burning, beating, even death Terrorists also assaulted and killed African Americans whom they regarded as too economically successful. Enforcement Acts Set heavy penalties, including imprisonment, for anyone attempting to prevent a qualified citizen from voting. Banned the use of disguises to deprive any person of rights (Ku Klux Klan).

Support for Reconstruction declines White Southerners said the Enforcement Acts threatened their individual freedom Northerners were surprised that military rule was still necessary in the South Rebuilding programs didn’t seem to be working and were plunging them into deeper debt Liberal Republicans Broke with the party over the Enforcement Acts and the scandals that plagued the Grant administration. Helped Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives in An economic recession began in 1873, weakening support for Reconstruction programs

The End of Reconstruction In the mid-1870’s several Supreme Court decisions ruled against principles of the 14th and 15th amendments, saying those rights were under state authority-termed Slaughterhouse Cases

“Redeeming” the South On election days armed Democrats stole or destroyed ballot boxes and drove African American voters from the polls. President Grant refused to help them to solve the problems in Redeemers, the Democrats who controlled the other southern states, having redeemed, or “won back”, their states from the Republicans. Democrats in South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida were also determined to regain control of their states from the Republican leaders of Reconstruction.

The election of 1876 The election pitted Ohio’s Republican governor, Rutherford B. Hayes, against Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, the governor of New York. Tilden won the popular vote and was one vote short for the electoral win, however there were 20 disputed votes Democrats threatened, “Tilden or War”

An Electoral Commission was formed to determine the results of the election, the commission had an 8-7 Republican advantage and awarded the disputed votes to Hayes To get the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives to accept the Electoral Commission’s decision, Democratic and Republican leaders negotiated the Compromise of 1877, allowing Hayes to become president and the government would withdraw federal troops from the South

Reconstruction’s Legacy After Reconstruction, the New South emerged because it was a time of industrialization and economic change in the South. African Americans in the South entered an “era of second slavery” White southerners still resented the federal government For a century after Reconstruction ended, the South was so strongly Democratic that it was known as the Solid South.