1. The Ordeal of Reconstruction
“With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations”
Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Speech, March 4, 1865

2. The US Permanently Altered
Reunification- we are a “singular nation” not a “collection of states”.
Slavery officially banned by 13th Amendment
Northern industrial power= industrial growth due to the war= (steel, oil, RR)
Expansion of federal power
Homestead Act (1862) the US government offered up “free land” up to 160 acres for 1.25/acre to settlers in the west..
Pacific Railway Act (1862) the US government began federally funded building of the Transcontinental RR-completed in 1869.
13th, 14th, 15th amendments- first 12 limited government power; these expand US government power!

3. 13th Amendment Abolished slavery forever in the US (1865)
14th Amendment Provided citizenship & equal protection under the law to ALL who are born or naturalized citizens of the US. (1868)
15th Amendment Provided the right to vote for all men which included white and black men. (1870)
Voting rights
Giving the Black man the right to vote was truly revolutionary……..A victory for democracy!

4. The 13th Amendment
Jan. 1, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which only freed slaves in the rebellious southern states NOT the slave border states that remained with the Union (Maryland, Missouri, Delaware, Kentucky).
Dec Lincoln used Presidential War Powers to issue a ‘Proclamation for Amnesty and Reconstruction”, which offered the South a chance to peacefully rejoin the Union IF they abolished slavery and if 10% of their voting populations took an oath of loyalty to the US---Southern states mostly refused to accept.
Dec & Jan. 1864— two “Radical Republicans” in the House proposed an amendment to the constitution to abolish slavery in the US forever & in Jan a US Senator proposed a similar idea.
Lincoln’s 1864 Campaign Platform promised to support an amendment to end slavery.
A Senate committee began the work of merging the proposals.
April 8, 1864 the final amendment proposal passed the Senate.
Jan the House passed it.; Lincoln approved it Feb 1, 1865.

5. Mississippi Governor, 1866: “The Negro is free”
“Whether we like it or not; we must realize that fact now and forever. To be free, however, does not make him a citizen or entitle him to social or political equality with the white man.”
Gov of Miss

6. State of the South at End of the War
Major Southern Cities were destroyed-Atlanta, Charleston, Richmond
Economy was destroyed- banks & businesses closed (9,000% inflation).
The Transportation system was destroyed
Agriculture crippled- slave labor system collapsed, seed was scarce,
Not until would the South produce as large a cotton crop as they had in 1860.
5. The Planter Class was disrupted; many reduced to poverty ($2 billion invested in slaves=lost due to emancipation of slaves)
Southerners remained defiant & cursed the Yankees for their troubles (where the military did not have control- southerners retake control).
Who will decide Reconstruction, the South, Congress or President?

7. South after war 1

8. Problems with Peace
After the war, the question of what should be done with Key Confederate Military & Political Leaders was considered.
In the end, former Confederate leaders were not hanged for treason- the only former Confederate hanged for war crimes was the Confederate commandant of the Andersonville Prison, Henry Wirz (for war crimes)
Jefferson Davis - imprisoned for 2 years after the war, but eventually pardoned by Pres. Andrew Johnson in 1868.
Robert E. Lee - became president of Washington University (located in Virginia) now known as Washington & Lee University.
Why no prosecutions of major Confederate leaders? It was believed that no Virginia jury would convict them.

9. Reconstruction Plans
Abraham Lincoln - as a wartime president, Lincoln offered a path for Southern states to rejoin the Union.
“The Proclamation for Amnesty & Reconstruction” or The “10 Percent Plan” advocated by Abraham Lincoln in 1863; he believed that the Southern states had never legally left the Union.
Steps In Lincoln’s 10% Plan
a) It required 10% of a southern state’s voters (who voted in 1860) take an oath of loyalty to the US.
b) Each state had to approve the 13th Amendment.
c) next, the southern state could set a new state government & elect members to US Congress.
Reactions to Lincoln’s Plan:
Radical Republicans feared this plan was too lenient on the treasonous South; feared it would lead to the restoration of the planter class to power & re-enslavement of blacks.
Most Southern states rejected this plan-failed to follow it.
2. The Wade-Davis Bill (Proposed by two “Radical Republicans” in 1864)
50% or more of a state’s adult, white male voters had to take an oath of loyalty to the US.
Next, the state could call a constitutional convention & draw up a new state constitution that had to abolish slavery, repudiate secession, and prevent former Confederate leaders from holding office or voting.
Lincoln KILLED THIS BILL with a “Pocket-Veto” because he did not believe the Southern states never legally left the Union, so they didn’t need to ‘rejoin”

10. Split in Republican Party over Reconstruction
Moderate Republicans- Republicans who supported more easy readmission of the South for a variety of reasons.
Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson
“Radical” Republicans - members of the Republican party, who favored a harsher treatment of the South.
South must be punished for its treason
The Southern Social system must be destroyed (replace the old planter aristocracy with a more “republican form” of government)
Planter Aristocracy should not be reinstated to power
Blacks given freedom and rights that were protected by federal power.
Before his death, Lincoln was working to get a compromise plan together between the opposing sides in Congress.
April 14, Actor John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in Washington DC.
Lincoln’s death left the presidency in the hands of Andrew Johnson

11. President Andrew Johnson
Johnson was a self-styled “common man”, born in NC to poor parents- orphaned as a child, but spent his adult life in Tenn.
Never attended school- apprenticed at age 10 to a tailor
taught himself to read; his wife taught him to write & complete simple math
Champion of poor whites-elected to Congress & refused to leave the US Senate when Tenn. Seceded from the Union.
When US forces captured Nashville in 1862, Johnson was appointed Military Governor over Tenn. By Lincoln.
Johnson (War Democrat) was added to the Republican ticket with Lincoln in the 1864 election to promote unity.

12. Presidential Reconstruction
Johnson and Congress confronted a set of problems that would have challenged even Lincoln.
During the war, Unionists had insisted that rebel leaders had been a small minority and most white southerners wanted to rejoin the Union.
Republicans hoped the defeated south would accept post-war reforms.
Ex-Confederates contested the plan to reform them with violence & political action.
Andrew Johnson’s “Presidential Reconstruction Plan” (1865) agreed with Lincoln- seceding states had never legally left the Union- quick re-entry was best.
Johnson recognized several of Lincoln’s “10% governments” & developed his own plan.
Offered a pardon to all former citizens of the Confederacy who took an oath of loyalty & returned their property.
Excluded from pardon former Confederates who owned more than $20,000 in property- former Confederates could apply personally to Johnson for a pardon (hundreds were pardoned through petition)
New State conventions must:
repeal their ordinances of secession,
repudiate all Confederate debts,
ratify the 13th amendment.
**DEC. 6, Johnson stated that ALL SOUTHERN STATES HAD followed his requirements to rejoin the Union!

13. pardon

14. Effects of Presidential (Johnson’s) Reconstruction
In 1865, New Southern state legislatures, created under Johnson’s plan moved to restore something similar to slavery.
The Black Codes – designed to force former slaves back to plantation in agricultural work.
Imposed penalties on blacks who did not hold a full year labor contract.
Set a system to take black children from parents & apprentice them to former slave masters.
December 1865, when Congress re-adjourned:
1. Former Confederate leaders had joined Congress under Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan (4 former Confederate generals, 5 colonels, & various members of the Confederate Congress & cabinet).
Result: Republican power was threatened- slaves now counted as 5/5 of a person for representation= southern states get 12 more votes in Congress & 12 more electoral votes.
Cause for Concern
Republicans had enjoyed almost complete control of the US Congress
Southern states could gain 12 more votes in Congress & 12 more electoral votes.
Republican majorities in both houses, refused to seat the new southern Congressmen- blocking Johnson's program.

15. As southern states were restored to the Union under President Johnson’s plan, they began to enact black codes, laws that restricted freedmen’s rights.
The black codes established virtual slavery with provisions such as these:
Curfews: Generally, black people could not gather after sunset.
Vagrancy laws: Freedmen convicted of vagrancy– that is, not working– could be fined, whipped, or sold for a year’s labor.
Labor contracts: Freedmen had to sign agreements in January for a year of work. Those who quit in the middle of a contract often lost all the wages they had earned.
Land restrictions: Freed people could rent land or homes only in rural areas. This restriction forced them to live on plantations.

16. Freedmen define their freedom
The South was unsure the meaning of “freedom” for blacks= emancipation took effect unevenly across the South AFTER the war ended:
Many blacks were emancipated & then re-enslaved as the Union Army marched through one southern area to another.
Many whites resisted freedom for former slaves
Some slaves resisted the liberating Union army
Some emancipated slaves joined Union troops in pillaging & looting former masters
Many emancipated slaves took new names
Tens of thousands black refugees took to the roads: searching for spouses, children etc.
The “Exodusters” ; 25,000 southern blacks led by Benjamin “Pap” Singleton left Louisiana, Texas, & Mississippi to go to Kansas for a new life and cheap land to farm.
The church became the center of community life after the war
Freedmen- raised money purchase land, build schools & hire teachers

17. **The Freedmen’s Bureau
Republicans in Congress created it on March 3, 1865 to provide food, clothing, medical care, and education to freedmen & white refugees (1st federal relief agency ever!)
was an early type of primitive welfare agency
Headed by Union Gen. Oliver O. Howard (later president of Howard University).
Greatest achievement: 200,000 blacks to read
Shortcomings: failed to give blacks forty acres of land confiscated from Southerners, local Freedmen administrators collaborated with planters to keep blacks in labor contracts
White South resented the Bureau
Oliver O. Howard

18. A Southerner’s View of the Freedman’s Bureau

19. Freedmen’s Bureau 2

20. Freedmen’s Bureau 3

21. Freedmen’s Bureau 4

22. The Sharecropping System Replaces Slavery
After the war, Southern planters and landowners still needed a viable farm labor force. Thousands of poor blacks and whites became trapped as tenant farmers or sharecroppers.
A new labor system replaced slave labor system in the years after the war.
Freedmen desired political rights and economic opportunities.
After the war, the US government failed to offer economic opportunities (access to land for farming for example) to freed blacks.
Most Congressional leaders wanted to restore cotton as a leading export & envisioned former slaves as wage farm workers on cash crop plantations.
Only a handful of Republicans (like Thaddeus Stevens) advocated that blacks be given confiscated land and allow freed slaves access to it.
Tenant Farmer – a farmer who pays cash rent for use of farm land.
Sharecropper- a farmer who pays rent for use of farm land with a share of crops instead of cash rent.
Sharecropping led to Debt Peonage
Some sharecroppers paid ½ to 2/3 of their crops as rent to white landowners after the war= increasing debt to land owners.
landlords sold seed & supplies on credit to poor blacks at high interest rates= higher indebtedness by blacks to white landowners.
If a sharecropper could not pay his debts, crop liens were placed on the crops (merchants/landlords could take crops)
Failure to pay debts= meant forced labor or imprisonment.
Had Unions soldiers died in vain??

23. Johnson vs. the Radical Republicans
In early 1866, Republicans in Congress voted to extend the Freedmen’s Bureau, gave it direct federal funding for the 1st time, and authorized its agents to investigate southern abuses.
Feb Johnson vetoed the bill extending the Freedmen’s Bureau (later it was re-instated over his veto by Congress).
March Republicans passed the *Civil Rights Act 1866 (gave US citizenship to blacks with right of contract with full access in US courts)- Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act & Congress overrode his veto.
June 1866 The 14th Amendment pushed by Republicans because they feared that if southerners regained some control over Congress, they would repeal the Civil Rights Act.
”All persons born or naturalized in the US are citizens” = gave civil rights (including citizenship) to blacks (National citizenship took precedent over state citizenship).
No state could interfere with rights of citizens= reduced the representation in Congress & Electoral College of any state who refused blacks the ballot.
Disqualified former Confederates from state & federal office who had once held federal office & sworn loyalty.
guaranteed the federal debt & rejected Confederate debts.
* Pres. Johnson was opposed to the 14th Amendment & urged southern states to reject it- all did except Tenn.

24. An inflexible President, 1866: Republican cartoon shows Johnson knocking Blacks of the Freedmen’s Bureau by his veto.

25. ** would have been impossible to pass
Section 1: “All persons born in the U.S. are citizens of this country and the state they reside in. No state shall make or enforce any law which deprives any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction to the equal protection of the laws.”
The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
** would have been impossible to pass
Section 2: Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote…is denied to the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and the citizens of the United States…the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the portion which number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.
* In other words…the 14th Amendment only legally protected the rights of male citizens.
14th: Rights of Citizens
14th

26. The Big Question
Who would win out in the struggle over control of Reconstruction the President or Congress?
Would Reconstruction now be carried out with or without the new 14th Amendment?
Congressional Elections 1866
In 1866, members of Congress were running for re-election. If the president could convince the nation to replace many Radical Republicans, he could control Reconstruction. Johnson wanted to get a majority elected to Congress who would favor his soft-on-the South approach.
“The swing around the circle” - late summer of Johnson campaigned on behalf of many democrats. He was asked to dedicate a monument to Stephen Douglas (Dem)- he used the opportunity to speak at various venues to support his views.
accused Republicans of planning anti-Black riots & murder in the South.
Johnson’s plan backfired- his approach built strength for the radical Republican view= 1866 elections= Republicans built more than 2/3 majority in both houses= Republicans will now dominate Reconstruction.
The Radical Republicans
Led by Charles Sumner (Senate) & Thaddeus Stevens (House) -Leader of Joint Committee on Reconstruction will take charge.

27. Radical Republican--Thaddeus Stevens, in Congress, 1866
“Strip a proud nobility of their bloated estates, send them forth to labor and you will thus humble the proud traitors.”
Thaddeus Steven, in Congress, 1867
“I am for Negro suffrage in every rebel state. If it be just, it should not be denied: if it be necessary, it should be adopted: if it be a punishment of traitors, they deserve it.”
Quotes of Radicals

28. Wanted to the see the South punished.
Charles Sumner- radical abolitionist; had been beaten by Preston Brooks before the war.
Thaddeus Stevens- Pennsylvania Congressman who advocated for black political & economic rights.
Wanted to the see the South punished.
Advocated political, social and economic equality for the Freedmen.
Would go after President Johnson through the impeachment process after he vetoes the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

29. Radical Reconstruction
After the Congressional elections of 1866, Republicans enacted their own Reconstruction Plan.
The ”Radical” Republicans now had a veto proof Congress and planned to reform the South with their OWN Reconstruction Plan.
This plan is much more strict on the treasonous South and intended to reform Southern society to allow blacks to have political rights.
The Reconstruction Act of 1867 (Military Reconstruction)
Divided the conquered South into 5 military districts with a Union general in charge of each district (20,000 Union troops in each district used to enforce Reconstruction). Each general had register all eligible white & black males, supervise state constitutional conventions so they allowed black suffrage.
Temporarily disfranchised former Confederates leaders.
2. Southern States had to ratify the 13th & 14th Amendment
3. State constitutions had to guarantee all adult black males the vote
** Pres. Johnson vetoed the act, but Congress overrode his veto and passed it anyway.

30. Military Reconstruction
Each number indicates the Military Districts

31. Johnson’s Impeachment & Trial
1867- Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act- which required the president to get consent of Senate before he could remove presidential appointees (meant to protect Sec. of War Stanton-who led Military Reconstruction from being fired by Johnson).
In August of 1867, President Johnson struck back at Congressional Reconstruction by “suspending” Sec. of War Stanton and replacing him with Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.
Johnson believed Grant would be a “good soldier” and follow the president’s orders regarding Reconstruction.
Grant publicly criticized Johnson’s intentions
The Senate overruled Johnson’s ”suspension” of Stanton= Grant stepped down= Stanton resumed his role as Sec. of War.
Feb 21, Pres. Johnson formally fired Stanton & Stanton barricaded himself in his office refusing to leave.
The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
Feb. 24, the House of Representatives introduced 11 articles of impeachment against the president for
under the US Constitution- the House has the responsibility to charge high federal officials with “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes & Misdemeanors”
In an impeachment- the House serves as prosecutor & the Senate serves as the court.

32. The Trial of Andrew Johnson
The trial of the President lasted 11 weeks in the US Senate.
In the final tally, 35 Republican Senators voted to convict him and 7 voted to acquit him (1 vote short of the 2/3 vote needed to kick him out of office).
Dissenting Republicans felt that removing a president for defying Congress would be too damaging to our constitutional system of checks & balances.
Johnson remained in office for the remaining months of his term, but was irrelevant.
President Johnson will go down in
US history as one of only TWO
Presidents who have been
Impeached (charged) by the House
For wrongdoing. The other is Bill
Clinton (perjury).
* Nixon resigned before impeachment

33. Impeachment: Bringing charges against the President
Impeachment: Bringing charges against the President. Two steps involved……
1st Step: U. S. House of Representatives hold hearings to decide if there are crimes committed. They then vote on the charges and if there is a majority, then, charges are brought against the President.
2nd Step: U.S. Senate becomes a courtroom. The President is tried for the charges brought against him. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is the judge. Once trial is completed, Senators must vote to remove President with a 2/3’s vote.
Impeachment process

34. The 1868 Election
Ulysses S. Grant emerged from the Civil War as a hero and he became a Republican political idol as well.
The Republicans
The Republican Party nominated U.S. Grant as their presidential hopeful in 1868
Grant was a political novice (he had only voted once- for a Democrat)
Grant supported Military (Congressional) Reconstruction Plan in the South, but also urged reconciliation (”Let us have peace”) with the South.
The Democrats
The Democrats nominated former NY Governor Horatio Seymour.
Seymour almost declined the nomination because the Democrats still had the stain of disloyalty.
The Democrats were divided over monetary policy (Wealthy eastern delegates wanted a plank in the platform promising federal war bonds be redeemed for gold, while poorer midwestern farmers supported redemption of war binds with “Greenbacks” (paper money).
This monetary issue divided the US until the end of the 1800’s.
The Election Outcome
The Republican candidate- Grant won the election with 214 of 294 electoral votes.
Republicans maintained 2/3 majority in both houses of Congress also– total Republican control of our government.

35. The South would be reconstructed under the Radical Republicans plan.
Republicans would elect Grant as their President and he would carry out the Radical Reconstruction.
This image depicts President Grant enforcing Military Reconstruction
“The Strong Government”, Grant enforcing the Reconstruction Act of 1867 and “forcing” the South to change.

36. The 15th Amendment
This amendment was introduced & enacted by the Republicans after their resounding Republican election victory in 1868.
The amendment protects male citizens’ right to vote “regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”.
The amendment left room for a poll tax & literacy requirements in spite of Radical Republicans opposition (northern & western states wanted to keep immigrants and “unworthy” poor from the polls).
Congress required the 4 remaining Southern states still under federal authority to ratify the 15th Amendment for readmission to the Union.
The Remarkable 15th Amendment
Other nations in the Western hemisphere who had outlawed slavery had left former slaves in a semi-citizenship WITH no voting rights-- not the US.
Hundreds of thousands of African-Americans (former slaves) will vote in the 1870 election for 1st time!

37. Abolitionists vs Women’s rights
Women rights supporters refused to support the 14th Amendment giving African American Men citizenship unless women were added to it.
Abolitionists vs Women’s rights

38. Republican Governments in the South: An “Oasis” of Freedom
Between 1868 and 1871, all former Confederate states met Congressional rules and rejoined the Union. And Republican dominated southern state governments intended to enact reforms.
Southern Republicans included: former Whigs, a few former Democrats, black & white newcomers from the North, AND Southern African-Americans.
These Republicans state administrations were protected by Federal troops.
Southern republican governments were ambitious in reform efforts: public education, family law, social services, commerce, and transportation (many of the reforms the North had already enacted)
None of these Reconstruction governments was accepted by most white Southerners & many Southern whites resisted them.
Black men in the South exercised their right (15th Amendment) to vote and hold office on and unprecedented level in the south during Reconstruction– protected by Federal troop presence.

39. Black Political Organization & Participation during Reconstruction
The Union League- formed by black & white Republicans in the North & Border states during the Civil War; educated its members about civic duty & campaigned for Republican candidates.
spread through the former Confederacy after the war.
After the 15th Amendment, they formed meetings at churches & school to instruct freemen about political rights.
African-American women- attended parades, assembled mass meetings in churches to support black and white Republicans.
The Results of Black Political Rights
African-American men were elected to state, local, and national offices IN THE SOUTH!!- THESE politicians helped write new southern state constitutions= true universal male suffrage!
black Congressmen elected, 2 black senators (Hiram Revels &Blanche K. Bruce)
Blacks served as Lt. Governors, state reps, sheriffs, justices of the peace IN THE SOUTH– no BLACK state governors were elected though.

40. First Black Senators and representatives in the 41st and 42nd Congress.
Senator Hiram Revels, on the left was elected in 1870 to replace the seat vacated by Jefferson Davis.

41. Civil Rights: What Blacks want

42. Accomplishments of Reconstruction Governments
Passed badly needed reforms:
Eliminated property qualifications to vote
Eliminated the Black Codes
New state constitutions expanded rights of married women to own property and rights to wages.
Supported public education (by 1875, over ½ of black children were attending schools in Mississippi, SC, and Florida.
Tax system streamlined
Public works projects- building of railroads etc.
Established hospitals and asylums for orphans & disabled.
Graft- rampant in southern state government reconstruction= gave negative impression about Reconstruction in general.

43. Southern Reaction to Reconstruction
Many Southern whites resented the success & ability of Republican led black legislators & the Reconstruction governments in the South.
“Scalawag”- a term used by Southerners for southerners who supported Reconstruction reforms (from an old Scottish term meaning for worthless animals).
“Carpetbaggers”- a Southern term for northern whites who came South after the war to help reform the south or take advantage of it for money.
Southern White Resistance to Federal Reconstruction
The Ku Klux Klan (Invisible Empire of the South)- founded in Tenn by former Confederate Nathan Bedford Forrest and others; hooded southern riders traveled at night to scare blacks and intimidate Republicans.
staged a massive insurgency to retake the South from Republican governments- black political leaders shot, hanged, beaten.
Congress attempts to THWART the KKK
1870- The Force Acts- Congress passed laws outlawing Klan activities.
Ineffective---white southerners continued to undermine the empowerment of blacks-disregarded the 14th & 15th amendments!
1870’s- as Northerners struggled with political scandals & economic depression, ex-Confederates & Democrats seized power in the South.
1890- disfranchisement- poll taxes & literacy tests (fewer & fewer blacks voted)
The Solid South ’s-1980’s THE South predominantly voted democrat not Republican until 1980.

44. The Civil Rights Act of 1875
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 – During Reconstruction the issue of desegregation (sharing public facilities by blacks & whites) was an issue. Congressman Charles Sumner proposed a law to give blacks equal access to schools, public transportation, hotels, and churches.
defeats & delays kept the bill tied up for 5 years.
Opponents charged that desegregation would lead to race mixing & interracial marriage.
After his death, Congress passed it.
It will be the last Civil Rights Act until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The Undoing of the Civil Rights Act of 1875
The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873) and U.S. vs. Cruikshank (1876)- these cases undermined the 14th Amendment.
Supreme Court justices argued that 14th Amendment only offered trivial protection to citizens (like use of navigable waterways).
In Cruikshank- the justices ruled that voting is a state issue unless the state itself violated the right-- if blacks rights were violated by individuals or private groups, that was beyond federal authority.
The Civil Rights Cases (1883)- the court struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875= set foundation for segregation in future cases.

45. Klan activities in the South
In many southern towns the Klan became virtually identical to the Democrat Party.
1868- Nathan Bedford Forrest (Klan founder) and other Klan members dominated the Tennessee delegation to the Democratic national convention.
Other Klan groups formed: the White League and the Knights of the White Camelia.
The Klan targeted Freedman schools that were burned, teachers beaten, attacked Republican gatherings, murdered political opponents.
By 1870’s Democrats had sized power in NC & Georgia.
Terminated Reconstruction programs in some areas.

46. Reconstruction Comes to an End (Start 23.1)
In the 1870’s, northerners were consumed by political scandal and economic crisis, so they abandoned Reconstruction. After the war, waste and graft (corruption) were common.
The Grant Adminstration Scandals Scandals
In his two terms in office ( ), Ulysses S. Grant’s administration was embroiled in scandal.
The Gold Market Scandal (1869)
Two millionaires (Jim Fiske & Jay Gould) plotted to corner the gold market in the US.
The plot would only work IF the US government refrained from selling gold.
The conspirators worked on Grant and Grant’s brother-in-law (who got $25,000 for his help).
On “Black Friday”- Gould & Fiske bid the price of gold upward.
To avoid an economic crisis, the US government (against Grant’s promises) released gold onto the market.
Congress investigated & concluded that Grant had acted stupidly, but not in a criminal fashion.

47. The Scandals of the Grant Administration
Grant’s cabinet of advisers was a den of grafters and incompetents.
Citizens seeking favors from the US government visited the White House providing President Grant with gifts (cigars, wines, horses).
Grant’s in-laws- the Dent family were given jobs in the federal government- with no special qualifications.
The Credit Mobilier Scandal (1872)
This scandal involved the Union Pacific Railroad Company shareholders and certain members of Congress defrauding the Federal Government.
The Congress “censured” two members for participating.
The investigation uncovered that the Vice President had accepted payments from the fraudulent company also.
The Whiskey Ring Scandal ( )
This scandal robbed the US treasury of $$ millions in excise tax revenues.
Whiskey Distillers and members of Grant’s administration plotted to cheat the government out of whiskey taxes.
When it was discovered, Grant said “Let no guilty man escape”.
When it was discovered that Grant’s private secretary was involved, Grant wrote a letter to exonerate the man.
The Belknap Scandal (1876)
The Secretary of the Interior (William Belknap) was forced to resign when it was discovered that he was taking bribes from suppliers to the Indian reservations.
Grant accepted his resignation “With regret”.

48. The Election of 1872
General disgust with “Grantism” (Graft) was building up in the nation, even before some of the Grant scandals were uncovered.
The Liberal Republicans – formed by reform minded citizens who were tired of corruption in government.
Their campaign slogan “Throw the Rascals Out”
Urged a purification of Washington DC and an end to military Reconstruction.
Nominated Horace Greeley (editor of NY Tribune)
The Democrats
Supported Horace Greeley’s nomination.
Greeley had blasted the Democrats as “traitors” previously.
The Republicans
Re-nominated U.S. Grant
Grant won relection!

49. The Panic of 1873
In the US, the Panic of 1873 was set off by the bankruptcy of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
Northern Pacific Railroad had been financially backed by leading financier Jay Cooke (he had also successfully run Union finances during the war)= his failure shocked the American people.
Grant administration officials deepened American resentment by refusing to increase the US money supply to relieve debt & unemployment.
Effects of the Crisis
Farmers suffered severe crop price declines.
Industrial workers faced layoffs and wage reductions
By 1874, 50% of US iron production had stopped.
By 1877, half of the nation’s railroads filed bankruptcy.
The economic crisis undercut key Reconstruction policies: education, transportation, and public health required large sums of money.
The Republican party was blamed by many Americans for this crisis.
Example: A casualty of the crisis was the bankruptcy of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company. Freed blacks had deposited their money in the bank, which they associated with the Freedman’s Bureau & the Republican Party. Congress refused to compensate the 61,000 black depositors.

50. The Congressional Elections of 1874
As the Klan increased activities in the South to resist Reconstruction, and the scandals of the government continued, and the economic panic rocked the nation, Republicans suffered a devastating defeat.
Republicans lost 199 representatives in the House.
Democrats increased to a majority from 88 seats to 182 seats.
Reconstruction Rolled Back
Grant administration began to reject appeals from southern Republicans for help with Reconstruction.
Example Mississippi
As state elections neared in 1875, southern paramilitary groups like the “Red Shirts” operated openly to intimidate black voters and Republicans.
The Mississippi Republican Governor asked Grant for U.S. troops, but Grant refused to provide them.
Democrat “Redeemers” stuffed ballot boxes (fraud) and carrying guns, and swept the Mississippi state elections.
By 1876, Reconstruction was mostly over. US military units remained in only 3 southern states: Louisiana, SC, and Florida.

51. Election of 1876
By 1876-Democrats (Redeemers) had won back control of most southern states and rolled back Reconstruction and hoped to win the White House.
The Democrats
nominated Samuel Tilden (NY Governor & Reformer)
Tilden favored “home rule” for the South
The Republicans
nominated Rutherford B. Hayes
Discretely supported “home rule” for the South
With Reconstruction waning, it was not a big campaign issue.
Only 3 states still had US troops protecting Republican governments: SC, Florida, and Louisiana
The Controversial Election Results
The electoral vote count on election night stood at 184 (Tilden) to 165 (Hayes). The winner needed 185 electoral votes to be president!
Three southern state’s ballots were in dispute (SC, La., Florida)= 20 Electoral Votes total!
If Hayes got those votes, he could win the presidency by 1 electoral vote.
Both parties submitted that their candidate had won each of the three contested states== DEADLOCKED!!

52. The Compromise of 1877
The US constitution had not provided a contingency plan for the 1876 election results! Citizens debated what would happen next: a new election, a violent coup, secret deals??
Congress appointed a bi-partisan committee (7 Republicans & 7 Democrats & 1 Supreme Court justice- David Davis) to settle the question.
Republican justice Joseph P. Bradley replaced David Davis, when Davis accepted a Senate seat in Illinois= 8 Republicans & 7 Democrats to decide.
Angry Democrats threatened to prevent a Republican named president, but Samuel Tilden urged them not to.
The Democrats on the committee voted to give the 3 disputed state votes to Hayes (Republican) if he would agree to remove US troops from the last 3 southern states.
President Hayes withdrew the remaining US troops from the last of the 3 southern states= Reconstruction officially is over!
The Republican Party had abandoned its commitment to racial equality.

53. Black Rights Are Undermined
The US Supreme Court had previously struck down protections of black civil rights and undermined the Civil Rights Act of 1875 (the Slaughterhouse cases & US V. Cruikshank)
The Civil Rights Cases (1883)- the Supreme court ruled that the 14th Amendment prohibited ONLY GOVERNMENT violations of civil rights, not the denial of those rights by Individual Americans.
The Birth of Jim Crow in the South
As Democrats (Redeemers) took control of southern state governments, they suppressed the rights of blacks.
Blacks who tried to assert their rights were faced with unemployment, eviction, and physical harm.
Sharecropping trapped many blacks into debt peonage.
Southern states passed laws that segregated blacks and whites in public places= “Jim Crow Laws”
Southern states also enacted “Literacy Tests” & ”Poll Taxes” to disenfranchise blacks politically.
The US Supreme Court supported racial segregation in the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling (1896), which stated that states could have segregation laws as long as they provided “separate, but equal” facilities for blacks.
These facilities like school were never equal.
Racial lynching became more common in the south from 1882 to 1950’s.

54. The “New South” Emerges
As late as 1900, the South still produced a smaller percentage of the nation’s manufactured goods than it had before the Civil War.
Agriculture still dominated the post-war Southern economy (landowners supported by tenant farmer & sharecropper labor).
The South remained overwhelmingly rural
The tobacco economy got a boost when hand-rolled cigarettes were replaced by machine rolled cigarettes= James Buchanan Duke created the American Tobacco Company= mass produced machine rolled cigarettes= benefactor of Duke University.
The New South Promoters
Some “New South” Southern leaders (like Henry Grady) urged the South to adopt industrialization.
Manufacturing cotton textile did surprisingly well in the South.
Norther textile mill owners decided to bring the “mill to the cotton”
The south provided tax breaks, cheap non-union labor.
Cotton mills took root in the depressed areas of the South.
White Southerners eagerly sought jobs in textile mills (”lintheads”); blacks were denied all but most menial jobs in textiles.
Obstacles to Southern Industrialization
Northern railroads gave favorable rates to manufactured goods moving North to South, but only gave favorable rates for southern RAW materials—not manufactured goods flowing north.
The Pittsburgh Plus System: discrimination against southern steel; (Alabama) steel was charged unfair rates on railroads that favored northern steel.

55. New South
New South
Becomes a little- more industrialized-still agriculturally dependent.
Cities rebuilt
Railroads
Schools, over a thousand
Hospitals, 45 in 14 states
Diversified economy.