AP US Unit 8: Reconstruction, the New South, and the Grant Administration

AP US Unit 8:Reconstruction, the New South,

and the Grant Administration

January 4-7, 2010Test on Unit 7 and Unit 8 on

Monday January 10, 2010

Main Questions for Unit 8

1. How would the south be rebuilt?2. How would the liberated blacks fare as free

men and women?3. How would the Southern States be

reintegrated into the Union?4. Who would direct the process of

Reconstruction – Southern states, Congress, or the president?

Day 1 Early Reconstruction

Chapter 23 pages 487-497Documents 1-3

Effects of the Civil War on the South• End of an age (Antebellum is over)• Socially and Economically broken– Cities burned– Railroad tracks destroyed– Banks failed from inflation– Factories dismantled– Agriculture damaged • took until 1870 to produce the cotton crop of 1860

and much of this came from new farms in the SW

What was Freedom?

• The Union army brought freedom, but it often left when they did

• Different reactions: loyalty to masters and violence as well

What was Freedom?

• When freedom finally came:– Many left to test freedom or find family• Exodusters were an example of whole communities

that left looking for opportunity– Church became the focal point of the black community– Education and literacy became very important• needed black teachers…built colleges to train black

teachers or accepted northern, white teachers

Establishment of Historically Black Colleges in the South

13th Amendment

Ratified in December, 1865. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,

except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Freedmen’s Bureau

• Was supposed to provide food, clothing, medical care, and education to freedmen and white refugees

• Taught 200,000 blacks how to read• Often resented by the white south, though in

some areas it conspired against the freedmen…

Freedmen’s Bureau Seen Through Southern Eyes

• “Plenty to eat and nothing to do.”

Freedmen’s Bureau School

Scenes 5 and 8-10

Presidential Reconstruction

Lincoln’s 10% plan• Simple restoration of the CSA to the Union

because Lincoln felt that they had never legally withdrawn

• Pardon to all but the highest ranking military and civilian Confederate officers.

• When 10% of the voters in the 1860 election took an oath of allegiance to the US and pledged to abide by emancipation, a state government would be created and the state would re-enter the Union

Reaction to Lincoln’s 10% plan

• Radical Republicans freaked out that white planters would take back over and blacks would be re-enslaved– Passed the Wade-Davis Bill through Congress in

1864• Required a 50% oath of allegiance and demanded

stronger safeguards for emancipation• Lincoln pocket-vetoed it (shelved it)

Reaction to Lincoln’s 10% plan

• Republicans in Congress refused to seat delegates from LA in 1864 after that state had met the criteria of the 10% plan

• Controversy revealed deep differences between Pres and Congress– Many in Congress believed that the CSA could only

be readmitted as conquered provinces– Differences between Moderate Republicans

(majority and like Lincoln) and Radical Republicans

Jacksonian Democrat. Anti-Aristocrat. White Supremacist. Agreed with Lincoln

that states had neverlegally left the Union.

Damn the negroes! I am fighting these traitorous aristocrats, their masters!

President Andrew Johnson

Johnson and Presidential Reconstruction

• Important to remember about Johnson:• Humble beginnings, southern and poor

• Lincoln was shot and Johnson reinforced Lincoln’s 10% plan with a few changes:– Certain leading Confederates (and those with

property over $20K) were disenfranchised and would have to petition for a personal pardon

– State conventions had to repeal secession, repudiate CSA debts, and accept the 13th Amendment

Problems with Reconstruction

Black Codes

• Maintained a stable and subservient labor force– Were not free laborers – could not leave contracts

without a system like slavery being put into place (working to pay off a fine for leaving…)

• Blacks could not serve on a jury• Blacks could not rent or lease land• If a freed black was found without a job, they

would have to work on a chain gang• No suffrage

Slavery is Dead?

Sharecropping

• Having nothing but labor, many blacks turned to sharecropping, which benefited rich whites who had nothing but land

Sharecropping

Republicans in Congress Angry with the South

• Most of the delegates who arrived in Congress in December 1865 were former Confederate leaders– Republicans shut the door in their face

• The freeing of blacks made them now count as 5/5 of a person– 12 more seat in Congress and 12 more presidential votes

• Radical Republicans feared that the combination of Democrats in the South and North would dismantle the economic program Republicans had forced through during the war and would also perpetuate the Black Codes to virtually re-enslave the blacks

Day 2 – Congressional Reconstruction


Problems with Johnson and Congress

• Johnson began to veto all progressive bills put through congress by the Radical Republicans– Extending the

Freedman’s Bureau– The Civil Rights Bill of

1866• Congress overturned his

veto on all of these

Congress Passes 14th Amendment

• Made citizenship for freedmen a part of the Constitution:– Freedmen were citizens– States that denied the right to vote to freedmen would

have their representation in Congress and the Electoral College reduced

– Former Confederates who had previously been federal officeholders were now disqualified from holding federal and state office

– The federal debt to pay off the war was guaranteed while the USA would not pay off the CSA’s debt

“Swing round the circle”• Johnson stumped for the Congressional Candidates

of the Democrats in 1866– Made Johnson and Democrats look like idiots– Republicans won a 2/3 majority in the House and

Senate

Johnson’s “Swing around the Circle”

Congressional Reconstruction

Leaders• Charles Sumner (now recovered) led the RR’s in the

Senate• Thaddeus Stevens (PA) led the RR’s in the House• Radicals and Moderates had a veto proof majority,

but had to work out differences between themselves– Radicals wanted federal control of the Southern

states–Moderates wanted states rights but preservation of

civil rights

Reconstruction Act (March 2, 1867)

• South was divided into 5 military districts– Each district was commanded by a Union general and

20,000 Union troops were stationed in the South• Tens of thousands of former Confederates were

temporarily disenfranchised– Means they couldn’t vote

• To become a state again, states had to ratify the 14th Amendment and enfranchise black men (pass 15th Amendment)

• Did NOT give freedmen land or an education

Military Reconstruction Act* Restart Reconstruction in the 10 Southern states that

refused to ratify the 14th Amendment.* Divide the 10 “unreconstructed states” into 5 military

districts.

Reconstruction Acts of 1867

More about Congressional Reconstruction

• Radical Republicans worried about freedmen suffrage and passed the 15th Amendment (passed 1869 and ratified 1870)

• By 1870 the southern states had been readmitted, but political power turned back over to the Good Ole Boys once the federal military left

Civil Rights During Reconstruction

Black Suffrage

• Freedmen participated in the state constitutional conventions

• Between 1868-1876 there were 14 black Congressmen and 2 black senators (both of them from Mississippi) – Hiram Revels (Senator) was elected to Jefferson

Davis’ former seat!

Black Senate & House Delegates

Colored Rule

in the South?

Core voters were black veterans. Blacks were politically unprepared. Blacks could register and vote in states since 1867.

The 15th Amendment guaranteedfederal voting.

Blacks in Southern Politics

Ratified in 1870. The right of citizens of the United States to vote

shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Women’s rights groups were furious that they were not granted the vote!

15th Amendment

No Women’s Suffrage

• Women had fought for emancipation, hoping that this would lead to rights for blacks and women…but no

• Frederick Douglass had said that this was “the Negro’s hour”

Scene 14

Whites against whites

• Scalawags – southern Republicans• Carpetbaggers – Yankees who traveled south

to make a profit

Legislative Progress

• Women were given property rights• Public schools were set up in the south as well

as public works projects

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

• Group of whites that used anything from scare tactics to murder to prevent blacks from becoming leaders or even voting– Also used against

scalawags and carpetbaggers

The “Invisible Empire of the South”

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

• Congress passed the Force Acts of 1870 and 1871 that allowed federal troops to go after the Klan, but they weren’t very effective

• KKK maintained itself in the South• 14th and 15th amendments were not followed– grandfather clauses– literacy tests

Crime for any individual to deny full &equal use of public conveyances andpublic places.

Prohibited discrimination in jury selection.

Shortcoming lacked a strong enforcement mechanism.

No new civil rights act was attemptedfor 75 years!

The Civil Rights Act of 1875

Johnson and Impeachment

Once upon a time…

• The Radical Republicans were tired of Johnson and wanted him out of office. So with their Congressional majority, they passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867, requiring that the president obtain the consent of Congress before removing any of his appointees– The point was to keep Edward M. Stanton,

secretary of war and spy to the RR’s, in office but Johnson dismissed Stanton in 1868

And then….• The House used their trap and voted 126 to 47 to

impeach Johnson– But since the Senate has to vote on actually kicking

someone out…• 7 Republican senators voted not guilty – missed

2/3 margin for impeachment by 1 vote– Opposition to abusing checks and balances– Successor would have been RR, president pro

tempore of the Senate, Ben Wade– Johnson hinted that he would stop obstructing

Republican policies if he could stay in office

11 week trial. Johnson acquitted

35 to 19 (one short of required 2/3s vote).

The Senate Trial

Alaska

• Russians had sold all of the fur from Alaska (poor seals) and wanted to unload the area instead of letting it fall to the British in case of war– Russia wanted America to have it because Russia

hated England so much• Secretary of State Seward bought it in 1867 for

$7.3 million– Great price– Many called it Seward’s Folly or Seward’s Icebox or

Walrussia

Day 3 Grant and the Compromise of 1877


Election of 1868

• Grant was run by the Republicans – “waving the bloody shirt”– Grant often said “let us have peace”

• Democrats ran Horatio Seymour (conservative former gov of NY)– Some Dems wanted repayment (repudiation) of

war bonds in greenbacks – to keep money in circulation and therefore help farmers• Seymour went against this

The 1868 Republican Ticket

The 1868 Democratic Ticket

Republican “Southern Strategy”

Waving the Bloody Shirt!

1868 Presidential Election

Election of 1868

• Grant won 214 to 80, BUT only won with 300,000 popular votes– Miss, Tex, and VA were not counted since they

were un-reconstructed– 500,000 freedmen voted for Grant – and won him

the election, Republicans would have to keep up Congressional Reconstruction to stay in power

Era of Good Stealings

Population leap during this time – immigrationMorally, US was low – waste, extravagance,

speculation, graft

Fisk and Gould

• Jim Fisk and Jay Gould – brawn and brains of fraud – tried to take the edge on the gold market– Needed federal government not to release gold from

the Treasury• Grant said he wouldn’t and his brother-in-law received

$25K– On Black Friday (9/24/69) they bid the price of gold

upward, but the bubble broke when the Treasury released gold

– Grant was “clean but stupid”

Boss Tweed

• Got about $200 million out of NYC – graft, bribery, and fraudulent elections

• Thomas Nast fought against him with cartoons – even Tweed’s illiterate followers could understand cartoons

• NY Times got damning evidence in 1871 and released it (even though Tweed offered them $5mill to stay quiet!)

Who Stole the People’s Money?

Credit Mobilier• Internal group of the Union Pacific RR formed

the Credit Mobilier railroad construction company and paid CM $50K for what only took $30K to build per mile

• Dividends paid 348% - many shares of stock were gifted around Washington to prevent the government from blowing the whistle

• Were exposed in 1872 though began in 1867– 2 members of Congress were censured– VP accepted 20 shares and some dividends

Whiskey Ring

• Whiskey manufacturers had not paid the Treasury millions in excise taxes

• Grant wanted them all caught until his private secretary turned up as one of the culprits

• Grant helped him get off

Indian Ring

• Secretary of War William Belknap– In 1876, he was found to have pocketed $24K for

selling the privilege of disbursing “supplies” (crap) to the Indians

– He resigned

Grant was seriously tainted

Election of 1872

• Liberal Republicans and Democrats nominated newspaper editor Horace Greely (who had often attacked Democrats)

• Republicans re-nominated Grant• Nasty election• Liberal Republicans left something behind (like most 3rd

parties)– Political disabilities were removed from all but 500 former

Confederates– High Civil War tariffs were reduced– Civil service reform was implemented to clean up the Grant

administration

Grant won 286-66


Popular Vote for President: 1872

Panic of 1873

Panic of 1873

• Over production and over speculation• Banks fell– Freedman’s Savings and Trust Co. made unsecured

loans to risky companies and lost out. Those who had money in the bank lost over $7 million• Injured African American economic development and

trust in savings institutions

Panic of 1873

• Caused desire for paper money (to help debtors) – greenbacks

• Hard money supporters won– Grant vetoed a bill in 1874 to print more paper

money– Resumption Act of 1875• Government would withdraw all greenbacks from

circulation and exchange paper money for gold at face value beginning in 1879

Panic of 1873• Debtors turned to pro-silver ideas– Silver was valued at higher than the Treasury was paying for it in

the early 1870’s, so no one sold it to the Treasury, so the Treasury stopped coining silver in 1873

– Then new silver was found later in the 1870’s, which dropped the price

– Those who wanted silver to be coined by the Treasury called this the “Crime of 73”

• In preparation for redemption in 1879, government practiced contraction to amass gold– Caused deflation– 1:1 ration of value by the time redemption came around so few

actually redeemed their easier to carry greenbacks

Panic of 1873

• Bland-Allison Act 1878– Made by “Silver Dick” Bland of Missouri. Hah!– Treasury would buy and coin between $2-$4

million in silver every month– Treasury stuck to the minimum

• Results of Republican hard money policy:– Democrats won House in 1874– Greenback Party 1878

Boring Political Parties– Not much difference between them politically or

economically; both into patronage– VERY different culturally

Republicans Democrats

PuritanicalPersonal moralityGovernment should regulate the economy and the morality of the communityMidwest and small town Northeast and freedmen in the South and the GAR

ImmigrantsAccepted imperfections and didn’t want the government to impose a moral standard on societySouth and Northern industrial cities

Republicans faced factional split

• Stalwarts– Roscoe Conkling (NY)– Yay spoils

• Half-Breeds– James Blaine (ME)– Kind of wanted civil service reform; really wanted

to hand out the spoils themselves

The Abandonmentof Reconstruction

“Grantism” & corruption.Panic of 1873 (6-year

depression)Concern over westward

expansion and Indian wars.Key monetary issues:* Should the government

retire $432m worth of “greenbacks” issued during the Civil War?

* Should war bonds be paid back in specie orgreenbacks?

Northern Support Wanes

1876 Presidential TicketsRepublicans run an obscure candidate – Rutherford B. Hayes

Democrats ran Samuel J. Tilden

• Obscurity was to deal with the factionalism• Was from Ohio

The guy who took on Boss Tweed

“Regional Balance?”


“Corrupt Bargain”Part II?

The Political Crisis of 1877

– Irregular returns sent this to Congress

– Compromise of 1877• Democrats agreed

that Hayes could win if federal troops left the South (they were still in LA and SC)

Hayes Prevails

Sammy Tilden—Boo-Hoo! Ruthy Hayes’s got my Presidency, and he won’t give it to me!

Alas, the Woes of Childhood…

A Political Crisis: The “Compromise” of 1877