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

January 3-6, 2012

Test on Unit 7 and Unit 8 on Monday January 9, 2012

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 487-497 Documents 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

• • • • •

Reconstruction – The Second Civil War Scenes 5 and 8-10

Chapter 5: 23:00 – 27:45 : Tunis Campbell and the Sea Islands Chapter 8: 39:00 – 43:30 : St. Catherine’s and Freedmen’s Schools Chapter 9: 43:30 – 52:37 : Kate Stone returns home; white vs. blacks; Land returned to planters Chapter 10: 52:37 – 1:00:00 : No land for blacks – desire to return South to cotton; Black Codes 26 min total

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

President Andrew Johnson

 Jacksonian Democrat.

 Anti-Aristocrat.

 White Supremacist.

 Agreed with Lincoln that states had never legally left the Union.

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

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 13 th 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 is where a farm worker will receive a piece of land from a planter to farm on in exchange for a portion of the crops grown on that land – While theoretically a good system of barter, planters managed to keep their sharecroppers in constant debt and therefore tied to the 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

Chapter 23 pages 497-508 Documents 4-5

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 14

th

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 14 th Amendment and enfranchise black men (pass 15 th Amendment) Did NOT give freedmen land or an education

Reconstruction Acts of 1867

 * Military Reconstruction Act Restart Reconstruction in the 10 Southern states that refused to ratify the 14 th Amendment.

* Divide the 10 “unreconstructed states” into 5 military districts.

More about Congressional Reconstruction

• • Radical Republicans worried about freedmen suffrage and passed the 15 th 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

African American Rule in the South?

Blacks in Southern Politics

 Core voters were black veterans.

 Blacks were politically unprepared.

 Blacks could register and vote in states since 1867.

 The 15 th Amendment guaranteed federal voting.

15th Amendment

 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!

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”

Reconstruction – The Second Civil War Scene 14

• Disc 1 Chapter 14: 1:19:10 - 1:23:30 : Freedmen get the right to vote – what this means to blacks and whites in the South

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 14 th and 15 th amendments were not followed – grandfather clauses – literacy tests

The Civil Rights Act of 1875

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

 Prohibited discrimination in jury selection.

 Shortcoming  lacked a strong enforcement mechanism.

 No new civil rights act was attempted for 75 years!

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

The Senate Trial

 11 week trial.

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

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

Chapter 24 pages 512-522 Documents 6-7

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

Waving the Bloody Shirt!

Republican “Southern Strategy”

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 –> immigration Morally, 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 3 rd 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

1872 Presidential Election

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

 Puritanical  Personal morality  Government should regulate the economy and the morality of the community  Midwest and small town Northeast and freedmen in the South and the GAR

Democrats

 Immigrants  Accepted imperfections and didn’t want the government to impose a moral standard on society  South 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

Northern Support Wanes

 “Grantism” & corruption.

 Panic of 1873 depression) (6-year  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 or greenbacks?

1876 Presidential Tickets

Republicans 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?”

1876 Presidential Election

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)  “Corrupt Bargain” Part II?

Hayes Prevails

Alas, the Woes of Childhood…

Sammy Tilden—Boo-Hoo! Ruthy Hayes’s got my Presidency, and

he won’t give it to me!

A Political Crisis: The “Compromise” of 1877