Aim: What events led to the end of Reconstruction?

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Aim What events led to the end of Reconstruction?
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4. The End of Reconstruction

• By the late 1860s, Radical Reconstruction was
  well under way in the South.
• After many successes, it seemed Radical
  Reconstruction would continue into the near
  future.
• In the late 1860s and 1870s, however, many
  Americans began to grow tired of the problems
  presented by Reconstruction.

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4.1 The Election of Grant

• In 1868, the Republicans chose General Ulysses
  Grant to run for President.
• The Democrats chose Horatio Seymour, former
  governor of New York as their nominee.
• The Republicans stood by Reconstruction, while
  the Democrats favored putting an end to it.
• The Democrats wanted to pull soldiers out of the
  South, pardon former Confederates and return all
  rights to the states.

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• The campaign was a heated one.
• The Republicans pointed to their war record by
  blaming the Democrats for starting the Civil War.
• The Republicans stated it was their party that
  saved the Union and portrayed their party as the
  party of patriotism.
• The Republicans win the Election of 1868. Grant
  won 26 states, with an electoral vote of 214 to
  89.
• Grant also received over three million votes
  thanks to the help of newly-enfranchised Blacks.
• Blacks received the right to vote and voted for
  the Republicans.

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Question 1

• What position did each party take in the election
  of 1868?

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Question 2

• Who were the candidates for President in 1868?
  Who won the election?

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Question 3

• Before becoming President, Grant was the winning
  general in which American conflict?

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Question 4

• Which new group of Americans affected the United
  States Presidential election? Why was this
  possible? Which party did they vote for and for
  what reason?

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Candidates For President-1868
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Election of 1868
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Ulysses Grant-18th President
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4.2 Grant and Reconstruction

• Grant took a strong stance in favor of Radical
  Reconstruction.
• Grant passed two important bills to support his
  stance
• (a) Force Bill (1870)?
• (b) Ku Klux Klan Bill (1871)?
• These laws gave Grant the power to use troops to
  end violence against Blacks and Republican
  governments in the South.
• Slowly, Grants support for Radical
  Reconstruction began to weaken. By 1872, he
  stopped sending troops into the south.

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Question 5

• How did Grant help further the cause of
  Reconstruction during his first term as President?

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Question 6

• When did Grant stop believing in the cause of
  Reconstruction? What action did Grant not take in
  his second term?

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Force Bill (1870)?
Passed after the 15th Amendment, the Force Bill
allowed Blacks the right to vote because soldiers
were allowed to be stationed at voting centers.
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Ku Klux Klan Act (1871)?
Passed in 1871, the Ku Klux Klan Act allowed
President Grant the power to use the military to
prevent the growth of the Ku Klux Klan.
Slowly, the attention of President Grant began to
turn to other matters besides Reconstruction. Pres
ident Grant would slowly become one of the worst
American Presidents in US History.
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4.3 Other Interests, Other Concerns

• Congress, too, was becoming less concerned with
  supervising the South and helping the freedmen.
• For one thing, some of the most important Radical
  leaders were gone.
• By 1870, Henry Winter Davis, Thaddeus Stevens,
  and Benjamin Wade were either retired or dead.

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• In 1872, Congress passed an Amnesty Law that
  allowed most Confederate leaders the right to
  vote and hold office. This changed the climate of
  the south towards the Democratic Party.
• The Freedmens Bureau was abolished in 1872.
• Northerners, too, were also tired of
  Reconstruction. They began to focus on the
  following issues
• (a) Indian Wars in the West
• (b) Purchase of Santo Domingo
• (c) The Depression of 1873

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Question 7

• What was occurring in the northern attitude
  toward Reconstruction in the 1870s?

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Amnesty Laws
Under the Amnesty Law, the United States
Congress allowed ex-Confederate soldiers
the right to vote in elections and restored
citizenship. This law showed the end of
Congressional support towards Reconstruction. Thi
s changed the lives of Blacks for the worse.
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The Radical Republicans Disappear
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Changing The South
After the Amnesty Law was passed, southern
governments slowly changed from Republican
control back to Democratic control. This allowed
for ex-Confederates the right to take freedoms
away from Blacks in the South.
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Freedmens Bureau Abolished
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Rights of Blacks Ended
Southern whites slowly began to end the freedoms
granted to Blacks in the years following
the Civil War. This led to segregation and
the division of Southern society until 1954.
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Northern Interests Change
Indian Wars in the Western United States ended
support for Reconstruction.
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Northern Interests Change
The United States Congress was looking to buy the
Dominican Republic from Spain. This turned
peoples attention away from Reconstruction.
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Northern Interests Change
Although Grant won re-election in 1872, the
United States went into a great depression which
lasted five years. The United States voter, in
return, voted the Republicans out of office and
gave the Democrats power for the first time since
1865.
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4.4 Scandals Under Grant

• Tales of scandal in the Grant administration also
  diverted peoples attention away from
  Reconstruction.
• Grant was a great military leader but not a great
  political leader.
• Many people tried to take advantage of Grants
  poor leadership for their own gain.
• The three major scandals included

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Gould and Fisk (1869)?

• Americans learned in 1869 that two millionaires
  named Jay Gould and Jim Fisk bought enough gold
  to control its price.
• The two millionaires then asked Grant to see the
  governments gold. This would drive up the price
  of gold, but Grant refused.
• Gould and Fisk then spread a rumor that Grant did
  sell the gold. This drove up the price and the
  two men sold their gold for profit.

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• The government then released its gold and it
  dropped the price of gold while ruining the
  financial livelihood of many Americans.
• Seeing that this occurred under the
  administration of President Grant, Americans
  blamed Grant and the Republicans for their woes.

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Gould and Fisk Corner the Gold Market (1869)?
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Credit Mobilier

• In 1872, the Credit Mobilier scandal broke.
• The Credit Mobilier Construction Company was
  formed by the leaders of the Union Pacific
  Railroad Company, which had been awarded
  contracts to build the transcontinental railroad.
• Huge profits went to railroad executives and
  members of the United States Congress who had
  accepted stock in the company for certain favors.
• People became incensed when the Congress blocked
  all investigations into the matter.

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Credit Mobilier Scandal
Schuyler Colfax-The Vice President of the United
States was bribed with stock.
The Credit Mobilier Scandal broke in 1872. The
scandal allowed for members of Congress to make
huge profits by selling tracts of land to the
Union Pacific Railroad Company. This scandal
affected the second term of President Grant
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The Whiskey Ring

• This scandal affected a member of Grants
  Cabinet, Treasury Secretary W.A. Richardson, who
  was found to be dishonest.
• Another member of Grants staff, his private
  secretary, Orville Babcock, who was part of the
  Whiskey Ring.
• The Whiskey Ring was a group of revenue officers
  and distillers formed to cheat the government out
  of tax money.

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• When the ring was discovered, the government had
  lost billions of dollars.
• This led to War Secretary, W.W. Belknaps
  resignation. He was about to be impeached for
  taking bribes.

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The Whiskey Ring
Another scandal linked to the Grant
Administration. Members of Grants Cabinet were
either indicted or forced to resign. Grant was
able to protect his private secretary
Orville Babcock from any criminal charges.
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Support of President Grant
President Grant received support from
Thomas Nast, a leading political cartoonist of
the era. In this picture, Nast is showing his
hatred that the Democrats are using the President
as a scapegoat for the problems that occurred
during his administration. President Grant is an
example on how in history, a military hero does
not usually become a great President. Grant
retired from the presidency in 1876. He is
buried in New York City.
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Grants Tomb, Harlem, NYC
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Question 8

• What did Gould and Fisk attempt to do?

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Question 9

• Who was involved in the Credit Mobilier Scandal?

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Question 10

• Which cabinet members were indicted in the
  Whiskey Ring?

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Question 11

• Where is Ulysses Grant buried?

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4.5 Election of 1876

• The administration of President Grant severely
  weakened the Republican Party, which had already
  lost power in the Southern State Governments.
• By 1875, only three states-Louisiana, Florida and
  South Carolina-remained under Republican control.
• Against this background, the Election of 1876 is
  to take place.

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Republicans Lose the South
Due to the political scandals of Grants
administration, the state governments in the
south slowly went back to the Democratic Party.
This is a major issue in the Election of 1876.
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The Candidates-1876
Samuel Tilden-Democrat
Rutherford Hayes-Republican
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The Results of the Election
The results of the election were disputed. Tilden
won the popular vote while three states could not
declare a winner of the popular vote. This was a
major crisis for the Constitution.
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• Tilden won a majority of the popular vote, but a
  question arose over the electoral vote.
• Both parties claimed victory in Florida,
  Louisiana and South Carolina. The matter would be
  settled in Congress.
• The Congress established a panel of fifteen
  government officials-five from the United States
  House of Representatives, the United States
  Senate and the United States Supreme Court.

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• The commission voted eight to seven-making Hayes
  the 19th President.
• The matter had to be settled in the United States
  Congress.
• On March 2, 1877, the Democrats reached a
  compromise for Congress to make a decision
  regarding the commissions report.
• The Democrats accepted Hayes as President as long
  as the Republicans would pull the remaining
  troops out of the South.
• This spelled the end of Reconstruction.

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Question 12

• What southern states were under Republican
  control in 1876?

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Question 13

• Who were the candidates for President in 1876?

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Question 14

• How was the Election of 1876 decided?

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Question 15

• Which President in your lifetime was similar to
  President Hayes, in that, he won the election
  even though he did not win the popular vote?

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A Disputed Election
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The Similarities Between 1876 and 2000
Total 50,456,002 47.87 (Bush) (Gore)
50,999,897 48.38
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4.6 The Plight of Southern Blacks

• The real losers of the Compromise of 1877 were
  southern blacks.
• The last Radical governments were no longer
  protected by the federal government. One by one,
  they were replaced by the Democrats.
• Many people called these new southern governments
  Redeemers, or saviors of the South.

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• As southern Democrats came into power, blacks
  began to lose their political rights.
• Violence between blacks and whites increased with
  many blacks being lynched.
• Blacks lost their economic power. When Blacks
  were promised on free land, the federal
  government never gave them any, and many remained
  poor in a new system called sharecropping.

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Question 16

• Why was it hard for blacks to prevent the loss of
  their rights?