Unit VI1861-1877

Part 7

Black Culture

Many Freed Blacks established their own churches, institutions

Many searched for lost families and hooked up

Emulated the White Middle ClassBlack men did not want their wives or

children working in the fields…did not want their wives working at all

BUT ½ of all Black women (16 and up) worked for wages

Election of 1868

Republican: Grant (war hero) 214 Democrats: Seymour 80 Open defense of White

Supremacy Wanted an end to

Reconstruction

The KKK formed in 1866

Nathan Bedford Forrest Terrorized Blacks AND White

Southern Republicans

Killed 3 members of the SC legislature and 1 congressman from Arkansas

Grant

No political experience Believed the President’s job was to

back congress Much corruption in his government: Gave his friends important

appointment They betrayed his trust Only decent appointment: Sec. of

State: Hamilton Fish

Grant Scandals

Credit Moblier: French-owned construction co. bought shares of Union Pacific stock and bilked the Union Pacific AND federal gov’t out of millions.

Tried to avoid Congressional investigation by giving certain members of congress stock

Investigation anyway: Biggest crook…The VP: Schyler Colfax!

Grant Scandals

Whiskey Ring: Sec of the Treasury, Ben Briston discovered that whiskey distillers filed false tax reports with the help of government workers who were paid off

Babcock (Grant’s private secretary) was the biggest crook here

Grant Scandals

The Indian Ring: Secretary of War (Belknap accepted bribes to retain Indian posts

Helen Hunt Jackson: A Century of Dishonor

The Republicans

Stalwarts v Liberals People in the North were getting tired of

Reconstruction and Republicans knew it

Stalwarts: (used to be conservatives): Committed to the economic interests of the North (Tariff, etc) Took focus away from the Freedman and the Reconstruction)

Liberals: Old Radicals now claim to be opposed to the Spoils System, Opposed to corruption…

Grant

Fell under the spell of the Stalwarts BUT DID respond to the Liberals

Grant supported a Civil Service Commission (1871) to look into a civil service based on merit…nothing came of it (fear of too much democracy, Irish, Chinese scoring high on tests and getting government jobs!)

Election of 1872

Republicans: Grant 286 Liberals (Republicans) deserted the

party and nominated Horace Greeley

Democrats: Horace Greeley 66

NOTE: Many Southern Republicans left the party to join the Democratic Party due to the split

The Economy

Panic of 1873 began with the failure of an investment company (had invested too heavily in RR building)

Grant unwittingly played a role

Depression lasted for 4 years

Debtors wanted inflation

Debtors wanted to inflate with greenbacks

Inflation would reduce the VALUE of one’s debt

Would increase the amount of $ in circulation

BUT

Grant and Stalwarts favored sound money based on the value of gold

Would favor creditors Would keep the value of the debt

high

The Greenbacks

Still $356 million in greenbacks in circulation from the war

Remember…their value had fluctuated according to Union victories

Had little real value after the war so debtors tried to use it to pay off debts

Creditors would not accept the greenbacks as payment

Knox v Lee

The Court ruled that the Greenbacks WERE legal tender

The Stalwarts (Republicans) in congress represented businessmen, bankers, etc.

They will put a stop to the Greenbacks

The Specie Resumption Act 1875

Said that after January 1, 1879, Greenbacks would be taken out of circulation and replaced with gold certificates whose value was firmly pegged to the value of gold

The above would keep the value of the debt high and it favored creditors….hurt debtors…especially farmers

The Greenback Party

Was a third party that will show up in the next three elections

Never had wide-spread support But kept the issue alive

Foreign Affairs

Seward’s Folly 1867: Seward bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million (for all of the snow and ice anyone could ever want!

A better deal than Louisiana Purchase

Alaska…2 cents an acre LP…3 cents an acre

Alaska

Was valuable for animal pelts, mineral resources, gold found in 1898, oil found later, naval and later air bases

1867…Midway Islands

1867 the U.S. annexed Midway islands

The Alabama Claims

With Seward…The Johnson-Clarndon Convention….Brits agreed to pay damages BUT congress did not approve the treaty because they wanted the Brits to apologize too!

1871 Hamilton Fish…Treaty of Washington…The Brits paid damages AND offered an apology

The End of Reconstruction

The North was getting tired of the South’s and the Freedmen’s problems

North wanted to concentrate on its own problems

Grant continued to protect the republican governments in the South (B & T’s)

1872 The Amnesty Act

Restored the franchise to almost all in the South

SO…White Southerners constituted a majority of the electorate

Where Blacks WERE a majority…lots of violence and intimidation

Terrorist organizations

Were used to keep the Black man from the polls…

KKK, Knights of the White Camilla, Red Shirts, White Leagues…

Policed the polls and ENCOURAGED voters to vote Democratic

The Force Act (1871)aka the KKK Act

Gave the President the power to :

Suspend Habeas Corpus Supervise congressional elections Employ troops to protect the Black

man’s right to vote

Did not do much good

By the time Grant left office

Seven former Confederate States had been Redeemed

Typically, the B & T’s could not maintain power on the state level when federal troops pulled out

Southern state governments fell into the hands of the Redeemers (aka the Bourbons)

Election of 1876

Aka The Compromise of 1877

Republicans were worried about the Democrats making a comeback. All Southern states but South Carolina and Louisiana were redeemed

Were also concerned about the Grant Scandals

Needed a squeaky-clean candidate for 1876

Republicans chose Hayes

Hayes was a proponent of Civil Service Reform…so he might lure Liberals back into the party

A former union army officer Former governor and congressman

(OHIO) Wanted to end Reconstruction…

The Republican party passed over Blaine (Maine) who was Speaker of the House (but shady)

Democrats chose Tilden (NY)

Was a reform Governor of NY Successfully got rid of the Tweed

Ring and put Boss Tweed in jail!

(We will talk about the political machine later)

He really WAS reform-minded

Problems with the Election

20 electoral votes were in question:

One from Oregon! (one of the three electors was disqualified because he held federal office)

19 from Louisiana, SC and Florida: B & T’s still there and sent in one set of returns BUT new Redeemer governments sent in different returns

The vote

Dems: Tilden had 184 electoral votes

Reps: Hayes had 165

If Tilden had one more vote, or if Hayes had all 20….then we would have a winner

Here’s what happened

For the benefit of the American public, Congress established a special electoral commission made up of:

5 Senators 5 members of the House 5 Supreme Court Justices

Of the 10 Members of Congress

5 were Republican 5 were Democrats The Justices: 2 were Republican and

2 were Democrat and one (David Davis) was an independent….

In the meantime

Hayes was meeting with DEMOCRATS behind closed doors

He made lots of promises so he could become the President: Would end Reconstruction Would give Federal Patronage to South and

let THEM control how $ would be spent Would build Texas and Pacific RR through

South A Democrat in the cabinet

Suddenly

David Davis (the independent justice) was disqualified!

He was replaced with a Republican! Hayes got all 20 electoral votes!

Was called “His Fraudulency” Tilden was robbed!

Troops were removed from the South

Within 10 years, traditional ruling class was restored to power

Real social change will begin to occur in the 1950’s and 1960’s with the Civil Rights Movement

New State Governments in the South

Were led by the Redeemers (aka the Bourbons)

Some former planters Some Northerners Merchants, RR developers,

financiers, industrialists

Corrupt

All New Governments

Lowered taxes, cut spending, cut services

Hurt Poor whites as well as Blacks All opposition to the new State

Governments was crushed

Most allowed White Supremacy in the South so that they could push through their own agenda without interference (industrialize in the South)

Southern Industry Expanded

Textile manufacturers moved South from the North:

Closer to raw materials Lower wages (mostly women workers) Lower state taxes Ample water power

Factory workers were women

Women made ½ of the wages of men

Blacks not welcome in the factories Still tied to the land or other outdoor

work: Mining, Tobacco and cotton plantations, lumbering

The Tobacco Processing Industry

The American Tobacco Company in NC

Had a virtual monopoly on tobacco processing

The Iron Industry

In Alabama

RR trackage doubled 1880-1890

Due in part to Northern investors

The Convict Lease Program

Robbed people of much needed work.

Convicts did the work for nothing

The South was still primarily agrarian

Still cotton although prices were down

Food prices were up Land continued to be exhausted

1/3 or more farmers were tenants By 1900 70% of privately-owned

land was lost to the crop-lien system

New Black Leaders

Booker T. Washington Last half of the 19th Century: THE ATLANTA COMPROMISE:

Advised Black men to educate themselves (in a trade…not in English lit), and to become an integral part of the economy AND to emulate (copy) the habits of the white middle class…be patient and rights would come

W.E.B. DuBois (later)

Beginning of the 20th Century The Niagara Movement: take you

rights now!

1905 with others formed the NAACP

Question for later….was the advice given by Washington and DuBois appropriate to their time periods?

The Supreme Court Undermined all gains of the National

Supremacy Amendments I the 1880’s and 1890’s:

Court ruled that the 14th Amendment only prohibited states from discriminating…not anyone else!

1898 Williams v Mississippi: Court upheld literacy tests at the polls

1896: Plessey v Ferguson: separate but equal OK

Southern Literature

Continued to Romanticize the Old South

Song of the South…Joel Chandler

Most Federal Officials Looked the other way at abuse and

exploitation of the Blacks in the South

Most in the North were unwilling to address issues of States’ Rights

In the 1890’s 187 lynchings per year Some Northern women worked for

anti-lynching laws