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chaptertwenty-one
THE CONSERVATIVE ERA
How did the Conservative Era affect South Carolina?
OVERVIEW
After the Civil War, the Industrial
Revolution began in earnest in the
United States. Transcontinental railroads and Standard Oil led the way. A
new wave of immigration brought
ample labor for large industries. The
Far West was being settled at the same
time. In Washington the Republican
Party remained in power, though the
Democrats began to rebuild their
strength after the Civil War.
In South Carolina white
Conservatives were in power from
1877 to 1890. At first, they followed
Hampton’s moderate racism, but later
they sought ways to keep African
Americans out of politics. The
Conservatives kept the memory of the
“Lost Cause” alive while they welcomed the industrial age they called
the New South.
SELECTED
VOCABULARY
Industrial Revolution
Trust
Capital
Labor Union
Strike
Reservation
Homestead Act
Pendleton Act
Conservatives (Bourbons)
Eight-Box Law
Lost Cause
New South
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TIMELINE
I. INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
How did the Industrial Revolution change the
United States?
In 1865 the United States was on the verge of major
changes. These changes began with the coming of the
Industrial Revolution. By 1900 the nation was one of
the world’s great industrial powers. The value of
American manufactured goods rose from $3 billion in
1869 to more than $13 billion in 1900.
The first big business in America was the transcontinental railroad, begun in the 1850s. New inventions,
such as the air brake and the safety coupler, made powerful trains that traveled at high speeds possible. In
1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act, which
gave public lands and loans to railroad companies that
built across the West. In all, the federal government
loaned $175 million and granted 270 million acres to
the railroads. Once the railroad linked America together,
nationwide business began to grow.
The largest big business was Standard Oil, which was
formed by John D. Rockefeller of New York. After oil was
found in Pennsylvania in 1858, hundreds of oil refineries were built. Rockefeller not only bought many of these
refineries but also the companies that made the barrels
in which the oil was shipped. In 1872 he set up a trust,
which combined all the companies he owned. Soon,
Standard Oil controlled the making and selling of oil in
the United States and in much of the world. In the
1890s, 300 trusts controlled all the major businesses in
the nation.
UNITED STATES
SOUTH CAROLINA
1862
Homestead Act
Pacific Railway Act
1866
Confederate Memorial Day
began
1869
Knights of Labor formed
1872
Standard Oil Trust
1876
Invention of the
telephone
1877
Republicans split
into Stalwarts
and Half-Breeds
1879
Invention of
long-lasting electric
light
1877
Wade Hampton
became governor
1881
Eight Box Law
Bureau of Immigration
formed
1882
Dibble Plan
1883
Pendleton Act
1886
AFL formed
1887
Dawes Severalty Act
On May 10, 1869, the
first transcontinental
railroad was completed.
At Promontory, Utah, a
golden spike was driven
to celebrate the new
railroad.
Library of Congress
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New inventions changed the way Americans did business. In 1876 Alexander
Graham Bell invented the telephone. The Bell telephone changed the way people
communicated with one another. In 1885 the American Telephone and Telegraph
Company (AT and T) became a national corporation. Thomas A. Edison established a laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. He invented the phonograph in 1877
and the first long-lasting incandescent electric light bulb in 1879. Edison and his
associates developed hundreds of new inventions, including the storage battery and
motion pictures.
Big business needed large amounts of capital, or money for growth and investment. Investment bankers created many of the trusts. J. Pierpont Morgan, head of
the House of Morgan in New York, was the major financial power in the United
States. He set up large railroad and life insurance companies. He created many
trusts, including United States Steel and General Electric.
Thomas A. Edison was one of the
great inventors in American history. His inventions formed the
basis for many new businesses.
Library of Congress
What were some of Edison’s
inventions?
Edison’s first major laboratory
was in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
He was sometimes called “the
Wizard of Menlo Park.” Henry
Ford moved the laboratory buildings to Greenfield Village in
Dearborn, Michigan.
II. IMMIGRATION AND LABOR
From where did the new wave of immigrants come?
Large industry needed labor. After 1865 a new wave of immigrants came into the
United States. Between 1800 and 1860, 6 million people came to live in America. In
the fifty years between 1865 and 1915, 25 million arrived. Many came from Central
and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, and Asia. Soon the large cities of America
had ethnic neighborhoods of Italians, Poles, Greeks, Russians, and Chinese. In
1882, Congress voted to restrict immigration. At first, Asians were excluded, then
the very poor from every nation. After 1917 no immigrant over sixteen who could
not read was admitted.
After 1865 there were efforts to organize workers in the new industries into labor
unions. At first, unions had both skilled and unskilled workers. The most successful labor union was the Knights of Labor, formed in 1869. It set out to improve conditions for workers, but it had few specific aims. It used the strike as a weapon. But
it grew too large to manage. Soon there were many small craft unions of skilled
workers. In 1886 Samuel Gompers formed the craft unions into the American
Federation of Labor (AFL). It adopted a number of practical goals, such as higher
wages and shorter working hours. Gompers was not afraid to
use the strike.
III. THE FAR WEST
How was the far West settled?
In 1865 one-fifth of the United States was still unsettled western land. But within 25 years the land was
carved into states or territories. The victims of settlement
were the 225,000 Native Americans who lived in the
western United States.
The Native Americans had been promised long before that
they would be left alone and given supplies by the government. But white settlers took their land and killed their game.
The only hope the Native Americans had was armed warfare.
Until 1890 there was constant fighting on the frontier
between the army and the Native Americans. Combined with
the destruction of the buffalo herds, Native Americans were
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forced on to reservations. At last some Americans spoke out about the unfair treatment of the Indians. Congress passed the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 which gave
the president the power to divide the land given to Native American nations and
grant it to individuals. All Native Americans finally got United States citizenship in
1924. But much of their land was lost by fraud and sale by the government before
the reforms. Native American landholdings decreased from 138 million to 48 million acres.
At the same time, western settlement was spurred by the discovery of gold and
silver in the Rocky Mountains and in Nevada in 1859. The last gold rush came in
1896 in Alaska, which the United States had bought from Russia in 1869. From the
mining towns came many legendary figures, such as Calamity Jane, Wild Bill
Hickok, and Billy the Kid. Cattle farming became big business. Cowboys rounded
up longhorn cattle on the grassy plains. They drove them over long trails to market
in places such as Abilene and Topeka, Kansas.
Farming spread quickly after Congress passed the Homestead Act of 1862.
Under the act, settlers could get as much as 160 acres of public land at no cost after
living on it and improving it for five years. Or they could buy land for $1.25 an acre
after six months. Life on the plains was hard. Farmers faced droughts, prairie fires,
and blizzards. Men and women gained a new sense of equality as they fought the
elements together. In 1890 the superintendent of the census reported that for the
first time in American history there was no frontier. The area that became the fortyeight adjoining states was settled from coast to coast.
IV. THE POLITICS OF BUSINESS
Which political party dominated national politics and supported big
business?
After the Civil War the federal government was controlled by the Republican
Party. It was the party that saved the Union, and in one campaign after another
Republicans named a military figure for president and “waved the bloody shirt.”
They called the Democratic Party the party of disunion. Republicans were strong in
New England, in northern New York, and in the West. They had the support of the
black voters.
By 1874 the Democrats regained political power. After Reconstruction they had
“the solid South,” but they were strong in the border states and the cities of the
North, as well. The “swing” states that might vote for either party in a national election were New York, Indiana, and Ohio. Candidates for president and vice president
almost always came from New York and the Midwest. Reformers who wanted to
stop corruption in government were often independents. They belonged to no
party and were called mugwumps, or fence straddlers.
After Grant left the White House in 1877, the Republicans split into two factions.
The Stalwarts supported big business and the trusts. The Half Breeds supported government reform. Winning Republicans had to appeal to both groups. Stalwart
Chester Arthur became president in 1881, after James A. Garfield’s assassination. But
Arthur supported the passage of the Pendleton Act in 1883. It set up a civil service
that hired government workers on the basis of merit, not political connections. The
only Democratic president from 1860 to 1912 was Grover Cleveland, the reform governor of New York. Cleveland was the only president to serve non-consecutive terms.
He was the twenty-second and twenty-fourth president.
John D. Rockerfeller formed the
Standard Oil Company. It was the
first great trust in American
business.
Library of Congress
What is a trust?
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V. CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP IN SOUTH CAROLINA
How did the Conservatives limit state government?
Elected governor in 1876, Wade
Hampton III later became a
United States senator.
Woodlands Plantation
What role did Hampton play
in the Civil War?
When Federal troops at the State House in Columbia marched away at noon
on April 10, 1877, the man in the governor’s office was Wade Hampton III, the
symbol of the new era. Born in 1818 in Charleston, he grew up in Columbia
and was educated at South Carolina College. He was the third Wade Hampton
in South Carolina and was perhaps the richest man in the South on the eve of
the Civil War. He owned over 3,000 slaves on plantations in South Carolina,
Mississippi, and Louisiana. During the Civil War he rose to the rank of lieutenant general and commanded the cavalry in the Army of Northern Virginia
after the death of General J. E. B. Stuart. At the end of the war, Hampton’s slaves
were gone, and his house near Columbia was burned by Sherman’s soldiers.
His debts were more than $1 million. His furniture and personal belongings
were sold at auction. Yet, at over six feet tall, he was a commanding presence
and a visible reminder of the Old South.
Hampton’s chief supporters were former Confederates of high rank. The lieutenant governor was William D. Simpson of Laurens, a lieutenant colonel and a
member of the Confederate Congress. The speaker of the House of Representatives
was William D. Wallace of Union, brevet (that is, temporary) brigadier general.
Elected to the United States Senate was Major General Matthew C. Butler of
Edgefield. Hampton himself won a Senate seat in 1878. Together they had fought
for the old way of life in 1876. Once in office, they worked to restore Jefferson’s ideal
of a limited government ruled by an elite.
Before the Civil War these men had both Democratic and Whig leanings, so they
usually called themselves Conservatives. On the national level, the Conservatives
became Democrats. Later their political opponents called them Bourbons (BOORbuns). Bourbon was the family name of the French kings who went back to the
throne after the French Revolution. Napoleon once said of them: “They forgot nothing, and they learned nothing.”
Once in office the Conservatives made deep cuts in the state budget. They
elected a very capable state superintendent of education, Hugh Smith
Thompson. But they gave him little money to operate the public schools. Very
little was spent to treat the mentally ill at the state hospital. To reduce the
expenses of the state penitentiary, the Conservatives set up the convict lease system. Prisoners were hired out to businesses, such as railroads and phosphate
companies. They worked under horrible conditions, and many of them died
while at work. The University of South Carolina closed for three years, and The
Citadel did not reopen until 1882.
VI. HAMPTON’S VIEWS ON RACE
What was Wade Hampton’s view on race?
Hampton did not believe in social equality between blacks and whites, but he did
believe in political equality. In his campaign for governor, he had promised fair treatment for all. He named eighty-six African Americans to minor offices. When he visited Claflin College, he was asked to dinner with the president, who was white.
When he arrived, two African Americans were present. Hampton was later attacked
as pro-black for eating with African Americans.
In his campaign for reelection in 1878, Hampton said to his hearers in Beaufort,
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mostly African Americans: “Put [your] finger upon one pledge I have violated.” Said
a former Republican judge: “There is not one decent Negro in the state who will
vote against him.”
VII. MARTIN GARY AND CONSERVATIVE UNITY
Why did Martin Gary attack Hampton?
When they took office, the Conservatives did not control all of state government.
The Republicans controlled the Senate and the courts. The Conservatives had to
remain united to stay in power. They voted as a bloc in both houses of the legislature. Party unity was their most important rule.
But that unity was challenged by one of the chief Conservatives. Martin Gary of
Edgefield had planned the violence during the campaign of 1876. He attacked
Hampton’s moderate policy on race. Politics was a matter of “race against race,”
Gary said. He also attacked Hampton’s plan to pay the valid Reconstruction debt.
Hampton wanted to restore the credit of the state by paying what was owed. Gary
said the entire debt came from the corruption of the radicals. It should not be paid.
Gary had another reason to oppose Hampton. He wanted a seat in United States
Senate as his reward for his part in the 1876 election. But one seat went to Matthew
C. Butler, and later the other went to Hampton. Hampton said that he himself had
won the election by getting a large number of black votes. No man who broke the
unity of the Democratic Party would get a reward. Gary died a bitter man in 1881.
Martin Witherspoon Gary was
Hampton’s chief rival in state
politics after 1876.
South Caroliniana Library
What part did Gary play in
the election of 1876?
VIII. THE EIGHT-BOX LAW
What impact did the Eight-Box Law have on African American voters?
After Hampton left the governor’s office, the Conservatives no longer followed
his moderate racism. In its place, they tried to reduce black political power wherever it was possible. In 1880 a joint legislative committee began to study legal ways to
keep blacks from voting. Edward McCrady, Jr., of Charleston was chairman. The
McCrady committee proposed the Eight-Box Bill, In order to register to vote, each
person would have to prove that he could read and write. He also had to pay a poll
tax. Every precinct had to have eight ballot boxes. A vote would be counted only if
the correct ballot were placed in the correct box. Every one of these proposals discriminated against African American voters.
Some Conservatives opposed the bill since it would also keep many poor whites
from voting. But reducing the African American vote seemed worth any price. The
Eight-Box Law was passed in 1881. It worked. The number of Republican votes cast
in South Carolina dropped from 91,870 in 1876 to 13,740 in 1888.
Next the Conservatives went to work on representation in Congress. They wanted to reduce the number of African Americans in Congress from the state. The
Dibble Plan, proposed by Samuel Dibble of Orangeburg, was adopted in 1882. It
created one large district that stretched from Columbia to Georgetown to Beaufort.
It did not include Charleston. The new district had the counties with the largest
black population. One black member of Congress was insured, but no more. The
Conservatives agreed to run no white person in the “Black District,” as they called
it. No other district in the state would have enough Republican voters to elect a
black representative. Defeated in 1896, George Washington Murray was the last
black Congressman elected until the twentieth century in South Carolina.
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IX. KEEPING THE LOST CAUSE ALIVE
How was the Lost Cause remembered in
South Carolina?
The mining of phosphate
became an important industry in
South Carolina during the
Conservative Era.
MCS Oliphant Collection
Why was phosphate
important?
Many Confederate soldiers killed
at Gettysburg are buried in
Magnolia Cemetery in
Charleston.
The Conservatives insured party unity by keeping the memory of the Civil War alive. Just as the
Republicans in the North “waved the bloody
shirt” in memory of the Union victory, Southern
Democrats kept whites united by constant
reminders of what they called the Lost Cause.
There were frequent reunions of Confederate
veterans. But just as important was the work of
Southern white women. One of the leaders in the
movement was Mary Amarintha Snowden
(SNAU-don). Born in Charleston and educated at
the Barhamville Institute, she formed a women’s
group before the Civil War to erect the monument to Calhoun that stands in
Marion Square. During the war Snowden transformed the group into the Soldiers’
Relief Association. Then, in 1866, the women formed the Ladies’ Memorial
Association “to perpetuate the martyrdom of the Confederate dead.” They held the
first Confederate Memorial Day services in South Carolina in Charleston’s Magnolia
Cemetery, where hundreds of Confederate soldiers were buried.
The women chose May 10, the day Stonewall Jackson died, as Confederate
Memorial Day. Later it became a state holiday. From 1867 to 1914, forty-nine monuments were erected in South Carolina to honor the Confederate dead. Many were
placed in front of county courthouses. The largest was erected in 1879 in Columbia
in front of the State House. Over 15,000 people came in special trains for the dedication. Many of the monuments were statues of common soldiers, not of the generals. The choice to honor the soldiers in the ranks united the ordinary white citizens
more closely to the Conservative leaders.
Library of Congress
Why is Magnolia Cemetery
important in the “Lost Cause”
cult in South Carolina?
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X. THE NEW SOUTH SPIRIT
How was the New South different from the Old South?
South Carolina shared in the Industrial Revolution after the
Civil War. The miles of railroad track more than doubled from
1865 to 1890. The most important new railroad was the
Charlotte to Atlanta line across the Piedmont. The fertilizer
industry was important in the Low Country, and textile mills
were built in the Up Country. The legislature exempted, or
excluded, industry from paying state and local taxes until
1885. The next year the state passed a general incorporation
law. The law allowed a business to get a charter without a special act of the legislature. A charter could be issued by the secretary of state. The legislature also passed laws favoring certain
industries. The state gave fertilizer companies the sole right to
mine minerals in certain areas. It also gave towns and counties
the power to make grants for the building of railroads. The
state Agriculture Bureau published a handbook in 1883 that
urged industries to locate in South Carolina. Edited by Harry
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Hammond, it was entitled South Carolina, Resources and Population, Institutions and
Industries.
Meanwhile Southern spokesmen were proclaiming the rise of the New South.
The Old South of plantations and slavery was gone, they said. In its place was a
New South of small farms, growing cities, and new industries. The leading spirit in
the New South movement in South Carolina was Francis W. Dawson, editor of the
Charleston News and Courier. He was an Englishman who came to the South to
fight in the Confederate army. He moved to Charleston after the war and became
owner and editor of the News and Courier, which he made a statewide newspaper.
A Conservative at heart, he did not want to forget the Old South. But he told his
readers that “Charleston cannot live by cotton and rice alone.” He wrote of a new
day when Charleston would be a great center of world trade. There will be enough
business, he said, “for Savannah and Charleston—and for Port Royal to boot!”
XI. EFFORTS AT IMMIGRATION
Why did the state have difficulty attracting immigrants?
The Conservatives were also in favor of immigration into the state. They said
that European immigrants might replace the slave labor lost by emancipation. The
leader in this movement was John A. Wagener, a native of Germany who came to
Charleston in 1833. He owned a newspaper printed in German. He also formed St.
Matthew’s Lutheran Church, which held services in German. In 1849 he set up a
German colony at Walhalla, now in Oconee County. In 1866, Governor Orr named
him commissioner of immigration. He sent out pamphlets in English, German, and
the Scandinavian languages to urge people to immigrate. Several hundred came,
but many soon left. They did not like the climate or the people. In 1881, after
Wagener’s death, the Conservatives set up the Bureau of Immigration. In two years,
860 immigrants arrived. But the number of immigrants who came to the state was
quite small. The great flood of immigrants went instead to the North and Midwest.
There were more opportunities in other sections of the nation. There the newcomers did not have to compete with blacks, who worked for very low wages.
Francis Warrington Dawson
was a leading spokesman for
the New South in South
Carolina.
Duke University Special Collections
What was Dawson’s
position?
In 1882 the legislature used the
Dibble Plan to redraw the
Congressional Districts.
Which is the “Black District”?
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EYEWITNESS TO HISTORY:
Remembering the Civil War
Despite the efforts of Conservatives to memorialize the
“Lost Cause,” not all South Carolinians were loyal
Confederates. Here are inscriptions from three monuments erected in the state after the Civil War by different groups. Read them carefully. Can you tell which
groups or individuals they remember?
(1) These were men
Whom Power could not corrupt,
Whom Death could not terrify,
Whom defeat could not dishonor;
And let their virtues plead for just judgment
Of the cause in which they perished.
(2) Unawed by Opinion,
Unseduced by Flattery:
He confronted Life with antique Courage:
And death With Christian Hope:
In the great Civil War
He withstood his People for his Country:
But his People did Homage to the Man
Who held his Conscience higher than their Praise.
(3) Immortality to Hundreds of the Defenders of
American Liberty Against the Great Rebellion.
The three monuments are (1) the United States Memorial at the
Beaufort National Cemetery, (2) the Confederate Monument in front of
the State House in Columbia, and (3) the tombstone of the Unionist,
James Louis Petigru, in St. Michael’s churchyard in Charleston.
Read the inscriptions carefully. What words or phrases tell you what
parts the individuals took in the Civil War? Select the monument most
likely to have the inscription. Be ready to explain your answer.
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Recalling wha
t you read
I. Industrial Revolution
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What was the first big business in America? What new inventions contributed to this big business?
What was the Pacific Railway Act and how did it contribute to the growth
of America’s first big business and to other nationwide businesses?
What inventors changed the way Americans lived? What did they invent?
What was the importance of the trust created by John D. Rockefeller when
he combined all of the businesses he owned?
Who was J. Pierpont Morgan? What trusts did he create?
II. Immigration and Labor
1.
2.
Why did the rise of industry create a need for a new labor market? What
was the result?
What did Samuel Gompers do?
III. The Far West
FOR
THOUGHT
1. Why did the creation of a national
railroad network
help business?
2. Why did the Lost
Cause help keep
the Conservatives
in power in South
Carolina?
1. Who were the victims of the settlement of the West?
2. What was the importance of the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887? Why was it
not completely successful from the Indians point of view?
3. When did all Indians receive American citizenship?
4. How did the Homestead Act encourage widespread farming?
5. What was the significance of the report in 1890 that for the first time in
American history there was no longer a frontier?
IV. The Politics of Business
1. Which of the political parties controlled the federal government after the
Civil War?
2. Who were the mugwumps?
3. Who were the Stalwarts? the Half Breeds?
V. Conservative Leadership in South Carolina
1. Who was Wade Hampton III?
2. On the national level, who were the Conservatives?
VI. Hampton’s Views on Race
1. Even though Hampton did not believe in equality between blacks and
whites, he treated both races fairly. Explain.
VII. Martin Gary and Conservative Unity
1. Who was Martin Gary? Why did he attack Hampton’s moderate policy of
race relations? What was Gary’s hidden reason for opposing Hampton?
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Recalling wha
t you read
VIII. The Eight-Box Law
1.
2.
What was the Eight-Box Law? Why did it discriminate against African
American voters? Why was the bill opposed by some Conservatives?
What was the Dibble Plan? How did it discriminate against blacks?
IX. Keeping the Lost Cause Alive
1.
2.
What was the Lost Cause that Southern Democrats used to unite whites?
What part did women play in keeping “the cause” alive?
X. The New South Spirit
1. What were some special arrangements made to benefit business and
industry in South Carolina that showed the New South spirit had caught
fire in South Carolina?
2. What were the characteristics of the New South that Southern spokesmen
began proclaiming following the Civil War?
3. Who was Francis W. Dawson? Why was he “a leading spirit” in the New
South movement in South Carolina?
XI. Efforts at Immigration
1. Why did Conservatives begin promoting immigration into the state? How
successful were their efforts?
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