M1/7/13; M12/19/11; T12/14/10 ; W12/16/09
National Politics During
Reconstruction
(Ch. 16.4 & 16.5; pp. 462-471)
Q: What were the major national political issues during
Reconstruction (1865-1877)? What impact did they have on
Reconstruction in the South?
I. Grantism
• widespread corruption
• many scandals:
– gold grab
• Jay Gould & Jim Fisk w/ Grant’s bro-in-law – corner market
– Credit Mobilier
• VP Schulyer Colfax – Union Pacific RR construction thru gov’t
contracts
– whiskey ring
• private sec. Orville Babcock – bribe re: whiskey taxes
– Indian trading posts
• Sec War William Belknap – bribes
II. Liberal Revolt
•
•
•
•
split Republican party in 1872 election
wanted “home rule”
worried about “Grantism” corruption
endorsed Horace Greeley
– Dems also endorsed
• landslide electoral win, but relatively
close popular vote
• Amnesty Act passed
III. Panic of 1873
•
•
•
•
worst depression to date
focused on overspeculation in RR’s
collapse of Jay Cooke’s bank
lasted for five years
IV. Currency
• silver issue – Bland-Allison Act (1878)
• greater credit
• important issue again in 1890s (next depression)
• greenbacks
• Greenback Party – 1876
V. Constitutional Issues
• slowly chipped away at reconstruction’s gains
• ex parte Milligan (1866)
– banned military tribunals when regular courts
open
– impacted other laws enforced by military courts –
Freedmen’s Bureau
• TX v. White (1869)
– upheld reconstruction process as constitutional
(re-admittance of states)
V. Constitutional Issues (cont.)
• Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)
–
–
–
–
–
involves LA slaughterhouse monopoly by state
interpreted 14th Amend. narrowly
only protects national citizenship, not state citizenship
does not protect against state restrictions
only protects in interstate travel, sea travel
• US v. Reese (1876) – KY –
– 1st Enforcement Act/15th Amend.
– interprets 15th Amend narrowly & literally
V. Constitutional Issues (cont.)
• US v. Cruikshank –
–
–
–
–
LA & Colfax Massacre
14th Amend protects against states, not individuals
individuals, not state, committed act
[similar parallel to debate over “hate crimes” today]
• 1883 – Sup. Ct. invalidated C.R. Act of 1875 & KKK
Act of 1871
• Plessy v. Ferguson – 1896 – “separate but equal”
VI. Weakening Support & Redemption
• Republicans split nationally
• many Radicals retired or dead
• Moderate Reps worried about maintaining
Rep. majority
• Americans worried about other issues, not
South
• Dems back in power
• by 1876, all states except 3 – FL, SC, LA
VII. Election of 1876 & Compromise of 1877
• Hayes (Rep.) v. Tilden (Dem.)
• disputed results – FL, LA, SC
• electoral commission – 7 Reps, 7 Dems, 1 Ind
– Independent replaced by Rep.
• Hayes wins – “Rutherfraud” – Reps.
– Dems upset; need Dem. support
• ends military recon.
– troops pull out of S.
• Reconstruction officially ends