15-18 Test Flashcards
How did President Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan differ from Lincoln’s?
In addition to Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan, Johnson proposed three further requirements for readmitted states: Ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment; Renunciation of secession. Radiacal Republicans felt it was too lenient on the Confederacy.
Black Codes
In 1865, legislatures in the formerly Confederate states passed Black Codes, which were laws that prohibited blacks from: borrowing money to purchase land; renting land; testifying against whites in court; serving on juries when a white defendant was on trial; deemed many freedman as vagrants and forced them to work.
sharecropping
landowner provided land, seed, and needed farm implements to poor black and white farmers in exchange for a portion of the harvested crop (usually 50%).
By late 1865, all 11 of the former Confederate states had met the lenient requirements of Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan, and sent representatives to Congress. How did Congress react?
Congress, and especially the Radical Republicans, were furious, especially since none of the new state constitutions extended voting rights to blacks and had established Black Codes. Further, many of the elected Congressmen were former Confederate leaders, including Alexander Stephens, the Confederate Vice President.
The result of the 1866 congressional elections
Radical Republicans were swept into office, ensuring that a hard line would continue to be maintained against the former Confederate states. This ended “Presidential Reconstruction”, and began “Radical Reconstruction”.
Radical Reconstruction
Radical Republicans supported: harsh measures against the “traitors” who started a Civil War; voting rights for Blacks; laws that would protect Blacks from white terrorism; expanded peace-time federal power to ensure that their goals were realized.
In response to the South’s Black Codes, Congress passed the first _____ _____ Act in 1866.
Civil Rights; The Civil Rights Act of 1866 deemed that blacks were citizens. As a result, President Johnson vetoed the bill. Congress, which was controlled by strong Republican majorities, overrode President Johnson’s veto, making this the first major law of the Radical Reconstruction period.
the Fourteenth Amendment
Defined citizenship to include all persons born or naturalized in the United States; States could no longer violate rights embodied in the Constitution; Made it illegal for State/federal government to pay for any Confederate debts; Prevented former Confederates from holding elective office.
What prompted Congress to pass the Military Reconstruction Act in 1866?
Due to Southern opposition, the Fourteenth Amendment initially failed to be ratified by the requisite 2/3 of the states. After the 1866 election, Congress passed the Military Reconstruction Act, which designated 10 of the 11 former Confederate states as military districts under military control. ( Johnson vetoed the Act, but Republicans in Congress overrode the veto. The Military Reconstruction Act held that to be readmitted, states must adopt the Fourteenth Amendment, and provide for black voting rights)
Why did the House vote to impeach President Johnson?
In 1867, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, which required the President to get Senate approval before removing a cabinet member. The Act was designed to protect Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, a Radical Republican ally. Johnson ignored the Act and fired Stanton. The House voted to impeach Johnson, but by a single vote the Senate voted against his removal from office.
Republican nomination at the 1866 Republican Convention
Ulysses S. Grant; popular war hero, handsome general, with no political record; endorsed many Radical Republican policies, including harsh treatment for the South.
Boomtown
A community that experiences exponential growth in population and wealth in a short period; accompanied the discovery of mineral wealth in the West, such as the discovery of gold in California in 1849, silver in Nevada in the 1860s and 1870s, and the Black Hills of South Dakota in the 1870s and 1880s.
Sodbusters
Took advantage of the Homestead Act of 1862 to acquire 160 acres on the Great Plains; Many of these farmers were immigrants, with little experience in farming. The work was difficult; plagues of locusts destroyed growing crops, and the soil proved to be difficult to work and wore out easily.
the Central Pacific Railroad
one of the two railroads (the other being the Union Pacific) forming the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s. The Central Pacific was pushing from west to east, beginning in Sacramento, California.
Which group primarily made up the Central Pacific Railroad’s workforce in the drive to complete the Transcontinental Railroad?
At its peak, the Central Pacific Railroad employed some 12,000 Chinese laborers, and they made up over 90% of the total Central Pacific labor force.
Who made up the workforce for the Union Pacific Railway while the Transcontinental Railroad was being built?
Drawing on the urban cities of the East, the Union Pacific employed newly arrived Irish immigrants in large numbers. In addition, former Union and Confederate soldiers served on the project.
Promontory Point, Utah
November 6, 1869: the tracks of the Central Pacific Railway were joined to those of the Union Pacific Railway, completing the first Transcontinental Railroad.
Land grant
A gift of real estate: After the Civil War, land grants by the federal government were used to finance the building of railways in the western United States. Congress granted land to more than 80 railroads, which the railroads then sold to settlers, applying the proceeds to finance construction
How did the state of California react to the high numbers of Chinese immigrants arriving as a result of the Burlingame Treaty of 1868?
In response to the influx, California included articles in its 1878 state constitution which: Disenfranchised the Chinese; Blocked their work on public projects; Disallowed their employment with any corporation licensed by the state. The federal courts struck down these measures as unconstitutional, but they signaled a growing hostility towards Chinese immigrants.
Horatio Alger
Hugely popular books generally featured a “rags to riches” hero who rises from poor surroundings to the middle class, via a bit of luck, clean living, and a large amount of hard work. In Alger’s Ragged Dick for instance, a young bootblack rises to become a respectable middle-class businessman.
National Labor Union
The first nationwide labor union, formed in 1866, and at one point had 600,000 members. Before it collapsed as a result of the Depression of 1873, the National Labor Union advocated for an eight-hour work day, rights for black and female workers, and an end to child labor. Members of the National Labor Union joined with the Grange supporters to found the Greenback Party.
The Fifteenth Amendment (1869)
Designed to protect the right to vote, and disallowed any state to abridge voting “on account of race, color, creed, or previous condition of servitude.” Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment in response to Grant’s narrow victory in the 1868 election, which had been due to the 500,000 votes Grant received from black voters.
Hiram Revels
the first black person elected to Congress and represented Mississippi in Congress in 1870 and 1871. A second black Congressman, Blanche K. Bruce, represented Mississippi from 1875-1880. Elected to fill Jefferson Davis, the former Confederate President’s former seat.
How did suffragettes react to the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment?
Many suffragettes espoused abolition and supported the granting of civil rights to blacks. They used the Amendment’s passage to argue that they deserved the same rights which the nation had extended to Black men.
Which country did Ulysses S. Grant propose annexing in 1870?
Santo Domingo, now known as the Dominican Republic. Both Grant and the government of Santo Domingo supported annexation, but Congress refused to authorize it.
Crop lien system
Under the crop lien system, farm workers estimated the value of their forthcoming crops, and borrowed against it. The failure of a crop would often result in foreclosure of the farm and dispossession of the farmer.
Ku Klux Klan
White supremecist terrorist organization founded by Confederate General Nathan Bedfor Forrest, sought to intimidate newly freed Blacks by torture, rape, lynchings, whippings, and destroying Black-owned businesses. During Reconstruction, they operated unabated until Congress passed laws ordering the army to hunt them down.
How did the federal government under President Grant respond to the KKK?
A series of four separate Force Acts were passed between 1871 and 1875. These were the government’s attempt to make sure that racist white southerners were abiding by the new constitutional provisions found in the 14th and 15th amendments, which were designed to protect the rights of Black people.
Explain one example of how the Force Act was used by the government.
October of 1871: President Grant proclaimed 9 counties in the southern state of South Carolina in open rebellion, using the military to suppress violence there, as well as allowing the indefinite detention of suspected rebels without trial. Suspending the writ of habeas corpus allowed President Grant the authority to do this. Actions like these around the south proved valuable as the government destroyed the KKK.
Carpetbaggers
Northerners who came South after the War to operate the Reconstruction governments.
Scalawags
Southerners who supported the Union and Reconstruction.
Union Leagues
Organizations in various Southern cities during Reconstruction, mostly headed by Northern blacks; providing education, trained political candidates, registered voters
Amnesty Act
Passed by Congress In 1872, re-instated civil rights to all but top-ranking Confederates, including the right to vote. Re-enfranchised voters throughout the South promptly elected pro-Confederate/anti-Reconstruciton Democrats to their state governments.
Bessemer Process
The process of pumping air through molten iron to remove impurities; converts iron into steel, a stronger building material than iron alone. The Process revolutionized the making of steel by significantly lowering the cost of its production.
Andrew Carnegie
The owner of the Carnegie Steel Company; Supplied half of all steel used worldwide; consolidated business through vertical integration; optimized prodution thhough the Bessemer process; developed and advanced the “Gospel of Wealth”
vertical integration
Form of business consolidation in which all the aspects of production for a manufactured good are owned by a single person or trust. For instance, Andrew Carnegie’s steel company owned the iron mines where steel originated, the distribution network where steel was sold, and everything in between.
Why did farmers and small businessmen support the continuation of Greenbacks as national currency during the later half of the 1800s?
Greenbacks were issued as currency during the Civil War. Since Greenbacks were not backed by specie they were worth less than their value in gold (i.e. $1 in Greenbacks bought less than $1 in gold). Farmers and small businessmen continued to advocate their use after the end of the War because it was cheaper to pay debt using Greenbacks rather than gold. Further, those who supported Greenbacks believed their use increased the price of farm products.
Many in the Republican Party opposed the continued use of Greenbacks during the 1860s and 1870s. Why?
Greenbacks were not backed by specie (gold or silver). Believing that specie-backed dollars would better hold their value, bankers, investors, and established businessmen argued against Greenbacks, contending that dollars backed by specie would better hold their value against inflation.
The Comstock Law
Passed in 1873, the law prevented the mailing of “obscene” materials via U.S. mail. Included in his list not only pornography but materials discussing abortion and birth control.
The Coinage act of 1873
Signed by President Grant, the Coinage Act ended bimetallism, placing the United States once more on the gold standard. Farmers and small businessmen considered the Act a crime because it would increase interest rates and restrict the money supply. Instead, they supported both Greenbacks and bimetallism.
Bimetallism
A monetary standard by which the value of the monetary unit is defined as both the value of an amount of silver and the value of an amount of gold.
How did farmers and Northern laborers propose to bring the United States out of the economic depression that followed the Panic of 1873?
increase the money supply by having the government print more Greenbacks and coin silver. President Grant disagreed and threatened to veto any legislation to that effect. By increasing the money supply, the farmers hoped that it would cause inflation. Inflation is good for people who owe a lot of debt, since it’s easier to pay off debt, since debt doesn’t grow with inflation.
The major effects of the Panic of 1873
New York Stock Exchange stopped trading for the 1st time in history; Unemployment hit 14%; 18,000 businesses failed; 25% of all railroads shut down
the Greenback Party
An alliance of reform-minded farmers and organized labor founded in 1873. Advocated for the printing of Greenbacks to ease the economic depression, labor reforms, and government regulation of the railroads. Although it failed to become a lasting political force, the Greenback Party did win a few state and Congressional elections. Several of the Party’s leaders, however, went on to be prominent voices in the Populist Party.