1865- 1890 The weaknesses of Federal Government: Johnson, Grant and the failue of Radical Reconstruction

Question 1

The role of federal government and the presidency was limited by the belief by many, especially Democrats, that the normal work of government should be carried out at state rather than the central level. What issues came about?

Answer 1

Issues such as education and public health were seen as the responsibility of state governments.

Question 2

When was Andrew Johnson president?

Answer 2

1865 following the assassination of Lincoln

Question 3

What did Johnson want to do before December 1865?

Answer 3

Johnson wanted to restore the southern states as quickly as possible, realising that Congress was due to reconvene in December 1865 and he would soon face strong opposition from Radical Republicans. He favoured leniency and had no wish to promote the position of ex-slaves. His plans of restoration did not give protection to former slaves.

Question 4

What problems did Johnson face?

Answer 4

Some Southern seceded states did not want to return to the union as they were disillusioned with the US and freedom and democracy

There were Southern and some northern states where freed slaves were still not accepted and now had no housing or employment. There was also the emergence of the ‘Black Codes’

Racism and racial discrimination, intimidation and violence against freed slaves were common

Question 5

What were the Black codes?

Answer 5

The new state legislatures in the South passed a series of laws known as the Black Codes.
These included:

African Americans deemed to be unemployed could be forced into working for white employers.

The children of African Americans could be forced into working on plantations as apprentices.

African Americans could be prevented from receiving an education.

Question 6

What was the civil rights bill and how did it emerge?

Answer 6

Moderate Republicans joined forces with radicals to introduce a Civil Rights Bill which gave minimum rights to blacks. Johnson vetoed the bill. However, for the first time in history, Congress overturned the presidential veto, which required a two-thirds majority in both Houses and ensured the passage of the 1866 Civil Rights Bill.

Question 7

What was The Fourteenth Amendment and why was it introduced?

Answer 7

Fourteenth Amendment stated that people who were born in the USA or who were naturalised were US citizens, and all citizens were guaranteed equality before the law.

It also gave the federal authorities the right to intervene if states contravened its rules.

Question 7

Why was the Fourteenth Amendment rejected?

Answer 7

The Amendment was rejected by all the ex-Confederate states except Tennessee and failed to get the approval of 75 per cent of the states necessary for it to become law.

Question 8

What did radical reconstruction include?

Answer 8

The Military Reconstruction Bill, 1867, which imposed military on the South with the exception of Tennessee. The ten remaining states were grouped into five military districts, each placed under a federal commander.

To get back in the Union, Southern states had to elect national conventions which would accept black suffrage and accept the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Command of the Army Act which reduced Johnson’s military powers.

The Tenure of Office Act prevented Johnson from removing a host of office-holders. This was to try to protect the Secretary of State, who was a fierce critic of Johnson, and a staunch Radical Republican, who as long as he remained in office would comply with congressional Reconstruction policies.

Question 9

Why was Johnson impeached?

Answer 9

The Republicans decided to impeach Johnson, with the impeachment proceedings taking place in the Senate in 1868. Congress issued eleven articles of impeachment against Johnson which included the removal of Johnson and replacing him with Thomas without the permission of the Senate, as well as making three speeches with intent to show disrespect for Congress among the citizens of the United States. After a two-month trial, 35 Senators voted against Johnson and 19 for him. This was one short of the two-thirds majority needed to impeach him. He remained president, but both his credibility and effectiveness were destroyed.

Question 10

Define impeachment

Answer 10

This is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity.

Question 11

When was Ulysses S. Grant elected as president?

Answer 11

1868 and served two terms. He died in 1885 after battling throat cancer.

Question 12

When and what was the Fifteenth Amendment?

Answer 12

In 1869, the Fifteenth Amendment was introduced which stated that The right to vote should not be denied on account of race, colour or previous conditions of servitude. This Amendment ensured that citizens of any colour or race could vote, wherever they lived.

Question 13

Unfortunately, both of Grant’s terms in office were dominated by a number of serious political scandals which involved some of his close associates. What were these scandals?

Answer 13

During his first term, a group of speculators attempted to influence the government and manipulate the gold market. The failed plot resulted in a financial panic on 24 September 1869, known as Black Friday. Even though Grant was not directly involved in the scheme, his reputation suffered because he had become personally associated with two of the speculators prior to the scandal.

The Whiskey Ring scandal of 1875 involved a network of distillers, distributors and public officials who conspired to defraud the federal government of millions in liquor tax revenue. Grant’s private secretary, Orville Babcock, was indicted in the scandal but, with the help of the President, was later acquitted.

Question 14

What caused an end to Reconstruction?

Answer 14

The presidential election of 1876 and the subsequent compromise of 1877 is often regarded as the end of the period of Reconstruction.

In 1876, the Republican candidate was Rutherford Hayes, while the Democrats chose Samuel Tilden.
Tilden won the popular vote. However, Hayes won the crucial electoral college vote by 184 to 165. The voting returns for Oregon, South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida were contested and these four states had 20 electoral college votes. If these went to Hayes, he would have won the election.

This resulted in a long process to try to resolve the problem s and the compromise.

This ended the crisis. It was a secret deal between the largely Northern-based Republicans and the emerging Democratic Party of the South. The Democrats would accept Hayes as president. He, in return, agreed to withdraw all troops from the South and the departure of the ‘carpetbaggers.
Hayes did withdraw troops from the South and this brought an end to Republican attempts to modernise the politics, government and racial attitudes of the South.

Question 15

What were the political effects of the reconstruction?

Answer 15

For decades the Democratic Party, which ensured white supremacy, controlled the South. Carpetbagger influence has been exaggerated. In no state did Northerners constitute even two per cent of the population and they were not trying to economically exploit the South. Some were corrupt and accepted bribes but this was commonplace throughout the USA, not just the South, especially from the railroad companies.

Tennessee was under Democrat control as early as 1869; Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi by 1876. By 1876 only Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina were still under Republican control although this was changed by the compromise of 1877.

Nevertheless, Reconstruction did have some effects on white Southerners. They did, temporarily, lose control of their Southern states.
Moreover, after 1865 there was a major fall in the political influence of the South in the USA as a whole. Between 1788 and 1860 Southerners had held the presidency for 50 years and dominated the Supreme Court. In the 50 years from 1864 to 1914 there was just one elected Southern president and only seven of the 31 Supreme Court judges were from the South. Many state governments in the South felt even more distant culturally and politically from the government in Washington DC.

Question 16

How was politics viewed in the last third of the nineteenth century?

Answer 16

The last third of the nineteenth century is one of the most criticised periods in American political history. Throughout most of the twentieth century, historians portrayed this as a period of excessive corruption in political life with politicians only interested in furthering selfish, often economic, interests rather than the public good. Issues and principles counted for little in politics and there were few differences between Democrats and Republicans. It was described as an age of ‘negation’, ‘cynicism’ and ‘excess.

Question 17

What was the Thirteenth Amendment?

Answer 17

Formally freed all slaves in the US. Congress approved the amendment in January 1865. By the end of 1865 enough states had approved the Amendment for it to become law.

Question 18

What was the Freedmen’s Bureau?

Answer 18

In March 1865, Lincoln and Congress also introduced the Freedmen’s Bureau, a US agency set up for just one year to help former slaves in a variety of ways. Advice on education and employment for former slaves.

Question 19

What was reconstruction like under Grant?

Answer 19

Grant’s approach to Reconstruction was focused on protecting the rights of newly freed African Americans and ensuring their political and civil liberties. He supported the enforcement of the 14th and 15th Amendments, which granted equal protection under the law and voting rights to African American men.

Grant also worked to combat the rise of white supremacist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, which sought to undermine the progress made during Reconstruction. He used federal troops to enforce civil rights laws and protect African Americans from violence and intimidation.

Economically, Grant’s administration pursued policies to promote industrialization and economic growth in the South. This included investments in infrastructure projects like railroads and improvements to the Mississippi River. Grant also pushed for civil service reform and fought against corruption in government.

However, Grant faced significant challenges during his presidency. The Reconstruction policies implemented during his time were met with resistance from white Southerners who sought to maintain white supremacy and regain political power. Additionally, economic downturns and corruption scandals, such as the Crédit Mobilier scandal, tarnished Grant’s presidency.

Question 20

What were the economic effects of reconstruction?

Answer 20

Reconstruction had a positive effect on the economy of the USA.

Moreover, from 1867 to 1873 the South benefited from general US prosperity and from high cotton prices. Railroads were rebuilt and textile manufacturing expanded.

However, this expansion did not keep pace with the North, and the South remained an economically depressed region with considerable poverty. By 1870 the average white Southerner’s income had fallen to two-fifths that of a Northerner’s income. The South remained a predominantly agricultural area heavily dependent on the cotton plantations. A glut of cotton in the early 1870s led to a sharp fall in prices and even harder times for the workers on the plantations.

Question 21

How did the political position of African Americans change due to reconstruction?

Answer 21

Initially African Americans wielded some political power in the South. In South Carolina and Mississippi they were a majority of the electorate. As a result, two black Senators and 20 black Representatives were elected to Congress and large numbers of African Americans were elected to state legislatures.
Nevertheless, African Americans wielded little influence in Southern states during and after Reconstruction.

Question 21

How was African American employment affected by reconstruction?

Answer 21

A major criticism of Reconstruction is that little or no land was given to the ex-slaves. Indeed, in the summer of 1865, Johnson had ordered that all land that had been confiscated by the Union must be returned to those Southerners who had been ‘pardoned’. However, major land redistribution was never a realistic option as property in the USA was sacrosanct.

African Americans did have more control over their lives than under slavery.

During the 1870s most became sharecroppers - white landowners provided the land, seeds and tools and black tenants provided the labour. It did give African-American farmers the freedom from day-to-day supervision. However, the fall in cotton prices of the early 1870s resulted in economic hardship for many sharecroppers.

Question 22

How was the social position of African Americans affected by reconstruction?

Answer 22

Reconstruction also failed to guarantee African Americans civil rights. African Americans were treated as second-class citizens by most white Americans in the South. In the late nineteenth century, every state introduced segregation including the ‘Jim Crow’ laws.

Black and white Americans had separate schools, drinking fountains and public toilets, were allocated different areas of restaurants and public transport vehicles. In theory this meant ‘separate but equal’. In reality the laws discriminated against African Americans whose facilities, schools, etc., were invariably inferior to those of their white counterparts.

However, there was some progress. The fact that there were black institutions, similar to those of the white Americans, meant that there were opportunities for African Americans to lead and manage. A small but increasing number of African American men became doctors, lawyers and teachers. Separate schools were inferior but they were better than no schools at all.

Moreover, a number of African Americans favoured segregation. They had no wish to mix socially with whites.