Chapter 18 Flashcards
Reconstruction
Abraham Lincoln and his successor, the southerner Andrew Johnson, wanted a lenient and quick plan for Reconstruction. Lincoln’s assassination made many northerners favor the Radical Republicans, who wanted to end the grasp of the old planter class on the South’s society and economy. Congressional Reconstruction included the stipulation that to reenter the Union, former Confederate states had to ratify the 14th and 15th Amendments. Congress also passed the Military Reconstruction Act, which attempted to protect the voting rights and civil rights of African Americans.
Southern Violence
Many white southerners blamed their poverty on freed slaves and Yankees. White mobs attacked blacks in 1866 in Memphis and New Orleans. That year the Ku Klux Klan was formed as a social club; its members soon began to intimidate freedmen and white Republicans. Despite government action, violence continued and even escalated in South.
Freed Slaves
Newly freed slaves suffered economically. Most did not have the resources to succeed in the aftermath of the war’s devastation. There was no redistribution of land; former slaves were given their freedom but nothing else. The Freedmen’s Bureau attempted to educate and aid freed slaves and reunite families. Many former slaves found comfort in their families and the independent churches they established. Some took part is state and local government under the last, radical phase of Reconstruction.
Grant Administration
During Ulysses Grant’s administration fiscal issues dominated politics. Paper money (greenbacks) was regarded as inflationary; and agrarian and debtor groups opposed its withdrawal from circulation. Many members of Grant’s administration were corrupt; scandals involved an attempt to corner the gold market, construction of the intercontinental railroad, and the whiskey ring’s plan to steal millions of dollars in tax revenue.
End of Reconstruction
Most southern states had completed the requirements of Reconstruction by 1876. The presidential election returns of that year were so close that a special commission was established to count contested electoral votes. A decision hammered out at a secret meeting gave the presidency to the Republican, Rutherford B. Hayes; in return, the Democrats were promised that the last federal troops would be withdrawn from Louisiana and South Carolina, putting an end to the Radical Republican administrations in the southern states.
1862
- Congress passes the Morrill Land Grant Act
- Congress guarantees the construction of a transcontinental railroad
- Congress passes the Homestead Act
1864
Lincoln refuses to sign the Wade-Davis Bill
1865
Congress sets up the Freedman’s Bureau
April 14, 1865
Lincoln is assassinated
1866
- Ku Klux Klan is organized
2. Congress passes the Civil Rights Act
1867
- Congress passes the Military Reconstruction Act
2. Congress passes the Tenure of Office Act
1868
- 14th Amendment is ratified
2. Congress impeaches President Andrew Johnson; the Senate fails to convict him
1877
Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction
Freedman’s Bureau
Set up in 1865. Was set up to provide provisions, clothing and fuel to relieve destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen and their wives and children. First federal experiment in social welfare.
John Wilkes Booth
Crazed actor and Confederate zealot who assassinated Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre
Andrew Johnson
Became president after Lincoln’s death. He was illiterate, bigoted, and short-tempered. Fiercely loyal to the Union. Believed in limited government. Preferred the term restoration to reconstruction. Plan for restoring the Union was similar to Lincoln’s. Made a plan for readmitting the former Confederate states. `
Black Codes
Passed by the new southern state legislatures. Repressive, restricted the freedom of African Americans. Varied from state to state. Attempted to keep them as close to slaves as possible.
Thaddeus Stevens
Radical Republican of Pennsylvania. Part of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction that was set up to gather evidence of southern efforts to thwart Reconstruction.
14th Amendment
Ratified on July 28, 1868. Went beyond the Civil Rights Act. Reaffirmed the state and federal citizen ship of persons born or naturalized in the US, forbid any state to abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens, to deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, or to deny any person the equal protection of the laws.
15th Amendment
Ratified in 1870. Forbids the states to deny any person the vote on grounds of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
carpetbaggers
Called this by their opposition. They were white Republicans who held the top positions in postwar southern state governments. They were actually often Union veterans who had arrived as early as 1865 or 1866 hoping for economic opportunity. Also many were teachers, social workers, or preachers.
scalawags
Native white Republicans. Hated and misrepresented even more than carpetbaggers. Most had opposed secession. Many were former Whigs attracted by the Republican party’s economic program of industrial and commercial expansion.
greenbacks
Most war bonds had been bought with depreciated greenbacks and so the Democrats supported the “Ohio Idea” that they should be paid off in greenbacks rather than gold. After the war the Treasury assumed that the $432 million worth of greenbacks issued during the war would be retired from circulation and the nation would revert to “hard-money” (gold). So there was a lot of controversy about this (hard-money v. soft-money)
Credit Mobilier scandel
- This was a sham construction company composed of directors of the Union Pacific Railroad who had milked the Union Pacific for exorbitant fees in order to line the pockets of the insiders who controlled both firms. Bought political support by giving congressmen stock in the enterprise.
