Unit #5 Flashcards
Impact of Freedom
Freed Blacks were often re-enslaved after the union troops left and some planters said emancipation wasn’t legal until local courts declared it. Some slaves stuck with their masters while other pillaged their lands. Eventually thousands took the road and found new work or look for lost loved ones. The black church was created and were looking for education.
Freedman’s Bureau
Created in order to train the unskilled and unlettered free blacks. It taught about 200,000 Blacks how to read. It expired after much criticism.
“40 acres and a mule”
Slogan that referred to how the federal government settled 10,000 freedman and families on abandoned plantation land with a single mule.
Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
Lincoln’s plan for reconstruction, he believed the south never legally withdrawn from the Union. The southern states would be reintegrated into the Union if and when they had only 10% of its voters pledge and take an oath and acknowledge the emancipation of slaves. It was called the Ten Percent Plan.
Wade Davis Bill
It required 50% of the states; voters to take oaths of allegiance and demanded stronger safeguards for emancipation than the 10% plan. Lincoln pocket vetoed the bill.
Johnson’s Plan
He was expected to be radical, but he took Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan and issued his own proclamation. It stated that leading confederates should be disfranchised, the confederate debt was repudiated, and states had to ratify the 13th amendment.
13th Amendment
Abolished slavery.
“Black Codes”
New southern regimes sanctioned by Johnson. They were aimed at keeping the Black population in submission. Blacks who jumped their labor contracts or walked out of their jobs caused the wages to be low. It forbade Blacks from serving on the jury. It made many abolitionists wonder if the price of the Civil War was worth it.
Sharecropping
A system of work for freedman in the cotton industry.
Civil Rights Act of 1866
Conferred on blacks the privilege of American citizenship and struck at the Black Codes. This was vetoed by Johnson, although they were Republican passed bills.
1866 Congressional Elections
Republicans gained seats in congress even though Johnson tried ‘Round the Circle’ speeches.
Johnson’s “Swing Around the Circle”
In 1866 Johnson wanted to lower the amount of Republicans in congress because they wouldn’t allow reconstruction to carry on without the 14th amendment. He gave speeches but people hated him and he hurled back insults. Republicans ended up getting more seats.
Joint Committee on Reconstruction
Six senators and nine representatives drafted the 14th Amendment and Reconstruction Acts. Purpose of the committee was to set the pace of Reconstruction.
Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens
The leader of the radicals in the Senate was Sumner and in the House the radical leader was Stevens.
14th Amendment
Blacks were American citizens, if a state denied citizenship to blacks then its representatives in the Electoral College were lowered, former Confederates would not hold office, and the federal debt was guaranteed while the confederate one was repudiated.
Moderate Republicans
Shared views like Lincoln, about reconstruction.
15th Amedment
1869: It gave blacks the right to vote.
ex parte Milligan
1866: The Supreme Court ruled that military tribunals could not try civilians even during wartime, if there were civil courts available,
Women’s Suffrage Movement
Women were disappointed since the amendments did not give women suffrage. While women helped Blacks gain their rights and the new amendments inserted the word males into the constitution for the first time ever.
Union League
Blacks’ main political vehicle; it was a network of political clubs that educated members in their civic duties and campaigned for Republican candidates. They built Black churches, schools and recruited militias to protect blacks.
Klu Klux Klan
Extremely racist whites who hated Blacks. This organization scared Blacks into not voing and not seeking jobs. They also often resorted to terror and violence.
Enforcement Acts
(KKK Acts) This gave the government power to supercede state courts and prosecute violation o the law and use military power to protect civil rights and habeas corpus when things are really bad.
Tenure of Office Act
1867; provided that the president had to secure the consent of the senate before removing his appointees, the reason for this act was to keep a republican spy in office
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
Johnson dismissed Edwin M. Stanton without approval of the senate which broke the Tenure of Office Act and Johnson argue the act was unconstitutional. 7 Republican officers voted not guilty and Johnson was acquitted. While some believed it was a bad decision, many feared establishing a precedent of removing the president was bad.
Radical Reconstruction
Radicals wanted to keep the South our of the Union as long as possible and totally change its economy.
Scalawags
Southerners who were accused of plundering Southern treasuries and selling out the Southerners
Carpetbaggers
Northerners accused of parasitically milking power and profit in a now-desolate South
Radical Governments
Southerners regarded Reconstruction as worse than the war. The Republicans failed to improve the South. The south was more resurrected than reconstructed and if Thaddeus Stevens economic reforms had been enacted things would be different.
Election of 1868
The Republican candidate nominated General Ulysses S, Grant versus the Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour. Grant had no political experience and won only slightly ahead (popular vote) of his rival. Seymour didn’t accept a redemption of greenbacks for max value platform and doomed his party.
“Waving the Bloody Shirt”
During the Election of 1868, Grant got elected by reliving his war victories.
Fisk and Gould
Two millionaires that concocted a plot to corner the fold market that would only work if the treasury stopped selling gold. They worked on President Grant but their plan failed when the treasury failed.
Tweed Ring
Tammany Hall of NYC employed bribery, graft, and fake election to cheat the city of as much as 200 million dollars. He was caught when the NY Times secured evidence of his misdeeds. Samuel Tilden gained fame as the prosecution and Thomas Nast a political cartoonist drew against Tammany’s corruption.
Credit Mobiler Scandal
A railroad construction company that paid itself huge sums of money for small railroad construction. A NY newspaper busted it and two members of congress were censured because they had stock. The VP accepted stock too.
Whiskey Ring Scandal
1875: they robbed the treasury of millions of dollars and when Grant’s own private secretary was shown to be one of the criminals, the secretary was shown to have pocketed thousands by selling junk to indians
Liberal Republicans
1872: reformers that were disgusted at Grant’s administration organized the Liberal Republican Party and nominated Horace Greeley
Election of 1872
The Republican candidate Ulysses S. Grant was nominated against the Democratic and Liberal Republican candidate Horace Greeley. Greeley called for an end to reconstruction. The campaign was filled with mudslinging but Grant crushed Greeley in the electoral vote and in the popular vote too.
Panic of 1873
Too many railroads and factories were being formed than the existing markets would bear and the over-loaning by banks to those projects. The causes were over-speculation and too-easy credits.
General Amnety Act
1872: removed political disabilities from all but some 500 former confederate leader because the liberal Republicans frightened them into cleaning out their house
Specie Resumption Act
1875: pledged the government to further withdraw greenbacks and made all further redemption of paper money in gold face value, liked by supporters of hard-money
Greenback Labor Party
Republican hard-money policy led to the election of a Democratic House of Representatives in 1974 and spawned this party
G.A.R.
Grand Army of the Republic: organization made up of former union veterans supported the Republican party strongly
Election of 1876
Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes ran against Democratic candidate Samuel Tilden. The election was very close and there were a few disputed states.
Compromise of 1877
For the North, Hayes would become president if he agreed to remove troops from remaining two Souther states where Union troops remained. Also, the bill would subsidize the Texas and Pacific railroads. For the South, military rule and reconstruction ended. It abandoned blacks in the south.
Civil Rights Cases (1883)
Declared most of the black rights from the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Redemption
The democrats began redemption of political power in the South. Military turned northward and whites once against asserted their power.
Crop Lien System
Storekeepers extended credit to small farmers for food/supplies and in return took a lien on their harvests (farmers usually remained perpetually in debt)
Poll Taxes
Special fees that people had to pay to vote which was used to keep African Americans from voting
Literacy Tests
Requirements for voting used to keep African Americans from voting
Grandfather Caluses
Allowed whites who voted in 1860 to vote despite all the laws that stopped the blacks from voting
Disenfranchidement
Literacy tests, poll taxes and grandfather clauses disenfranchised the blacks while allowed whites to keep their vote.
Jim Crow Laws
Laws written to separate blacks and whites in public areas/meant African Americans had unequal opportunities in housing, work, education, and government
Plessy v. Ferguson
1896: rules that “separate but equal” facilities were unconstitutional
Convict Lease System
Southern states leased gangs of criminals to private interests to supply cheap labor, it paid nothing and money went to states, jobs taken from labor force
Chinese Exclusion Act
1879: a bill to severely restrict the influx of Chinese immigrants but Hayes vetoed the bill because it violated the existing treaty with China
1882: barred any Chinese person from entering the US, first law limiting immigration
US v. Wong Kim
1898: supreme court case in which citizenship was attempted to be taken away, the 14th amendment protected them from this and other immigrants as well
Patronage
a system in which benefits, including jobs, money, or protection are granted in exchange for political support
Stalwarts
Republican infighting; those who exchanged jobs for votes
Half-Breeds
Republican infighting; those who promised civil service reform for votes
Election of 1880
The Republicans nominated James Garfield who had been a general in the Civil War and a notorious Stalwart. The Democrats nominated Winfield S. Hancock who was a Cicil War general that appealed through the South due to his fair treatment. Garfield was elected but he was shot in the head and Chester Arthur came to power.
Charles Guiteau
A disappointed office seeker that short President Garfield in the head. He was hanged.
Pendleton Civil Service Act
1883: Prohibited financial assessments on jobholders and established a merit system of making appointments to office on the basis of aptitude rather than patronage, it divided politics from patronage
Election of 1884
The Republican candidate James Blaine and the Democrats chose Grover Cleveland. It was filled with a lot of mudslinging but one Republican insulted NY so NY voted from Cleveland and caused him to win.
Mugwumps
Those who switched to the Democratic party because James Blaine was nominated.
Election of 1888
Democrats nominated Grover Cleveland while the Republicans nominated William Henry Harrison. Cleveland wanted to use the treasury surplus to lower the tariff. Harrison used money to buy out swing states and won.
Billion Dollar Congress
1889-1891: The 51st congress that appropriated huge sums of money for legislative projects
McKinley Tariff
increased duties on manufactured goods: the taxes were loved by big business/ debt-burdened farmers had no choice but to buy manufactured goods from high-priced american industrialists and were compelled to sell their own products to competitive unprotected world products
Populists
The Populist Party emerged in 1892 from disgruntled farmers. Their main call was for the inflation via free coinage of silver. They called for graduated income tax, government regulation, one term limit, initiative and referendum, shorter workday and immigration restriction.
Election of 1892
Grover Cleveland won with the Democratic nomination. The republicans nominated James Blaine.
Tom Watson
populist leader that became racist later on
Depression of 1893
Due to the overbuilding splurges, speculation, labor disorders, agricultural depression and silver agitation the panic in the new age caused outrage. 8,000 American business houses collapsed in the 6 months and railroads went into hands of receivers.
Sherman Silver Purchase Act
Cleveland had a deficit and a problem for the Treasury had to issue gold for the notes that is paid in this act. According to the law, these notes had to be reissued thus causing a steady drain on gold in the treasury - the level alarmingly dropped bellow 100 million at one point.
Wilson-Gorman Tariff
1894: Cleveland promised to lower the tariff, but so many tack ons had been added the result was nill. Also, the Supreme Court struck down on the income tax It looked like politicians were tools of the wealthy.
Bonanza Farms
Large farms, large-scale operations, growing/harvesting wheat
Deflation and Debtors
1800s: When world markets for food rebounded, paying back debts was especially difficult. Contraction resulted in less money in circulation. Farmers operated year after year and lived off their fat as they could.
Tenant Farmers
1800s: Thousands of of homesteads fell to mortgages and foreclosures and farm tenancy rather than farm ownerships were increasing.
Farmers’ Problems
In the late 1880s to the 1990s droughts, grasshopper plagues and heat waves hurt farmers. Governments added to this by gouging the farmers, ripping them off by making them pay painful taxes. The railroads fixed freight prices, the middleman took cuts in profit as well as others harassed farmers.
The Grange
National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry: created by Oliver Kelley to improve the lives of isolated farmers through social, educational and fraternal activities
Granger Laws
Regulations that regulated the railroad prices and grain elevator companies.
