The South was completely destroyed: its economy was ruined, its land lay untended, and many of its political and cultural elite had died during the War. Loans for development were nonexistent.
Once the Civil War ended, the nation faced the arduous task of reunification. Several questions had to be answered:
Lincoln favored a conciliatory policy that treated the Southerners leniently in order to “bind up the nation’s wounds.” Lincoln’s plan called for:
Lincoln’s plan was considered too mild for many in the North. In 1864, the Congress proposed that the percentage of voters taking the loyalty oath be increased to half. In 1865, Congress proposed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The 13th Amendment read:
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Congress created the Freedman’s Bureau in March 1865 to assist freed slaves with jobs, education, and hospitals. The Bureau also created courts to preside over disputes between freed slaves and their former owners.
Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on 14 April 1865, only 5 days after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, would cause major trouble for both North and South during his presidency.
Johnson was a Tennessean who was placed on the Republican ticket in an effort to attract Southern support for Republicans. Johnson was also a lifelong Democrat who had served in Congress before the War. He was the only Southern Senator not to resign when his state left the Union. However, Republicans distrusted him because he was Southern; Southerners distrusted him because he didn’t support secession.
Johnson was a Jacksonian who favored small government with little intervention in public affairs. Johnson’s plan differed from Lincoln’s but attempted the same goal: reunification.
Johnson proposed:
In the time between Congressional sessions, Johnson put his plan into action. By 1866, Johnson had pardoned over 7,000 Confederates who applied for amnesty.
The South reacted enthusiastically to Johnson’s proposals. State conventions refused to ratify the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery, and many states enacted “black codes” that continued pre-war policies against blacks. Even though the slaves were freed, they fared worse under Johnson’s plan than they had before the War.
Congress resumed in December 1865 and attacked Johnson’s policies with a vengeance. Many Southern representatives had served in Congress before the War and had won re-election to their seats. Congress refused to seat any Southerner elected from the former Confederate States. In the eyes of Congress, Johnson’s policies had been a failure.
The Radical Republicans, under Congressman Thaddeus Stevens from Pennsylvania, urged for a drastic land redistribution that would guarantee every former slave a farm. Charles Sumner, a Massachusetts Senator, pushed for universal suffrage for all blacks. Moderates tried to maintain the Freedman’s Bureau. Johnson’s veto of legislation continuing the Freedman’s Bureau forced all Republicans to unite to override the veto. The Freedman’s Bureau legislation was the first Congressional override of a presidential veto on a major piece of legislation in U.S. history.
The 14th Amendment, proposed in June 1866, gave citizenship to all blacks in the U.S. The amendment also prohibited any person who had held high elective office before the War and who had then joined the Confederacy. Johnson urged Southern states to reject the Amendment; only Tennessee refused to do so. Tennessee was re-admitted to the Union after it passed the Amendment:
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.
What’s missing? Notice the word “male.”
Also in 1866, powerful whites in Tennessee formed the Ku Klux Klan to enforce white political and economic supremacy in the South. The Klan spread rapidly throughout the South, terrorizing freed blacks and their white allies, especially Republicans.
On 2 March 1867, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act, placing all the former Confederate States under military rule. Only Tennessee (which had ratified the 14th Amendment) was exempt. The states were to elect constitutional conventions only after military order had been restored. No state would be re-admitted to the Union until it had ratified the 14th Amendment and provided for universal manhood suffrage.
Under the Reconstruction Act, most of the Democratic leaders in the South were rendered ineligible to serve in government or run for office. To fill the political vacuum, many blacks (including Northern blacks moving south) ran for office and sought political appointments. These blacks were joined by white Northerners moving to the South in search of land and political power. White Southerners called white Northerners “carpetbaggers.” Any white Southerner who collaborated with carpetbaggers was called a “scalawag.” From the Maven’s Word of the Day Web site:
In Thomas McCorvey's 1868 Alabama Historical Sketches, I found this: “The scallawag is the foul leper of the community. Unlike the carpet-bagger he is native, which is so much the worse.”
The term “scalawag” was expanded to refer to any white who cooperated with or joined the Republican Party. In spite of the derision with which it was viewed in the South, the Republican Party became strong in rural mountainous areas of Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Georgia. Whites in these areas had little in common with the white Southern planters and slave-owners of the Black Belt and coastal regions of the South.
In the 1867 convention elections, Democrats boycotted the elections, leaving Republicans to sweep most of the delegations. The conventions elected few blacks even though many blacks voted in the elections. Blacks formed a majority in South Carolina and Louisiana conventions.
Unfortunately for Southern Republicans and blacks, the Democrats did surprisingly well in Northern elections in 1867. Constituents wanted Congress to focus more on local issues and stop spending so much time insuring black political and economic recovery from slavery.
Johnson was furious at Congressional action, especially the Reconstruction Act. Johnson tried to undermine Congress’ agenda. In retaliation, Congress decreed it could call itself into special session, did so, and passed the Tenure of Office Act to prevent Johnson from firing any of his officials that had been confirmed by the Senate. Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in 1867 in direct defiance of the Tenure of Office Act. Congress then impeached Johnson, making him the first President to face impeachment.
Johnson faced 11 charges of impeachment, but the two most serious charges were the first (violation of the Tenure of Office Act) and the 11th (conspiring against Congress and the Constitution; Johnson had said that Congress did not properly represent all the states). Johnson was tried in March 1868, but the Senate fell one vote short of obtaining the two-thirds necessary to convict him and oust him from the presidency. For his part, Johnson continued to urge the Southern states to defy Congress and oppose Reconstruction.
Johnson accomplished one positive act for the nation. In March 1867, Secretary of State William Seward negotiated with the Russians to buy Alaska for $7.2 million. The Senate approved the treaty on April 1867 and appropriated the money for the purchase in July. Although the purchase was derided by opponents as “Seward’s folly,” buying Alaska would greatly benefit the U.S. in years to come.
Grant
Johnson did not stand for re-election in the 1868 elections. The Republicans nominated War hero Ulysses S. Grant, the general to whom Lee had surrendered. Grant’s theme was, “let us have peace.” The Republicans’ idea of peace did not include expansion of Reconstruction in the South, nor did it include further expansion of civil rights for black Americans.
The Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour, a former governor of New York. The Democratic Party ran on the platform of white supremacy. Grant won with 53% of the popular vote and an electoral college margin of 214 to 80.
After the election, Congress passed the 15th Amendment:
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Is something missing from this amendment? There is no mention of the women’s right to vote. Also note that there are no provisions insuring blacks’ right to hold office, nor did it eliminate property qualifications or literacy tests for voting. The Amendment was ratified in 1870.
Grant took office in March 1870. Politically, Grant was a novice; he proposed no new programs and saw himself only as an administrator of the government. The Republicans in Congress took advantage of Grant’s views to shift power to the legislative branch that Lincoln had gained during the War.
Grant tried to avoid major conflicts within the Party. Some of these conflicts involved the extent of supporting Reconstruction in the South. Others wanted to continue the process of handing out political office by patronage rather than by merit (Grant favored merit).
The Republicans saw a trend in the South: as Southern Democrats were pardoned by Congress at Grant’s request, they began winning elections against the Republicans. Party leaders felt that this trend was caused by Republican support for Reconstruction.
Grant tried to treat the Indians with respect in his “peace policy.” Grant did not favor extermination, as previous administrations had done. Grant appointed Ely Parker, a Seneca Indian, as commissioner of Indian Affairs. Congress gave Parker $2 million for Indian affairs.
In 1869, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroad companies finished the first transcontinental railroad at Promontory, Utah. This railroad track spurred western development during the remainder of the century, but it also led to more conflicts with the Plains Indians.
Grant’s greatest challenge came in political scandals that rocked the nation during his presidency. Although Grant was honest to a fault, many of his political appointees did not match his standards. In the summer of 1869, financial speculators Jay Gould and Jim Fisk began buying all the gold in New York City in an attempt to corner the market and inflate the price of gold. Grant’s brother-in-law, Abel Corbin, told Gould and Fisk he could guarantee the president would not sell government gold. Unfortunatley for Gould and Fisk, Grant ordered Secretary of the Treasury George Boutwell to dump government gold on the market to bring the gold price back within reasonable standards. Corbin’s involvement stained Grant’s presidency.
The scandals were the result of the “spoils system,” by which politicians appointed people to office based on their loyalty rather than their merit. In spite of Grant’s urging, Congress refused to financially support a civil service organization to insure merit appointments in government.
In foreign relations, Grant’s government negotiated with Britain to settle claims over British-built Confederate raiders (such as the C.S.S. Alabama). Charles Sumner, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, actually wanted to acquire Canada from Britain as payment for the damage caused to Union shipping. Grant’s administration wisely negotiated a settlement that left Canada in the British Empire.
Grant also had to work with Congressional Republicans regarding tariffs and currency. Many Republicans believed the nation needed tariffs to protect American businesses and workers from foreign competition; others disagreed, saying that tariffs were actually protectionism bought by the industries affected by foreign competition. Many eastern Republicans favored currency based on the gold standard, which limited the amount of money in the financial system; Western Republicans favored relaxing the currency standard and increasing the supply of money in the system.
These disagreements split the Republican Party in the 1870’s. “Liberal Republicans” favored tariff reductions, civil service reform, and lighter treatment of the South even at the expense of black Republican voters. These “liberal Republicans” often joined with Democrats in elections in the 1870’s.
Grant faced the 1872 election with all these problems. In the 1870 election, Democrats added 41 seats in the House and 6 in the Senate.
Then, white violence flared in the South, primarily caused by the Ku Klux Klan. Blacks were killed and beaten across the South. Congress responded with the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which was intended to enforce the 14th Amendment in the South. The Justice Department, which was established in 1870, federalized the response and began prosecuting Klan members across the South.
Just in time for the 1872 elections, the Boss Tweed scandal broke in New York City. William Tweed, “Boss Tweed,” had run a political machine for the Democratic Party for years in the city from Tammany Hall. Tweed’s men in city government extorted kickbacks from businesses wanting to work in the city and sent the money to Tweed and the Democrats. Tweed passed out city jobs to loyal supporters.
Then, in 1871, one of Tweed’s former supporters gave a copy of the city’s account books to a reporter. Newspaper readers were enraged to learn that a courthouse that should have cost $250,000 cost $13 million instead. Tweed was indicted and found guilty on 204 counts. Tweed fled the country, but he was returned to face prison. Tweed died in 1878, a prime example of political corruption in the 1870’s.’
Grant was nominated by a Party determined to preserve Reconstruction in order to preserve the victory won. The Democratic nominee, Horace Greely, ran on a platform of ending Reconstruction. Grant won across the nation, including in all but 5 Southern states.
Washington had little time to rest from the election. The Credit Mobilier Company, established by Union Pacific Railroad directors to finance the transcontinental railroad, had used federal money to sell bonds in the project. Credit Mobilier offered Congressional Republicans the ability to buy shares in the company below market value and then sell them for a huge profit. Although the investigation ran through 1872, no one was convicted.
Then, in February 1873, Congress voted itself a huge retroactive pay raise. When the public rose in anger, Congress hastily backed down and repealed the pay raise.
All these scandals led to the 1870’s being called the “Gilded Age.” It seemed no one was without a price except for Grant himself.
In 1873, a major eastern bank failed and closed without paying its debts or its depositors. The bank failed because it had bought huge bonds of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company and could not sell the bonds later. when the railroad company defaulted on its bonds. The collapse led businesses to cut back on spending and employment. The resulting Panic of 1873 was the worst depression to hit the nation since its founding.
The Panic was exemplified by falling prices for agricultural and manufactured products. Cheap labor heavily benefitted major capitalists, but the poor suffered when they could no longer demand a living wage. In 1878, more than 10,000 companies failed.
The Panic brought to light a major conflict in American political thought: What is the government’s role in free enterprise? Grant proposed a national works program to create jobs; the Secretary of the Treasury disagreed, stating “It is not part of the business of government to find employment for people.” The unemployed began marching for public works programs, often clashing with police in the process. Farmers joined the protests when the price of grain fell below the cost to produce it. Railroads and grain merchants joined forces and refused to pay farmers a suitable price for their products. The Patrons of Husbandry, also known as the Grange, led the farm protests.
Farmers began demanding governmental oversight of railroads to prevent railroads from offering unfair rates for their products. Illinois had created the first Illinois Railroad Commission in 1870, but the federal government refused to regulate railroads until 1887.
In 1874, the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company, founded in 1865 to provide former slaves a place to deposit their savings, failed as a result of the Panic; the manager had invested in railroads. Most depositors lost all their money.
The government finally responded with a currency bill in 1875 to provide $64 million in extra money in the financial system, but Grant vetoed the bill on the advice of conservatives. Congress sustained the veto.
The Democratic Party gained in the wake of corruption and the Panic. In 1874, the Democrats regained control of Congress for the first time since before the War. Democrats also began winning most of the races in the South as violence flared against blacks and Republicans. Once the Democrats regained the House, they began ending Reconstruction.
Congress began investigating the Whiskey Ring in 1874. Treasury officials had taken kickbacks to not collect federal taxes on whiskey.
Grant did not run in 1876. Instead, the Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes against Samuel J. Tilden, governor of New York. Tilden believed in the gold standard, smaller government, and less government spending. Initial election results showed that Tilden won the race with 184 electoral votes. However, Hayes had 165 electoral votes while Louisiana, Florida, South Carolina, and Oregon were in doubt. Republicans contested the outcomes in the 3 Southern states, claiming that voter intimidation had cost them the election. The Republicans relied on federal troops in the Southern states to insure the count went their way.
The election was thrown to the House when the confusion resulted in no one gaining an electoral majority. Democrats controlled the House, but the Republican-dominated Senate had to tabulate the electoral vote. Congress created an electoral commission to resolve the crisis, but the commission voted 8-7 on straight party lines to accept Republican returns from Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina; Oregon’s electoral vote was given to Hayes. As a result, Hayes won, 185 votes to 184.
The Democratic House still had to declare Hayes the winner. Negotiations with Republicans led to Hayes being declared the winner, but only if he agreed to end Reconstruction of the South. This unwritten understanding prevailed, and Hayes was declared president on 2 March 1877, 2 days before inauguration. The last federal troops left the South (Louisiana) in 1877. Reconstruction was over; the South was solidly Democratic and solidly white in its politics.