Working People Respond to Capitalism

I) Pre-capitalist society – capitalism, in primitive form, had long been a part of American society; what became disturbing to many working people after the Civil War was the fact that more and more power was gathered in fewer hands, and that government seemed to be run for the benefit of the few who had gathered this power.

A) Jeffersonian era

1) Yeoman farmer – the ideal of Jeffersonian/Jacksonian republicanism. The yeoman farmer produced crops for his family’s subsistence; any surplus was used to buy those items that the farmer no longer produced himself, which his family “needed”

(a) Justification for Louisiana Purchase – US needed more land to allow for the expansion of opportunities for the yeoman farmer; since the acquisition of the Louisiana land (encompassing the entire Mississippi River Valley) was contrary to the Jeffersonian philosophy of government (smaller is better). The yeoman (white) farmer did have increased opportunities.

2) Artisans under Jefferson

(a) Artisan system – in the ideal artisan system, when an apprentice spent the term of his apprenticeship (usually seven years, beginning at age eleven or so), he had the tools and ability to begin his work life as a journeyman. After saving his earnings, a journeyman could look forward to settling down and opening his own shop, and taking on apprentices and hiring journeymen. By the dint of hard work and frugality, the master craftsman (as he would be known) could look forward to gaining his competency (enough money to live comfortably without working).

(b) The factory system – the growth of the factory system, which began before Jefferson took office, threatened the artisan system, because it allowed machines to undertake the work formerly done by artisans, which decreased the demand for these artisans, and therefore the wage the artisan could demand—as well as the demand for apprentices, who formerly did much of the work for the artisan.

3) The Bank Question – Jefferson killed the First Bank of the United States, because followers of his faction believed that it concentrated too much power in the hands of too few people

(a) The problem of currency

(i) Paper money – does not really exist at this time, at least as we would recognize it. The government does not issue treasury notes, and the paper money issued (bank notes, discussed below) are not backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government, but by each individual bank and the amount of specie (precious metal coins, also discussed below) that the bank has on hand should someone come into the bank and hand over the bank note in demand for specie.

(ii) Bank notes – each bank issued its own currency, which was a promise to hand over specie if the note was presented at the bank. However, each bank was not required to honor another banks note, but it would often redeem these notes at a discounted (less than face value) rate. This led to confusion and reluctance to accept bank notes as payment, since there was no guarantee that one could redeem a particular note for its face value.

(iii) Specie – coins minted in precious metals (gold or silver), which had value because of the metal contained in the coin. This was the preferred method of payment by debtors (people owed money), but was rarely the method of payment because there was never enough specie available to meet demand.

B) Jacksonian period

1) Yeoman farmer – the “western” (meaning anyone living west of the Allegheny Mountains) farmer was the backbone of the Jacksonian Democratic Party

(a) Indian removal – in order to move white farmers onto land acquired during Louisiana Purchase, those people already living there (the Native Americans) had to be moved off

(b) Land speculation – much of the land was bought up by land speculators, who hoped to sell the land at a profit to potential farmers—which tended to drive up the price of land.

2) Artisans – artisans tended to be Jackson backers as well, because of the animosity of Jackson and his followers to the Second National Bank, and therefore to businessmen. Artisans tended, however, to also be in favor of tariffs (taxes paid on imported goods), which tended to protect their jobs, and Jacksonians tended to be in opposition to this.

3) Bank question – Jackson led the fight to kill the Second National Bank, and Congress refused to renew its charter, so the bank died in 1836. Again, there was opposition to so much control being rested in the hands of so few people, particularly when those people were not responsive to any electorate (the Second National Bank, like the first, was a private company who merely had a privileged relationship with the government—so it was not responsive to the government, or to anyone but the partners or stockholders).

C) Lincoln and the Republican Party—“Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men”

1) Farmers

(a) Homestead Act – “Free Soil” given to those who promised to improve their claim, which re-opened opportunities for white farmers.

(i) Much of this land was on the Great Plains, which received scant rainfall, and left farmers susceptible to greater chances of failure

(ii) Land could be purchased for cash, as well, which meant that speculators purchased much of the land.

(iii) Land was not likely to favor subsistence farming, and to get grain that was grown to a market, the farmer had to rely upon the nearest railroad.

2) Artisans – artisans and their way of life became more threatened as capitalism advanced, and more trades became mechanized—and new industries (like railroading) developed which trained its own workers, and therefore didn’t use the apprenticeship system.

(a) Artisans may have initially supported the Republican system (and many continued to support it even after the war), but more and more artisans tended to see the interests of the Republican Party as being contrary to their own interests.

3) Laborers – laborers, who generally lacked “skills” defined as labor (as a carpenter, a mason, a shoemaker may be defined as having a skill), generally perceived the Republican Party as contrary to their interests.

(a) Free Labor, Free Men – in the antebellum era, laborers felt threatened by the promise to end slavery; freed slaves, it was thought, would move north and compete for the jobs that white laborers held.

II) Capitalist society – there is no one moment in history that we can pinpoint and say that this was when the US economy became totally oriented toward capitalism; however, in the period after the Civil War, it can safely be said that most of the population of the United States was effected by capitalism.

A) Gold bugs and the Rag Baby – during the Civil War, the US government financed much of the cost by printing money—backed by the full faith and credit of the US government—the first time that the government itself printed promissory notes.

1) Gold bugs – nickname for those people (generally well-to-do businessmen and their mouthpieces) who advocated returning the economy of the country to the gold standard, removing paper money from circulation, and returning the economy to “hard” currency (specie).

(a) Gold bugs tended to be debtors (people who lent money), and wanted to be paid back in a currency that was deflationary—which meant that they would get back the full worth of the money they had lent.

2) Greenbackism – Advocated for greenbacks (also known as “the Rag Baby”) wanted to see the inflationary currency prevalent during the war continue. Greenbackers tended to be creditors (people who had received loans), and therefore wanted to be able to pay back those loans with inflated currency (which would be worth less money).

B) Capitalist control of government – while working people felt that they still had some voice in local government; the further government was removed from local control, the less voice they had in it.

1) Class interests – it becomes apparent, as government at the state and federal level increasingly does the bidding of the capitalist class, that the interests of the working-class is in opposition to those  interests.

(a) Definition of class – a group of people who, because of common economic interests, develop a common ideology and outlook.

(b) Collective behavior – when there is a common ideology and outlook, then groups of people can act in a collective manner.

(i) Craft unions – groups of workers joined together by a common identity because of a job skill they have acquired.

(ii) Cartels – groups of capitalists joined together because of the desire to maximize profits while minimizing risks

(iii) Labor unions – groups of workers willing to join together with other workers because of a common economic interest, not necessarily because they share a common job skill.

2) Great Upheaval of 1877 – groups of workers and their families identified with the grievances of railroad workers, and hoped to regain influence with the state and federal government that they felt was usurped by the wealth of capitalists.

(a) Toledo example – workers attempted to close down all businesses that they felt were not paying a “fair” wage ($2.50 and day for skilled workers, $2.00 a day for unskilled); the strike was supported by local elites when its focus was the railroad, but that support quickly diminished when the focus became their own businesses

(i) Toledo, like most other large cities, saw the construction of large armories near their downtowns in the aftermath of the 1877 disturbance. Besides the armory, the local militia was “professionalized” because the number of working people in its ranks was felt to diminish the likelihood that it could be used in a similar occurrence.

The Frontier in American History

I.                    The New Settlement of the West

A.     Impediments to New Settlement

1.      Great American Desert – this was the name given previously to much of the land west of Missouri, which not inaccurately described the conditions found there—a large, semi-arid plain (similar to the steppes in Russia and the Ukraine).

                                          

2.      Permanent Indian Territory – much of the territory that we now think of as the Great Plains in the United States was known in the period just before the Civil War as the Permanent Indian Territory, to which Indian peoples had previously been removed to from the East—including those native peoples who had previously lived there.

B.      Factors that increased settlement

1.      New techniques of farming – the so-called “dry farming” technique, which utilized the sparse amount of rainfall to grow crops of wheat; ability to utilize available water in system of irrigation

2.      Expansion of railroad system – much of the livelihood of the newly opened West depended upon access to a rail line.

3.      Discovery of valuable minerals – the discovery of gold (especially, and earliest, in California, Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and the Dakotas).

C.     Anglo settlers – the “untamed wilderness” that “pioneers” from the east “settled” was in fact an area that was already occupied by a sizable number of people, not only native peoples but earlier settlers who had migrated north from Mexico.

D.     Blacks in the West

1.      Buffalo Soldiers -- two cavalry units in the United States Army were made up of African American soldiers, who manned several of the forts that were built to maintain a system to “pacify” the native population—which the migrating white population expected to enforce their new “property rights.”

2.      Kansas Freedmen’s Relief Association – the “Exodusters.”  With the end of Reconstruction and the implementation of repression throughout the South, a small but substantial number of African Americans joined the migration west, with many settling in the land John Brown left before his raid on Harper’s Ferry.

II.                 Mining in the West

A.     The development of mining communities – largely male, with very few families, with very few females—except for prostitutes.  Most of the men who made money in these communities did so not from gold and strikes, but from selling supplies to miners.

1.      Placer mines – early mines (the traditional picture we have been presented of western miners—the 49ers).  Most men drawn west by the promise of gold (or silver) moved from working their own claims to working for wages on someone else’s claim.

2.      Mining technology – drove up costs of mining, which drove most who did not make an early strike into wage labor in mines.  Much of this technology, like hydraulic mining, was highly destructive of the environment.

B.      The gold and silver strikes

1.      California (1849)

2.      Nevada (1859) – the Comstock Lode, one of the largest deposits of silver in the world

3.      Colorado (1859) – Pike’s Peak

C.     Western states admitted to the Union – California (1849), Nevada (1864), and Colorado (1876) before the end of Reconstruction; after sweeping Republican victory in election of 1888, the Dakotas, Montana, and Washington were made states in 1889, and Idaho and Wyoming in 1890; Utah in 1896 after the Church of Latter-Day Saints agrees to give up the practice of polygamy; Oklahoma in 1907 following a “sooner” land rush onto more “permanent” Indian territory; Arizona and New Mexico in 1912.

III.               Indians in the West

A.     Indians forced to cede lands to the government – public lands were defined by most of the white people who moved onto these public lands as belonging to that part of the white public which got to the land “first.”

1.      Sporadic Indian wars – at the Treaty of Fort Laramie, group of Plains Indians agreed not to molest wagon trains of white settlers heading west on the Oregon Trail to Oregon; as these settlers began moving off the trail to settle in the area between St. Joseph Missouri and Oregon, however, conflicts between Indians and whites escalated.

2.      Chivington’s massacre of 150 Indians – at Sand Creek, Colorado, where a contingent of poorly trained militia murdered men, women, and children in an Indian camp there

3.      Decision to place Indians on reservations – to avoid future conflicts, decision was made in Washington to remove Indian people to “out of the way” pieces of land that seemed to be unappealing to whites; this not only turned over land that these peoples had previously been “granted” in perpetuity, but the restriction to a relatively small grant of land meant that many of these peoples became dependent upon government subsidies—which provided a market for the cattle that the whites who displaced them raised.

4.      Agreements at Medicine Creek Lodge and elsewhere – most native peoples agreed to these newest treaties, under coercion.

 

B.      George Custer and the Battle of Little Bighorn – Custer’s forces accompanied white miners looking for gold into the Dakota Sioux reservation in the Black Hills.

C.     Continued Indian resistance

1.      Chief Joseph

2.      Capture of Geronimo (1886) – effectively ended native resistance in the west.

3.      Slaughter of the buffalo

4.      “Battle” at Wounded Knee (1898)

D.     The Dawes Severalty Act

1.      Goal of the Dawes Act – to encourage Indians to own land individually and assimilate themselves into white society.

2.      Effect pf the Dawes Act – loss of more valuable land by Indians to whites

IV.              Cowboys in the West

A.     Early cattle raising in the West – introduced by Mexicans

B.      The great cattle drives – the romantic era of the cattle drive was extremely short-lived; not economically feasible to drive cattle several hundred miles to a railhead.

1.      Joseph McCoy and Abilene

2.      The decline of the long drives

C.     Barbed Wire and the open-range cattle industry – a cost-effective method of enclosing the open range ended that era.

D.     Range wars

V.                 Farmers in the West

A.     The problem of land

1.      Homestead Act of 1862

2.      Newlands Reclamation Act of 1901 – sale of public lands in sixteen western states created a fund for the construction of irrigation projects

B.      The problem of water – he who controlled access to water also controlled access to the land, because the arid climate made lack of access to water mean the same thing as lack of access to the land.

1.      Effect of the Newlands Act – allowed the settlement of much of the arid west

2.      Other solutions – dry farming

C.     The farmer’s life – isolated; it’s not called the Big Sky Country for nothing.

D.     Technological advances that aided farmers – new steel plows, railroads (allowed farmers to get crop to a market, and allowed them to get supplies for subsistence in return)

E.      Pioneer women – isolated and lonely, but often more involved in business decisions on the farm

VI.              A violent culture – isolated communities, lack of law enforcement

VII.            The “end” of the frontier

A.     “Frontier line” no longer existed after 1890 (?)

B.      Frederick Jackson Turner and “The Significance of the Frontier in American History

The Four Phases of Reconstruction

A)    Lincoln’s Plan – for Lincoln, Reconstruction was more of a wartime expediency than a plan to reunite the Union—many of his proposals had to do more with keeping border states within the Union, or undermining the Confederate war effort, than a plan to integrate African-American slaves into American society.

1)      1863 Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction – if 10% of white males who voted in 1860 took an oath of allegiance to the Constitution and the Union, and swore to uphold the laws dealing with emancipation, they were eligible to receive a Presidential pardon and begin forming a state government.

(a)    Provisional governments were formed in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana under this plan

2)      1864 Wade-Davis Bill – product of small, but influential, group of so-called “Radical Republicans” who demanded a transformation of Southern society.  Wade-Davis stipulated that a majority of white males declare their allegiance to the Union, and that only those who could provide proof that they had always remained loyal could vote and serve in the state constitutional conventions.  In addition, the conventions themselves would have to abolish slavery, deny political rights to high-ranking civil and military officers of the Confederacy, and repudiate Confederate war debts.

(a)    Lincoln opposed this measure, and was able to exercise a “pocket veto” by not signing the bill after Congress had adjourned.

(b)   Wade-Davis Manifesto – accused Lincoln of usurping power and of attempting to use the readmitted states to ensure his re-election.

3)     Lincoln’s final statement on Reconstruction – wanted no persecution, no revenge, no dramatic restructuring of southern social and economic life; how this would have faired with the Southern political response (the return of so many Confederate political leaders, restrictions placed upon newly-freed African Americans, etc.) no one can truly say; Lincoln’s best feature was his flexibility of response to changing situations.

II)                 Presidential Reconstruction – Congress was not in session from the time of Confederate surrender and Lincoln’s assassination until the late fall of 1865, so Johnson had a free hand to carry out what he thought Lincoln’s plans were for Reconstruction.

A)    Andrew Johnson -- devout Southern Unionist, placed on the ticket with Lincoln in 1864 (when Lincoln ran as an Unionist, rather than on the Republican ticket) in a gesture of bipartisanship.  Johnson came to political power in eastern Tennessee, opposing the power of large slave owners.  Johnson himself owned slaves, however, and he was an extreme racist.

1)      Johnson a strict Constitutionalist – believed that the Constitution was inviolent, and that the Southern states that had attempted to secede needed no Reconstruction, because secession was illegal and therefore these states had never seceded (what to do with the thousands of traitors who had served in the rebel army, however, Johnson never addressed).

(a)    1865 Proclamation of Amnesty – Lincoln proposed that those Southerners who were willing to take an oath of allegiance be granted full citizenship rights (except for officials and officers in the Confederate Army), and that they be allowed to set up local and state governments. Johnson added to this list of people that Lincoln had prohibited those who owned property worth more than $20,000, because Johnson believed these “aristocrats” were the ones responsible for the secession movement in the South.

(b)   Southern provisional governments – in Southern states not already organized by Lincoln, Johnson appointed provisional governors authorized to call conventions, which were to invalidate secession ordinances, repudiate Confederate war debts, ratify the 13^th amendment, and provide African Americans with limited voting rights.

2)      Southern Intransigence – the political leaders of the new southern governments looked much like the political leaders of the Confederacy (including the Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens, four Confederate generals, eight colonels, six cabinet members, and a host of minor officials.

(a)    Southern “Black Codes” – passage of laws restricting the freedoms of African Americans, which baldly revealed the intention of southerners in control to retain all of the trappings of slavery, even if the legal status was removed.  Prohibited interracial marriages, restrictions were placed upon the property they were allowed to own, and they were required to enter into annual labor contracts, with a provision for punishment in case of violation (including forced labor).

(b)   Land and Labor Questions – all Southerners, black and white, knew that how these questions were answered would determine the path that Reconstruction would take.

(i)                  “Forty Acres and a Mule” – in South Carolina and Georgia, William Tecumseh Sherman issued Field Order #15, which declared that former slaves under his jurisdiction would receive confiscated land, and an army mule to work it.  The failure to follow through with this plan led African Americans to have to accept the system of sharecropping. President Johnson forced Sherman to retract this policy. (Relate this topic to the ongoing controversy over reparations for slavery).

(i)      Freedmen expectations – because they had created most of the wealth for southern planters, many freedmen expected to receive land as compensation for their labors.

(ii)    Promotion of self-sufficiency – by providing freedmen with land, they would be able to become self-sufficient, able to grow their own food.

(ii)                Gang labor – resisted by freedmen, because it reminded them of restrictions they had under the slave system.

(i)      Required freedmen to sign year-long labor contracts, and provided that those freedmen who could not prove that they had such a contract at the beginning of each year should be arrested, and their labor sold by the government to the highest bidder.

A)    Sharecropping – Developed as a sort of compromise between the freedmen and southern planters.  Freedpeople were allowed to organize their labor as they wished (usually on the family farm model).  Planter retained ownership of the land, and “furnished” sharecroppers with a house, food, and seed (and often times farming implements).  Proceeds of the sale of the crop (which the planter completely controlled) were usually split 50/50—after the planter was repaid for his initial investment.

1)      Debt peonage – sharecropping devolved into essentially a system of debt peonage, with sharecroppers usually unable to pay back entire debt owed to the planter, with the result that sharecroppers were often restricted to a particular farm—unless they could find another plantation owner willing to pay off their debt in return for working for him.

(a)    Obviously, this system was open to abuses by the owning class, who often took advantage of the fact that the freedmen were often illiterate. Too often, this in fact turned into a system of debt peonage, with freed families falling deeper and deeper into debt, with no hope of ever paying it off.

III)              Political conflict – the initial high hopes that many (including many members of Congress) held for the leadership that Johnson would provide were dashed as the President to weak or no action against atrocities against freed people in the South – conflict that culminated in Johnson’s impeachment (which like our own recent experience, was an act of more political than criminal import).

A)    Andrew Johnson – shared similar upbringing with Lincoln (little formal education, constant striving to better himself), but he lacked Lincoln’s political acumen, and he was bitterly racist (where Lincoln’s racism was more benign).

1)      “Punishment for traitors” – initially, Johnson promised severe punishment for officials in the Confederate government, and the “aristocrats” that he felt had led the South into the war at any rate. Johnson soon began granting individual pardons to just these kinds of people, however, which contributed to his falling out with Congress.

(a)    Intransigence of southern states – many of the early governments formed in the South incorporated leaders who had been active in the rebellious governments, and none of these early governments made any steps toward guaranteeing rights of any kind for freed people (parallels between this and the “massive resistance” that white southerners demonstrated during the civil rights movement—“the Second Reconstruction”)

(b)   Presidential pardons – despite Johnson’s rhetoric, he granted (eventually) hundreds of presidential pardons, many to the very people he vilified months before as aristocrats.

2)      Repudiation of secession and debt – for Johnson, this ended the secession crisis, when the former Confederate States repudiated the debts incurred during the Civil War (refused to pay them, which punished those creditors who loaned the governments money), and the states who attempted to secede agreed that secession was not a right states had.

IV)              Rising influence of the Radicals

A)    Defense of African American civil rights – the imposition of the so-called “Black Codes” demonstrated to many Republicans that more would have to be done to “reconstruct” southern society than simply end slavery.

B)     Refusal to seat southern delegates – in January of 1866, the final act of the sitting Congress was to refuse seats to the newly-elected southern representatives; this marks the beginning of Radical Reconstruction.

V)                Congress sets policies – Radical Reconstruction was fueled by Southern intransigence and Johnson’s policies in response to this Southern action; driven in part by a desire to punish the Southern rebels, and on the part of most Radical Republicans, a genuine concern to protect the rights of freed people.

B)     Passage of the 13^th Amendment, ending Slavery in the United States.  Passed by Congress 31 January, 1865; ratified by the states by December 6, 1865.

C)    December 1865 -- Republican moderates joined with Radicals in refusing to seat southern congressional delegations, in response to the institutions of Black Codes and the fact that former leaders of the Confederacy were leading these delegations.

D)    Civil Rights Act (April 1866) – the first law enacted over a presidential veto.  Ensure the rights of freedpeople against the passage of the Black Codes (while the will to enforce it remained).

E)     June 13, 1866 – Congress passes 14^th Amendment, which granted citizenship to freedmen (to this point, citizenship had been restricted whites (since 1790).

F)     July 1866 – Freedman’s Bureau Act extended, again over Presidential veto.

G)    Transformation of state politics

1)      Establishment of public schools

2)      Banned discrimination in public accommodations

3)      Lien laws – which gave workers first claim on farmer’s crops in case of a farmer’s bankruptcy.

II)                 1866 Congressional Elections – Johnson campaigned throughout the Midwest (where he was heckled mercilessly) for Democratic Party candidates; instead, Congress was returned with an even larger Republican majority; all involved saw this election as a referendum on the course that Reconstruction was taking.

A)    Reconstruction Act (March 1867) – law was again passed over Johnson’s veto, as a result of the Republican mandate.

1)      Divided the former Confederacy into five military districts

2)      Each state was required to hold constitutional conventions; military protection to ensure participation of freedmen.

(a)    Freedmen responded in overwhelming numbers, and overwhelmingly voted for the party of Lincoln.

III)              Society in the (Temporary) New South

A)    African Americans in Southern politics – except for South Carolina (which had a population of greater than 50% black), Louisiana, Florida, and Virginia, no other state constitutional convention had more than 20% representation of African Americans; however, that participation of any blacks in the political process was something new.

1)      African American leader – many of these new political leaders gained leadership experience while serving in the US army; others had served as ministers to slaves on plantations.

2)      Establishment of the Black Church – the church became the backbone of African American society after the Civil War, and allowed many black to develop leadership skills.

3)      Myth of African American incompetence – much was made at the time of the lack of education of blacks, and their general incompetence while in office; this has been greatly exaggerated.

(a)    Much of government, at all levels, was spectacularly corrupt during this time period (in comparison to present-day). Both major parties took it to heart that “to the victors belong the spoils,” and corruption and graft greased the wheels for both parties. Although much has been made of the corruption of state and local governments in the South during the rule of “Black Republicans,” corruption was endemic in many Democratic party machines in the north during this time period as well (the Tweed Ring, etc.)

B)     Carpetbaggers and Scalawags  -- two terms used to describe white collaborators with blacks.  Carpetbaggers were northern whites who moved south; Scalawags were native southern whites.  For a number of years, the misdeeds of blacks involved in the political process and their white collaborators was given the lion’s share of attention by historians (most of whom happened to grow up in the South under the influence of the mythical “Lost Cause”); again, while there were a number of corrupt governmental officials in the South who used their political position to feather their own nest egg, the proportion of corrupt officials was probably no greater in the South than it was in the North.

1)      Carpetbaggers – northern whites who moved south, often to set up businesses, or attempt to run plantations with hired freed workers in place of slaves. Many carpetbaggers turned to politics with the Republican Party in the South when their business ventures failed.

2)      Scalawags – native southern whites who “collaborated” with freed people and carpetbaggers, and who often joined the Republican Party. Scalawags often became pariahs to other southern whites; if they were involved in business, this often meant that the business failed.

(a)    Both carpetbaggers and scalawags were ostracized by the rest of white southern society; often their businesses would be boycotted by southern whites, which guaranteed their failure. Failure in business often led these carpetbaggers and scalawags into politics in the South, but they were completely reliant upon the Republican Party in the north staying interested in their cause, because it was impossible to make inroads with most southern whites in most areas.

C)    Radical Republican Record

1)      Universal manhood suffrage.

(a)    Women, who had long agitated for universal suffrage (voting for all people, no matter race or gender), split with the abolitionist movement, to which they had contributed so much, over this issue.

2)      Reapportionment of legislatures to more closely approximate population, rather than the old system prevalent in the South which gave greater voice to those who owned great amounts of property (see Standing at Armageddon).

3)      Public Schools – in most of the South, Reconstruction governments established the first public schools

4)      Improvement in infrastructure -- Reconstruction governments in the South improved roads, bridges; also funded the construction of railroads (most of which only benefited a few people).

(a)    This was also the method of constructing railroads in the North during this time period, which often meant that when more stock was issued than the railroad could cover with the value of its assets (known as “watered” stock), taxpayers often were subsidizing railroad stock holders.

5)      Promise of equality before the law for African Americans – for as long as the Republican Party felt like enforcing it.

D)    Reign of White Terror

1)      Ku Klux Klan  -  began as social club; transformed by Nathan Bedford Forrest into paramilitary force of a resurgent Democratic party in the South, to intimidate (or eliminate) African Americans, carpetbaggers, and scalawags.

(a)    Ku Klux Klan Act – passed by Congress to eliminate actions by KKK, which it effectively did

(b)   Martial law – U.S. Grant declared martial law in 1871 in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Mississippi

2)      Rise of the Democratic Party – in 1869, Tennessee and Virginia returned to Democratic Party control; by 1876, only Louisiana, Georgia, and South Carolina remained under nominal Republican Party control.

(a)    “Redeeming” the South – the self-proclaimed “Redeemers” of the South, white male members of the Democratic Party, proclaimed that they would return the region to the “good” government (meaning no services, but low taxes) that southerners had “enjoyed” before the war.

(b)   The “Redeemed” South, of course, had little place for African Americans in politics; African Americans did not disappear completely from southern politics for another two decades, but their influence was virtually non-existent in the Democratic South.

(i)                  Some “redeemed” areas, however, did revert back to Republican control briefly during this time period, but within a year or so that condition would be changed.

3)      Panic of 1873 – the worst financial crisis in the country’s history to that time diverted much of the attention that remained devoted to protecting the rights of freedpeople in the South.

(a)    Rise in tax rates – taxation in the South had traditionally been very low—because the state offered few services to its people.  The financial panic, combined with the higher taxes and corruption that existed in state and local governments, enabled Democratic politicians to link the three conditions in the minds of voters; this was combined with intimidation and violence at election time, as well as with the beginning of the disenfranchisement of African Americans to allow the party to assume control—which it held until the disenchantment with the Party over its advocacy of civil rights led most white politicians into the Republican Party in the late 1970s and 1980s.

IV)              The Lingering Death of Reconstruction

A)    1868 Election – the election of Republican presidential candidate U.S. Grant and the return of the Republican majority in both houses of Congress ironically spelled the end of the influence of the Radical Republicans.  While legislation of benefit to the freedmen continued to be passed (for example, the 15^th Amendment), the will to see that these laws were actually implemented by the states was no longer there.

1)      15^th Amendment – ensured freedmen the right to vote

2)      Spectacular corruption of the Grant Administration – although Grant made a great military leader, his reliance upon corrupt associates undermined his effectiveness as a political leader.

B)     1876 Election controversy – The race between Samuel Tilden (Dem from New York) and Rutherford B. Hayes was extremely close; Tilden won the popular vote, and led in votes in the Electoral College, but didn’t have enough votes to win; vote totals from Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida were in dispute, because there were allegations of fraud, and voter intimidation by Democratic Party partisans.

Rumored Southern Democratic deal – Many historians have believed that southern Democrats cut a deal with Republicans, that they would not contest making Hayes president in return for the withdrawal of the remaining troops, and accept “in good faith” the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments. In truth, Southern Democrats did all they could to obstruct making Hayes president, but with both houses of Congress, the presidency, and the Supreme Court still in the hands of Republicans (even though the Democrats had won control of the House in the election, they would not be sworn in until the next session of Congress), there was in reality little they could do about it.