End of Reconstruction

End of Reconstru

ction1868-1877

Northern Shifts in Attitudes

• “tired out with this wornout cry of ‘Southern Outrages!!!’ Hard times and heavy taxes make them wish the … ‘everlasting nigger’ were in [hell] or Africa … It is amazing the change that has taken place in the last two years in the public sentiment.” (1874)

•A shifting political climate, economic hard times, increasing preoccupation with other issues, and continued racism combined to make most Northerners wash their hands of the responsibility for the protection of black rights.

Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)

Grant’s Scandals

• Credit Mobilier, 1872• Whiskey Ring, 1875• William Belknap, 1876• Indian Trading posts• Even by 1872, with only a hint of corruption, some Republicans were disenchanted; Liberal Republicans

• Liberal Republicans formed a separate party and nominated Horace Greeley for president (also nominated by Democrats)

Election of 1872

Election of 1872

Election of 1872

Growing Disenchantment• In 1874 Midterm elections, Democrats gained control of

the House and gained seats in the Senate• Panic of 1873 (lasted for six years)• People’s attention became focused on their pocketbooks

rather than on abstract ideals of equality and justice in the South

• The United States was experiencing growing pains of modernization and during Reconstruction, the Republican Party went through a battle for its soul (1860 Platform)

• By 1870s, the Republican Party became a protector of privilege rather than a guarantor of basic rights; Republicans and Democrats joined hands in conservative support of railroad and industrial interests

Western Expansionism and Racism•Westward Expansionism averted attention from Reconstruction in the South and raised the question about what to do with Plains Indians; Treaty of Fort Laramie, 1851

•Native Americans also suffered due to white racism

• Black labor was valuable, if controlled, so they survived; Native Americans were merely barriers to westward expansion, so they were exterminated

Retreat from Reconstruction• By 1874, both Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner were dead• Civil Rights Act of 1875• By 1876, all the elements were present for a national retreat on

Reconstruction: – the distraction of economic distress– a deep desire for unity among whites– the respectability of racism– a frustrated weariness with black problems– a growing conservatism on economic and social issues– a changing political climate featuring a resurgence of the

Democratic Party– a general public disgust with the failure of Reconstruction.

Election of 1876

Election of 1876

Election of 1876

Compromise of 1877• Rutherford B. Hayes agreed to support federal aid for southern internal improvements, especially a transcontinental railroad

• Promised to appoint a southern Democrat to his cabinet and allow southern Democrats a say in the allocation of federal offices in the South

• Promised to remove the remaining federal troops from the South

• End of Reconstruction, mainly symbolic