In what wayswas Reconstruction a success? A failure? Explain.
Reconstruction was a success in that it restoredthe United States as a unified nation: by 1877,all of the former Confederate states had drafted new constitutions,acknowledged the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments,and pledged their loyalty to the U.S. government. Reconstructionalso finally settled the states’ rights vs. federalism debate thathad been an issue since the 1790s.
However, Reconstruction failed by most other measures:Radical Republican legislation ultimately failed to protect formerslaves from white persecution and failed to engender fundamentalchanges to the social fabric of the South. When President RutherfordB. Hayes removed federal troops from the South in 1877,former Confederate officials and slave owners almost immediatelyreturned to power. With the support of a conservative Supreme Court,these newly empowered white southern politicians passed black codes, voterqualifications, and other anti-progressive legislation to reverse therights that blacks had gained during Radical Reconstruction. TheU.S. Supreme Court bolstered this anti-progressive movement withdecisions in the Slaughterhouse Cases, the Civil Rights Cases, and UnitedStates v. Cruikshank that effectively repealed the Fourteenthand Fifteenth Amendments and the Civil Rights Act of 1875.
Meanwhile, the sharecropping system—essentially a legalform of slavery that kept blacks tied to land owned by rich whitefarmers—became widespread in the South. With little economic power, blacksended up having to fight for civil rights on their own, as northernwhites lost interest in Reconstruction by the mid-1870s. By 1877,northerners were tired of Reconstruction, scandals, radicals, andthe fight for blacks’ rights. Reconstruction thus came to a closewith many of its goals left unaccomplished.
Some historianshave suggested that had Lincoln not been assassinated, Radical Republicansin the House might have impeached him instead of Andrew Johnson. Defendthis argument.
Radical Republicans in Congress might haveimpeached President Lincoln after the Civil War, had he not beenassassinated, because he and Congress had contrasting visions forhandling postwar Reconstruction. Ultimately, however, Congress endedup impeaching President Andrew Johnson, who followed many partsof Lincoln’s blueprint for Reconstruction.
In 1863,Lincoln wanted to end the Civil War as quickly as possible. He fearedthat strong northern public support for the war would wane if thefighting continued and knew that the war was also taking an enormoustoll on northern families and resources. Lincoln worried that ifthe war dragged on, a settlement would be reached that would leavethe North and South as two separate nations. As it turned out, hisfears were justified: by late 1863,an increasing number of Democrats were calling for a truce and peacefulresolution to the conflict.
As a result, in the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction of 1863,Lincoln drafted lenient specifications for secessionist states forreadmission into the Union—an attempt to entice Unionists and thosetired of fighting in the South to surrender. His Ten-Percent Plan,part of the proclamation, called for southern states to be readmittedinto the Union after 10 percentof the voting public swore a loyalty oath to the United States.In addition, he offered to pardon all Confederate officials andpledged to protect southerners’ private property. Lincoln did notwant Reconstruction to be a long, drawn-out process; rather, hewanted the states to draft new constitutions so that the Union couldbe quickly restored.
Radical Republicans, on the other hand, wanted the Southto pay a price for secession and believed that Congress, not thepresident, should direct the process of Reconstruction. The RadicalRepublicans saw serious flaws in Civil War–era southern societyand were adamant that the South needed full social rehabilitationto resemble the North. Many Republican Congressmen also aimed toimprove education and labor conditions to benefit all of the oppressedclasses in southern society, black and white. To quicken this transformation ofthe South, Congress passed a series of progressive legislation, includingthe Civil Rights Act of 1866,the First and Second Reconstruction Acts, the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871,the Civil Rights Act of 1875,and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to theU.S. Constitution.
In the end, Radical Republicans in the House impeachedPresident Andrew Johnson in 1868 becausehe repeatedly blocked their attempt to pass radical legislation.For example, Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866,the Freedmen’s Bureau charter, and the ratification of the FourteenthAmendment, all of which were progressive, “radical” bills. Had Lincolnremained alive, he might have been in the same position himself:he wanted Reconstruction to end quickly and did not necessarilyfavor progressive legislation. Indeed, Lincoln had made it clearduring the Civil War that he was fighting to restore the Union,not to emancipate slaves. It is likely that Lincoln thus would havebattled with Congress over the control of Reconstruction, blockedkey Reconstruction policies, and met as vindictive a House as Johnsondid 1868.
Explain howthree of the following shaped northern politics during Reconstruction: a) black codes b) the Depression of 1873 c) Crédit Mobilier d) the “Swing Around the Circle” speeches e) the Resumption Act of 1875
The Crédit Mobilier scandal, the Depressionof 1873,and the Resumption Act of 1875 focusedattention away from the South and onto political and economic woesin the North. All three thus played a role in ending Reconstruction.
In the 1860s,executives of the Union Pacific Railroad created a dummy constructioncompany called Crédit Mobilier and then hired themselves out ascontractors at high rates to earn large profits. The executivesbribed dozens of Congressmen and cabinet members in Ulysses S. Grant’sadministration, including Grant’s vice president, to allow the scamto work. The scheme was eventually exposed, and many politicianswere forced to resign. Along with other scandals, such as the Fisk-Gouldgold scandal and the Whiskey Ring, Crédit Mobilier distracted northernvoters’ attention away from southern Reconstruction and toward corruptionand graft problems in the North.
When the Depression of 1873 struck,northern voters became even less interested in pursuing Reconstructionefforts. Unemployment climbed to 15 percent,and hard currency became scarce. With pressing economic problems,northerners did not have time to worry about helping former slaves,punishing the Ku Klux Klan, or readmitting southern states intothe Union.
Moreover, the Republican Party’s adherence to unpopular,strict monetary policies in response to the depression—suchas the Resumption Act of 1875—openedthe door for the Democratic Party to make large political gains,accelerating the end of Reconstruction. The Resumption Act reducedthe amount of currency circulating in the economy in an effort tocurb inflation caused by the depression. Although the act improvedeconomic conditions in the long run, it made for harder times inboth the North and South in the short run. The Act was Republican-sponsored,so Democrats were able to capitalize on its unpopularity to rallysupport for their party. This increased popularity translated intoelection victories that enabled Democrats to retake the South,bringing Reconstruction to a close.
