History 9th ch 12 sec 4
By 1876 only South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida remained under Republican control.
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Effect of Enforcement Acts on Reconstruction
1. White southerners claimed the Acts threatened individual freedoms. 2. Northern support for Reconstruction declined because Northerners frustrated that armies were still needed to keep peace in the south and that Republican state govts were so ineffective.
Support for Reconstruction declines
1. White southerners oppose the Enforcement Acts as threatening individual freedoms. 2. Black southerners remained unhappy about widespread poverty and the lack of land reform. 3. Southerners of both races discouraged by poor economy in South. 4. Northerners frustrated that armies still needed to keep peace in the South and that Republican state govts were so ineffective. 5. Economic factors: a severe 5-year depression began in 1873, negatively affecting the South's economy as it struggled to rebuild. in the North, the failing economy forced politicians to focus more on the economy and less on Reconstruction.
Slaughterhouse cases
1873 Supreme Court decision holding that most civil rights and freedoms remained under state control and were therefore not protected by the 14th Amdmt.
US v Reese
1876 - Sup Ct determined that the 15th Amdmt did not protect voting rights if they were denied for some other reason than race. (So, for example, if denied because of illiteracy (even if that ended up meaning that many more blacks than whites were disenfranchised.)
US v Cruikshank
1876 - Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amdmt did not empower the fed govt to punish whites who suppressed African Americans.
New South
After Reconstruction, some southerners used this term to refer to a new era in the south -- one of industrialization and economic change. At the same time, however, state laws and southern Democratic governments were bringing in what one commentator referred to as "an era of second slavery."
Compromise of 1877
In return for Hayes becoming president, Republicans agreed to withdraw the remaining federal troops from the South.
As support for Reconstruction declined, southern Democratic leaders became bolder and stronger.
Lawlessness and violence and terrorism increased as Southern Democrats tried to regain control of their state governments.
Election of 1876
Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) versus Democrat Samuel J. Tilden (from New York). Tilden narrowly won the popular vote. Needed one electoral vote to win majority, Hayes needed 20. 20 electoral votes in dispute. Primarily in SC, Fla, and Louisiana. Electoral Comm'n established in 1877 to decide which candidate deserved each electoral vote. Republicans had majority of commissioners on the commission, 8 - 7. Gave all 20 disputed electoral votes to Hayes (Republican).
Liberal Republicans
This group broke from the Republican Party over the Enforcement Acts and the scandals that plagued the Grant Administration. Liberal Republicans helped Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives in 1874.
Enforcement Acts
Three laws passed by Congress in 1870 and 1871 in response to Southern states' inability to stop the violence against Freedmen and their supporters. The Acts imposed heavy penalties, inc. prison, against anyone trying to prevent a qualified citizen from voting. Also banned the use of disguises to deprive any person from exercising their rights, which empowered army and federal courts to capture and punish Ku Klux Klan members.
Solid South
lingering effects of southern resentment to Reconstruction efforts by Republicans resulted in a century of Democratic support in the South. For century after Civil War, south was known as the Solid South (solidly Democratic). Not until the 1970s that Republicans began to gain power in the South.
Redeemers
The Democrats who controlled the other southern states (aside from South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida which remained Republican). Called themselves the Redeemers because they felt that had redeemed, or won back, their states from the Republicans.