AMSCO: Chapter 15 Reconstruction 1863-1877

Greenbacks

Paper money that was not supported by gold. This money became widely circulated during the Civil War. During the Panic of 1873, debtors sought to increase circulation of this money for an inflationary, easy-money solution. Grant vetoed a bill that would increase circulation of these bills in 1874, siding with hard-money bankers and creditors who wanted money backed with gold.

Thomas Nast

A political cartoonist who exposed the Tweed Ring in 1871

Ku Klux Klan

A white supremacy group founded in 1867 by an ex-Confederate general Nathaniel Bedford Forrest. This group intimidated freemen by burning black-owned buildings and flogging/murdering blacks who tried to vote. The group also intimidated Republicans and any other person who they saw as helping the blacks.

Force Acts of 1870 and 1871

Acts that gave power to federal authorities to stop Ku Klux Klan violence and protect the civil rights of citizens in the South.

Black Codes

After Confederates regained office in southern state legislatures, many formed ____________ which limited African Americans' freedoms. They included: 1) Prohibiting blacks from buying or renting land 2) Forcing blacks to sign work contracts, placing them in semi-bondage 3) Prohibiting blacks from testifying against whites in court When Congress took control of the Reconstruction, they passed amendments in attempt to outlaw these laws.

Benjamin Wade

A Radical Republican from Ohio who endorsed other liberal causes including women's suffrage, rights for labor unions, and civil rights for northern blacks.

due process of law

A clause in the Fourteenth Amendment that prohibits states and local governments from depriving a person of life, liberty, or property without certain steps to ensure fairness.

equal protection of the laws

A clause in the Fourteenth Amendment that requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people of its jurisdiction. Previously, such protection was only guaranteed from the federal government.

carpetbaggers

A derogatory term applied to Northerners who migrated south during the Reconstruction to take advantage of opportunities to advance their own fortunes by buying up land from desperate Southerners and by manipulating new black voters to obtain lucrative government contracts.

Radical Republicans

A faction of the Republican party that championed civil rights for blacks. This faction was in control of the congressional Reconstruction. This group struggled from 1866-1870 to extend equal rights to all Americans.

scalawag

A nickname southern Democrats gave to southern Republicans who were in control of the government during Reconstruction

sharecropping

After slavery was abolished, the South's agricultural economy was in turmoil since there was its source of cheap labor was gone. Thus, planters turned to ____________ where the landlord provided the seed and other needed farm supplies in return for a share of the harvest. While this gave poor whites and black a chance to earn money, it also made them dependent on their landowners and/or in debt to merchants. Thus, _______ was very close to slavery and trapped generations of poor blacks.

Blanche K. Bruce

An African American Republican senator from the South during the Reconstruction Era

Hiram Revels

An African American from Mississippi who took the Senate seat once held by Jefferson Davis. Revels was a Republican, and many ex-Confederates resented him and other black representatives.

Panic of 1873

An economic disaster at the beginning of Grant's second presidential term that left many northern laborers homeless and without jobs. This occurred because overspeculation by financiers and overbuilding by industry and railroads.

Freedmen's Bureau

Created in March 1865, the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands provided food, shelter, and medical aid for blacks and poor whites. It first resettled blacks on confiscated Southern farmlands, but this was stopped when the Confederates got pardoned under Johnson. The Bureau opened many schools including black colleges and taught many blacks how to read.

Charles Sumner

The leading Radical Republican in the Senate from Massachusetts.

Tenure of Office Act of 1867

In 1867, Congress passed this act that prohibited the president from removing a federal official or military commander without the approval of the Senate. Congress passed this act to protect the Radical Republicans in Johnson's cabinet, including Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Congress used this act as grounds for Johnson's impeachment.

Jay Gould

In 1869 this man and James Fisk obtained the help of Grant's brother-in-law in a scheme to corner the gold market. Although the Treasury Department broke the scheme, ______ had already made a large profit. This was just one example of corruption during the post-Civil War years.

patronage

In a political sense __________ means for a person in office to give jobs and government favors (spoils) to his supporters. This occurred frequently in the late period of Reconstruction.

Credit Mobilier

In this scandal of 1872, insiders gave stock to influential members of Congress. This was to avoid investigation of the high profits they were making from government subsidies for building the transcontinental railroad.

Reconstruction Acts of 1867

Passed by Congress over Johnson's vetoes, these acts placed the South under military occupation. They divided the former Confederate states into five military districts and increased the requirements for getting readmitted to the Union. Each ex-Confederate state had to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and place guarantees in its constitution from granting the right to vote for all males. The acts did not include Tennessee, which had already passed the Fourteenth Amendment and was readmitted.

Wade-Davis Bill

Passed through Congress in 1864, this bill was far stricter than Lincoln's 10% Plan and required 50 percent of the voters of a state to take the loyalty oath and permitted only non-Confederates to vote for a new state constitution. It was backed by the Radical Republicans, who thought Lincoln's plan would allow the southern aristocrats to assume power again and deny equality to blacks in the South.

spoilsmen

People who seek to profit by the spoils system or support it in anyway. In the early 1870s, the early Radical Republican reformers gave way to such political manipulators

Fourteenth Amendment

Ratified in 1868, this amendment: 1) Declared that all persons born or naturalized in the United States were citizens 2) Obligated the states to respect the rights of U.S citizens and provide them "equal protection of the laws" and "due process of law" 3) Forbid former Confederate political leaders from holding state or federal offices 4) Repudiated debts of the Confederacy 5) Reduced that state's representation in Congress and its electoral votes if it kept any eligible person from voting

Liberal Republicans

Reform-minded Republicans, tired of Grant's scandals broke with the party in 1872 and selected Horace Greeley as their presidential candidate. They advocated civil service reform, and end of railroad subsidies, withdrawal for troops from the South, reduced tariffs, and free trade. The Democrats joined these Republicans in nominating Greeley, but Grant won a reelection.

Fifteenth Amendment

Releasing that the African Americans needed federal protection if their party wanted to maintain control (most blacks were Republicans), Republicans passed this amendment in 1869. It prohibited any state from denying or abridging a citizen's right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition or servitude". It essentially guaranteed male suffrage.

Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction

Set up by Lincoln in 1863, this "ten percent plan" shaped his picture for political Reconstruction that was very moderate: 1) Presidential pardons would be given to southerners (except highly ranked Confederates) who took an oath of allegiance to the Union and accepted the emancipation of slaves 2) When 10% of the voters had taken the oath, the state government could be reestablished and recognized Lincoln meant to shorten the war and add weight to his Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation was criticized for being too lenient by the Radical Republicans.

redeemers

Southern conservatives who took control of the states' governments as the Radical Republicans were losing influence, a process completed in 1877. They represent the final phase of Reconstruction. These politicians wanted states' rights, reduced taxes, reduced spending on social programs, and white supremacy. (a lot like the old South)

Civil Rights Act of 1866

The Congress overrode Johnson's veto for this and the Freemen's Bureau Act. This act pronounced that all African Americans were U.S citizens and tried to prohibit southern black codes. However, fearing that this act would be repealed as soon as the Democrats took control of Congress, the Republicans sought a more permanent solution with the a constitutional amendment.

Andrew Johnson

The Democratic vice-president during Lincoln's second term who became the president in 1865 after Lincoln's death. Although he hated Southern aristocrats, his Reconstruction plans were much like Lincoln's. In addition to Lincoln's terms it denied voting rights to former leaders and office holders of the Confederacy and Confederates with more than $20,000 in property. However, Johnson would grant individual pardons, so many former Confederate leaders returned to office by 1865. After Johnson vetoed Congress' bills, he was impeached in 1867, but was voted not to leave office in 1868.

Horace Greeley

The Liberal Republican and Democrat candidate for the 1872 presidential election who lost to regular Republican Grant (up for reelection)

presidential Reconstruction

The Reconstruction plans of Lincoln and Johnson who believed it was the executive's power to rebuild the South. It was the first "round" of the Reconstruction, from 1863 to the spring of 1866.

Rutherford B. Hayes

The Republican president who took office in 1877. He was the governor of Ohio who the Republicans nominated because he was untouched by the corruption of the Grant administration. As part of the Compromise of 1877, Hayes removed the last of the Union troops from the South and the other Republicans, ending Reconstruction.

Edwin Stanton

The Secretary of War who was appointed under Lincoln and aligned with the Radical Republicans. Johnson dismissed Stanton in defiance of the Tenure of Office Act in 1867, believing the act to be unconstitutional. This led to the House impeaching Johnson.

William (Boss) Tweed; Tweed Ring

The boss of the local Democratic Party/ Tammany Hall during the Grant years who masterminded many schemes to get himself and his friends money illegally. He stole $200 million from New York taxpayers before the cartoonist Thomas Nast exposed him and brought about his arrest in 1871

Compromise of 1877

The compromise that ended the era of Reconstruction. It stated that Hayes would be president over Tilden on the condition that he would build a southern transcontinental railroad and remove federal support for the Republicans in the South. Hayes kept his promise and the last of the troops from South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana were removed.

Thaddeus Stevens

The most famous Radical Republican representing Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives who hoped the revolutionize southern society through an extended period of military rule where blacks could exercise their civil rights, would be educated in public schools, and receive lands confiscated from former plantation owners.

impeachment

The political equivalent of an indictment in criminal law, prescribed by the Constitution. The House of Representatives may impeach the president by a majority vote for "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."

Samuel J. Tilden

The presidential candidate who was a Democrat from New York. He won the popular vote in the election of 1876, but because in three Southern states the votes were contested, the electoral commission decided Grant had won. Knowing that this commission was Republican, the Democrats threatened to send the election to the House of Representatives. This issue was resolved with the Compromise of 1877, in which Hayes was determined to be president.

congressional Reconstruction

The second "round" of Reconstruction that began after the congressional elections of 1866 when the dominant Republicans in Congress unified and took a more radical stance (fearing that the Democrats would gain power). During this period of reconstruction, the southern states were occupied by the Union army and many steps to guarantee the rights of blacks were taken. The Radical Republicans also had Johnson impeached in 1867.

Amnesty Act of 1872

This Act that removed the last of the restrictions on ex-Confederates, except for the top leaders. This allowed many of these conservative Democrats to retake control of state governments

Civil Rights Act of 1875

This was the last of the civil rights reforms passed by Congress during the Reconstruction era. This act guaranteed blacks equal accommodations in public places like hotels, railroads and theaters and prohibited courts from excluding them from juries. However, this act was poorly enforced because Republicans were moving on to other issues and the Southern aristocrats had regained control of the South.