APUSH Ordeal of Reconstruction + Gilded Age

Reconstruction Issues

How to reunify the Union, rebuild the South, integrate freedpeople, determine which branch controlled Reconstruction and decide the fate of former Confederate leaders.

Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)

Helped former slaves and poor whites; greatest success was education; ~200,000 African Americans learned to read.

Lincolns 10% Plan (1863)

10% of voters in a rebel state must pledge loyatly & accept emancipation

Wade-Davis Bill

required 50% of 1860 voters to take an “ironclad” oath; tougher than Lincoln; pocket-vetoed by Lincoln

Andrew Johnson’s Plan

Recognized Lincoln’s governments, required the 13th Amendment ratification, pardoned Confederate leaders, allowed planter elites to regain control

13th Amendment

abolished slavery and brought the South its most dramatic social and econ. change. Exploitative sharecropping system remained for generations even after this.

Black Codes

Laws to ensure a stable labor force; restricted land renting, forced labor contracts, barred jury service/voting; pushed many into sharecropping. In short: Restrictive laws passed by Southern states in 1865 and 1866 to limit the freedom of African Americans and force them into cheap plantation labor

Congress vs. Johnson (1866)

Johnson vetoed Freedmen’s Bureau extension & Civil Rights Bill of 1866; but, Congress overrode both. Both ended up getting passed

Civil Rights Act of 1866

Congress passed this landmark bill to define all persons born in the U.S. (except Native Americans) as national citizens with equal rights to make contracts, sue, and own property.

14th Amendment

Set the Civil Rights Act of 1866 into stone, stated that all born in the U.S. had rights to citizenship, equal protection, due process, and penalized states restricting voting.

Reconstruction Act of 1867

Divided South into 5 military districts, required new constitutions & ratification of 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (1868)

Violated Tenure of Office Act by firing Stanton without congressional removal, Senate fell one vote short of removal. He remained in office. First president to go through this process.

15th Amendment

Universal male suffrage regardless of race, color, or previous servitude

KKK

White supremacist group who committed violent attacks against African Americans and their supporters. They wanted to disenfranchise them, along with resist reconstruction.

Force Acts

Federal laws put into place to stop KKK violence & protect Black voters.

Civil Rights Act of 1875

Guaranteed equal access to public places & jury service; weakly enforced; overturned in 1883

Election of 1876

Hayden vs. Tilden; disputed results

Compromise of 1877

resolved dispute of Election 1876. Democrats accept Hayes; federal troops withdrawn; ends Reconstruction.

Civil Rights Cases (1883)

14th amendment applies only to states; made racial discrimination in public accommodations illegal, but in could not prevent discrimination in private accom. and individual discrimination; this overturned the 1875 act

Jim Crow

segregation laws in the South

Plessy v. Ferguson

landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld state-mandated racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine

Grant Administration (1868-1876)

The presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, marked by efforts to enforce civil rights and combat the Ku Klux Klan, but also plagued by corruption scandals and economic turmoil. Grant was a civil war hero and republican.

Credit Mobilier Scandal

fake Railroad company gave stock to Congressman in exchange for favorable legislation, leading to a major political scandal. Took place in Grant administration.

Whiskey Ring (1875)

Treasury officials stole $3 million in excise taxes. Took place in Grant administration.

Boss Tweed

Corrupt political boss who led Tammany Hall, the political machine in New York City during the 1860s and 1870s; defrauded taxpayers of millions of dollars through corruption and bribery before being exposed by cartoonist Thomas Nast.

Panic of 1873

Economic collapse from overproduction & overspeculation; hurt debtors; sparked debate over gold vs. greenbacks.

Gold vs. Greenbacks

Debtors wanted “cheap money”; creditors wanted hard currency

Patronage

Jobs given for loyalty; major issue of Gilded age. in other words; was the practice of elected officials rewarding their loyal political supporters, friends, and party workers with government jobs and contracts instead of hiring based on job qualifications or merit. Similar to the spoils system under Andrew Jackson.

Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883

established a merit-based system for federal employment to replace the corrupt political patronage “spoils system”. Advocated for merit-based hiring, passed after Garfield’s assassination.

Stalwarts

a conservative faction of the U.S. Republican Party during the 1870s and 1880s who strongly supported the spoils system and political patronage. They fiercely opposed civil service reform efforts backed by reform-minded politicians.

Half-Breeds

a faction of the U.S. Republican Party during the 1870s and 1880s who fought against the Stalwarts primarily over political patronage and the spoils system. Half-Breeds generally favored civil service reform, hiring government workers based on merit, and moving away from corruption.

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

Banned Chinese immigration; first major immigration restriction based on race and nationallity. Denied naturalized citizenship to Chinese immigrants.

U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark (1898)

Landmark Sup. Court decision ruling that the 14th Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship to almost all individuals born on U.S. soil, regardless of the race or citizenship status of their parents.

Key gilded Age Issues

• Tariffs: High tariffs created Treasury surplus… fueled economic deflation severly harming farmers and working-class citizens. In result, during this time, the Congress became the first in American history to spend more than $1 billion in a single legislative session, hence its nickname “billion-dollar congress”.

• Laissez-faire: federal government took a hands-off approach to the economy, allowing buisnesses and wealthy industrialists to operate with very little regulation. The rich favored this type of government

Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881)

republican; broke apart railroad strike of 1877; elected through Compromise of 1877; Redeemer Democrats regained control of South after he withdrew troops; presidency marks transition from Reconstruction to Gilded Age

James A. Garfield (1881)

republican; Assassinated, barely did anything as he had few days in office; led to Pendleton Act

Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885)

Republican; Garfield’s vice president; supported civil service reform; signed the Pendleton Civil Service Act

Grover Cleveland (1885-1889, 1893-1897)

Democrat, first since civil war; believed in laissez-faire, argued that “the people support the government, the government should not support the peopole”; opposed unnecessary spending and vetoed many bills; faced Panic of 1893

Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)

supported high protective tariffs; oversaw billion-dollar congress; signed the Mckinley Taridd raising tariffs historically high; signed Interstate Commerce Act

Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

First federal law to regulate railroads; required rates to be reasonable and just; enforcement was weak

Carpetbaggers

Northerners who moved South after the Civil War, often to seek economic opportunity or to help with Reconstruction

Scalawags

Southern whites who supported Reconstruction and cooperated with Republicans. Seen as traitors by other Southerners.

Reedeemers

White Southern Democrats who regained political control after Reconstruction. Pushed for white supremacy and dismantled Reconstruction reforms

McKinley Tariff (1890)

Raised tariffs to extremely high levels; protected industry but increased consumer prices; contributed to political backlash

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Nationwide strike over wage cuts; Hayes sent fed. troops to break it

Grandfather Clause

Allowed men to vote only if their grandfather could vote before the Civil War; effectively excluded African Americans

Poll Taxes & Literacy Tests

Tools to disenfranchise African Americans and poor whites in the South after Reconstruction.

Exodusters

African Americans who migrated from the post-Reconstruction South to the Great Plains n the late 19th century