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CH. 12-4 RECONSTRUCTION COLLAPSES

CH. 12-4 RECONSTRUCTION COLLAPSES. AMERICAN HISTORY. PROBLEMS WITH RECONSTRUCTION. Violent opposition plagued the South TERRORIST GROUPS IN THE SOUTH KKK most active terrorist group Members included planters, merchants, and poor white farmers and laborers

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CH. 12-4 RECONSTRUCTION COLLAPSES

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  1. CH. 12-4 RECONSTRUCTION COLLAPSES AMERICAN HISTORY

  2. PROBLEMS WITH RECONSTRUCTION • Violent opposition plagued the South • TERRORIST GROUPS IN THE SOUTH • KKK most active terrorist group • Members included planters, merchants, and poor white farmers and laborers • KKK wanted to restore old political and social order to the south

  3. Main target was African Americans • Both blacks and whites were terrorized by threats, house burnings, and more • KKK beat Freedmen’s Bureau teachers, men and women • A member of Congress from AK, and 3 GA legislators were murdered • KKK also attacked African Americans they thought were too economically successful

  4. State governments were unable to control the violence • Congress passed three ENFORCEMENT ACTS in 1870 & 1871 • Laws set a heavy penalty, including jail, for anyone attempting to prevent a qualified person from voting. • They banned the use of disguise to deprive any person of rights

  5. The laws allowed the US Army and federal courts to capture and punish KKK members • This effort soon broke the power of the KKK but other groups would continue to operate.

  6. SUPPORT FOR RECONSTRUCTION DECLINES • White southerners claim the Enforcement Acts threatened individual freedoms • Northerners were dismayed that the army was still required to keep peace in the south • Conditions in the south strengthened the LIBERAL REPUBLICANS

  7. This group split from the party over the Enforcement Acts and scandals that plagued the Grant Administration • Grant was re-elected in 1872 • Radical Republicans helped Democrats regain control of the House in 1874 • The Republican majority in the Senate was cut in half • A 5-year depression began in 1873

  8. THE END OF RECONSTRUCTION • By mid-1870s reconstruction was on the decline • The main leaders of reconstruction, Rep. Thaddeus Stevens and Sen. Charles Sumner, had died • Supreme Court decisions weakened key part of the reconstruction program • 1873—Supreme Court ruled in the SLAUGHTERHOUSE CASES that most civil rights/freedoms remained under state control

  9. In US vs. Cruikshank (1873), the Supreme Court said XIVth Amendment didn’t empower the federal government to punish whites for suppressing African Americans • In US vs. Reese (1876), XVth Amendment didn’t protect voting rights that were denied for reasons other than race

  10. “REDEEMING” THE SOUTH • As support for reconstruction declined, southern democrats became stronger and bolder • Terrorists publicly threatened, beat, and murdered Republican candidates • On election days armed democrats stole ballot boxes and drove African Americans from polling places

  11. MS governor asked for federal help but President Grant refused because he said the north was tired the south’s problems • 1876—only SC, LA, FL under Republican control. Democrats controlled the others • THE ELECTION OF 1876 • Southern democrats had a direct impact on the presidential election of 1876

  12. Ohio Gov. Rutherford B. Hayes (R) vs. NY Gov. Samuel J. Tilden (D) • Tilden narrowly won the popular vote and finished ahead in the electoral college 184-165. • Tilden was 1 electoral vote short • 20 electoral votes disputed from OR, SC, FL, LA • People claimed voter fraud in these states

  13. OR’s disputed vote went to Hayes • Democrats threatened to put Tilden in the White House by force—”Tilden or War” • January 1877—Congress created the Electoral Commission to solve the crisis • COMPROMISE OF 1877—Hayes would become President and the federal troops were withdrawn from the south

  14. RECONSTRUCTION’S LEGACY • 14th & 15th amendments began permanent change in the South and North • NEW SOUTH—late 1800s & early 1900s—a time of industrialization and economic change • Supreme Court weakened protections of the 14th and 15 amendments • If the Civil War was fought to settle states’ rights, reconstruction showed that it failed to do so.

  15. Reconstruction intensified the hostility many white southerners had toward the Republican party • 1870s-1970s—South was so strongly Democratic—SOLID SOUTH • 1970s—Republican Party started to regain the level of support is has today • THE END

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