The End of Reconstruction

Unit II – Chapter 5Ch. 12,3 text

Grant’s Presidency

Corruption scandal problems

Grant not directly involved, but failed to stop or address corruption of his friends and staff

Public grew tired of corruption of powerful industrialists and government officials

1873 – economic depression

Supreme Court

1873 – Slaughterhouse Cases

1875 – US v. Cruikshank

Limited the scope/influence of 14th and 15th amendment

Highlighted gov’t apathy towards equal civil rights

Southern Backlash

Formation of the KKK

Little fear of consequences

Redeemer movement – bipartisan effort to rebuild the traditional south (of course, the parties work together when they ought not too)

Reelection of white Confederates to political positions

1874 – Radical Republicans lost the House

Compromise of 1877

Election of 1876 Split between popular and electoral vote

Rutherford B. Hayes (Rep) elected president in exchange for the end of troop occupation and Cabinet positions for Southerners

Effectively ended Reconstruction

Public fatigued with Reconstruction and distracted by economic problems and concerns with immigration

Evaluating Reconstruction

Increased suffrage for blacks, but very limited gains

Reinvigorated women’s rights movement

Strengthened two party system – Rep. became seen as the party of big business, Dem. became associated as the pro-labor (and anti-black and immigrant) party

Increased power of federal government

Bitterness between North and South