DK - The American Civil War

The End of Reconstruction

The Northern “retreat from Reconstruction” brought the era to a conclusion in 1877. The causes ranged

broadly and included Republican political corruption in the Grant years, an economic depression that

crippled the nation, the rise of virulent racism, and the hotly contested presidential election of 1876.

LEGACIES OF THE WAR

Grant, some of whom were his relatives,

were exposed. Cabinet ministers, such as

interior secretary Columbus Delano,

were found guilty of accepting bribes.

Election violence

Outside political circles, hardening

racial attitudes took their toll on

Northern willingness to enforce

Reconstruction. Even in the North,

the implementation of the Fifteenth

Amendment—affirming the right of all

citizens to vote, regardless of color—

proved divisive. In Philadelphia, for

example, there was violence during

elections for local government offices

in October 1871 as new, mostly

Republican-supporting black voters

upset the balance of power in traditional

Democratic bastions. One

victim was a prominent

black teacher

D

isillusionment with the

Republican Party was a major

factor in the failure of

Reconstruction. In 1869, General

Ulysses S. Grant succeeded Andrew

Johnson as president, but during

the course of his two terms in the

White House, a scandal-racked

administration made the word

“Grantism” a synonym for political

corruption. Grant himself was honest,

but he was inexperienced—at age 46

when first inaugurated, he was the

youngest U.S. president until that

time—and politically inept. Loyalty to

old comrades made him appoint men

who proved to be all too fallible. In

addition, the very nature of the

political “spoils system”—by which

elected politicians were able to obtain

government jobs for party supporters—

encouraged dishonesty. Men close to

BEFORE

The Republican Party chose Union war

hero Ulysses S. Grant as its presidential

candidate in 1868 because he was popular

and a firm supporter of Reconstruction.

TWO TERMS

In the 1868 election, Grant won 52.7 percent

of the popular vote and 214 votes in the

Electoral College against 80 for his Democratic

rival, Horatio Seymour. Despite a deluge of

scandals, Grant himself remained popular and

won a second term in 1872, when his rival was the

veteran New York Tribune editor, Horace Greeley

❮❮ 20–21, leading an uneasy coalition of

breakaway Liberal Republicans and Democrats.

This time, Grant won 55.8 percent of the

popular vote and 286 electoral college votes.

THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT

First proposed in Congress a few weeks before

Grant’s inauguration, the Fifteenth Amendment

❮❮ 338–39 states: “The right of citizens of

the United States to vote shall not be denied

or abridged ... on account of race, color, or

previous condition of servitude.” The ratification

process was completed on February 3, 1870.

and civil rights campaigner, Octavius

Catto. He was shot on election day

by a Democratic Party worker and

died as a result of

the wounds. The

onset of economic

depression further

hardened Northern

attitudes. Although

the depression’s causes were complex

and international, in the United States

the root was a frenzy of government-

sponsored railroad development following

the Civil War. Massive investment in

unneeded railroad schemes created a

speculative bubble that burst in 1873

as railroad stocks lost value. This led to

widespread bank and business failure—

notably the collapse of Jay Cooke & Co.,

the very bank that had raised hundreds of

millions of dollars for the Union war

effort by masterminding the

selling of government bonds. This

financial turmoil led to unemployment

and wage cuts. Prosperity would not

return until the 1880s.

Northerners suffering their own

economic misfortunes were less likely to

sympathize with the plight of blacks and

the costs associated with Reconstruction

programs. The

Democratic Party

capitalized on

voter frustration

and won enough

seats in the 1874

election to gain control of the House

of Representatives. From now on,

Reconstruction policies would require

accommodation to Democratic wishes.

The “Southern question”

With the war a decade past, the

“Southern question” grew tiresome for

many Northerners. In the immediate

postwar period, most had been willing

to support dramatic transformations in

black civil rights in the South. Yet many,

even former abolitionists, held racist

Fraud and corruption

Entitled “It makes him sick,” a cartoon from Puck magazine

shows Ulysses S. Grant, a heavy smoker, sickening from

revelations of corruption. These included the Crédit Mobilier

scandal involving fraud by the Union Pacific Railroad.

In 1870, James Webster Smith from South

Carolina became West Point’s first black

cadet. He was severely harassed by fellow

cadets, including President Grant’s son, Fred.