1. Reconstruction and the Gilded Age

• End of Reconstruction and the Gilded Age
• Domestic Policies: Social, International, Economic
• Branches of US Govt:

  • Legislative: Congress (Senate + House of Rep.) - Makes laws
  • Judicial: Supreme Court - Interprets the law and decides if they violate the constitution
  • Executive: President / Vice / Cabinet
  • President voted by electoral college every 4 years - Cabinet advises president
  • Enforces laws
  • Difficult for one part to control
  • Resentment in the south made it difficult to enforce any policies
• Johnson’s Reconstruction:

  • Restore the South ASAP
  • Wade-Davis Bill: all southerners except confederate soldiers and rich plantation owners were pardoned if they signed an oath of allegiance (13,000 pardons given)
  • Black-codes (harsh limitations)
• Johnson’s Impeachment:

  • House of Rep started impeachment laying 11 articles against him
  • Many republicans hesitated, and he stayed in office by one vote
  • Didn’t run in 1868
• Grant and Failed Reconstruction:

  • Grant won in 1868 by a small margin and relied on black votes in the south
  • Scandals and depression doomed presidency
  • Scandals: Gold Ring, Whisky Ring
  • Rec. Opposition: southerners / violence against blacks reduced rep. vote
  • Failure: democrat control reinstated / reconstruction faded away [1876]
• ERA OF WEAK PRESIDENTS:

  • Grant: scandals
  • Hayes: some progress in restoring political respectability / promised ‘home rule’ and protection of civil rights
  • Garfield: Self-educated and respected but assassinated early on
  • Cleveland: promised to keep tariffs low and tackle corruption but failed these promises
  • Harrison: Focused on keeping tariffs high and rewarded his supporters - corrupt
• Spoils System: positions in civil service to supporters / pork barrel politics
• Tweed Ring 1887: William Tweed responsible for $100-200 of fraud
• Lassiez-faire govt.: allowed free competition with minimal state interference

  • Led to Social Darwinism: survival of the fittest
  • Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890: law passed to ensure fair competition and business - used to organize monopolies
  • Reaction to Lassiez-faire:
  • Granger Movement: formed to help farmers with loans and advice
  • Knights of Labour: nationwide trade organization - 8-hour day campaign
  • Turner Thesis 1890: End of the frontier
• FOREIGN POLICY:

  • Monroe Doctrine: Tells foreign powers to leave the US alone and the US will leave them alone
  • Manifest Destiny: The idea that the US is better and more civilized, and they have a duty to spread their beliefs and culture
  • Purchase of Alaska: to maintain relations with Russia / Alaska was rich in resources
  • Tensions over Canada: Set up the 49th parallel but tension was caused due to fenian raids, red river colony, the Western Canadian province of British Columbia
• WHY DID THE US BECOME AN IMPERIAL POWER?

  • Economy: Surplus goods for exports to protect trade
  • Heavily invested in sugar production
  • Exploit resources of less developed countries
  • White Supremacy: Theory of ‘civilized’ races having to bring the benefits of their civilization
  • Preclusive Imperialism: USA took colonies to prevent others from doing so
  • Impact of Civil War: Demand for goods / had to raise money to pay for war / paper currency introduced / tariffs
  • Availability of Land: encouraged railroad development / fertile land led to production of wheat and farming expanded
• • Popularity growth: cheap labor for expansion / created further demand for clothes, coal, and food
  • Transport: 1869 - first transcontinental railroad opened / encouraged competition which pushed down prices
  • Role of the govt.: no law restricting hours of labor / no taxes on profits
  • Tech innovations: Andrew Carnegie brought progress to the US with low prices and re-investment
  • Corporation and trusts: Corporation - hire management team and take over more companies
  • Trusts - some states stopped people owning shares in more than one state
• • Robber Barons: Carnegie: Railroads + Steel, Rockefeller: Oil, Vanderbilt: Shipbuilding + Railroads, Morgan: Banks
  • Panic of 1873
  • Urbanization: Immigration led to growth in major cities and expansion in industries such as coal, iron, copper, etc. and improved technology
  • Agriculture: Suffered with lack of stability due to weather and economy which damaged their livelihood
  • Lack of govt. intervention: Led to wealthy industrialists using cartels and trusts to control their monopolies of various industries - robber barons taking over industries so that they can control prices of goods
• Weaknesses of the federal government:
• Constitution's system of "checks and balances" made it difficult for one party to control the presidency, senate, house of representatives, and supreme court
• Difficult for the federal government to take significant action
• Civil war demonstrated limits to states' rights in relation to the federal government
• Many, mainly democrats, believed that government functions should be carried out at the state level
• Presidents were more like figureheads than policy-makers
• Lincoln changed this dynamic due to his role as a war leader, but uncertainty remains about the future
• Congress was not frequently in session, resulting in few laws being passed
• Resentment in the south made it challenging to agree on a reconstruction policy or enforce it
• Main political parties were fractured after the civil war, leading to a lack of a common goal
• •    13th amendment - abolition of slavery.

  •    14th amendment - anyone born in the USA is a US citizen.
• Opposition to radical reconstruction:

  • Most Southerners detested the republicans in the south
  • Growing political opposition from southern states, who were gradually readmitted into the union and who then fought back against republicans
  • Violence and intimidation against blacks reduced the republican vote in the south
  • Many public posts went back into the hands of planter elites
  • By 1876, all but Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina were redeemed by the democrats
• Failure of radical reconstruction:

  • By 1875 support was waning in congress. Democrat control was reinstated in several Southern states
  • Grant approved the Amnesty Act (1872) which allowed for ex-confederates to be allowed to return to political life
  • Even radical republicans were tiring of the constant political battles
  • By the autumn of 1876, it was obvious that radical reconstruction was fading away in the south
• Isolationism

  •   Founding fathers of American independence were anxious to preserve the new nation from outside interference an ‘foreign entanglements’ due to:

  • •          Anti-colonialism this meant that they didn’t want colonies and would therefore want to remain was there own country, and free from outside interference reduce conflict with other countries (ie. Britain, France, Spain)

  •          Geographical isolation - 

  •          Land of the free - They had enough resources and land so they don’t need to expand 
• Trusts/large businesses threatened to establish monopolies in industries, leading to fixed prices without competition
• Hostility toward Rockefeller, Morgan, and Carnegie for putting profit before interests of the masses
• Growing demand for government regulation to control big business, especially trusts
• Corporations own multiple businesses and can hire desired management to run the corporation
• Corporations can buy, sell, own property, and take over more companies
• Some states prohibited individuals from owning shares in more than one state or company
• Three Standard Oil employees appointed as trustees for all property and assets of the company outside the state to avoid state laws
• Big businesses succeeded by merging with rival companies or potential competition, causing small businesses to go out of business
• Granger Movement:

  • National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry founded in 1867 to bring farmers together to promote agriculture and the community
  • Movement gained strong support in the South and West and was a forerunner of Populism
• The Knights of Labour:

  • Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labour formed in 1869 as a nationwide trade union organization
  • By the mid-1880s, it had over 100,000 members
• Cross of Gold Speech: Speech given by William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Democratic National Convention where he stated that he wanted silver rather than gold to be American’s bullion standard, and it was his goal to create inflation to help those in debt.
• Radical Republicans

  people who opposed Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction and believed that the Civil War had been fought over the moral issue of slavery; believed that Reconstruction should be total reconstructing of society to guarantee black people true equality