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Congress and Racial Equality (1866-1870) Currency Issues (1870-1896) The Overturn of Reconstruction The Gilded Age and Ethnocultural Politics The First and Second New Deals
CONGRESSIONAL ATTEMPTS TO ESTABLISH RACIAL EQUALITY IN THE SOUTH (1866-1870)
Bills drafted by moderate Republicans to address difficulties caused by the Black CodesJoint Committee on Reconstruction drafted the 14th Amendment as a response to the vetoes (1866)
- extension of the Freedmen's Bureau (1866)
- extended the life of the Freedmen's Bureau and its efforts to aid the freedmen
- authorized the agency to set up courts to safeguard the rights of freedmen until the Southern states were returned to the Union
- the bill was vetoed by Andrew Johnson (2/66)
- 1866 Civil Rights Act--an attempt to enforce the 13th Amendment
- defined the citizenship rights of ex-slaves (the right to own/rent property; the right to make contracts; access to courts) Anyone appealing a case involving the denial of these rights could take the case to a federal court
- no guarantee of the vote for the freedmen
- This bill was also vetoed by Andrew Johnson but was overriden in 4/66 by Congress. Congress later passed the extension of the Freedmen's Bureau despite Johnson's second veto. Moderate Republicans now believed they had to form an independent plan.
- constitutional guarantee of citizenship for the freedmen
- encouraged but did not guarantee the enfranchisement of freedmen
- declared the Confederate debt to be "illegal and void"
- prohibited political power for prominent ex-Confederates
Andrew Johnson urged the Southern legislatures to reject the Amendment. All but one did so. This Southern lack of action plus the results of the 1866 elections pushed the moderates into the position of accepting the Radicals' call for a guarantee of black suffrage.
Reconstruction Acts of 1867Drafting the 15th Amendment
- the South was to be divided into 5 military districts
- military commanders were to register all black adult males and were to have discretion in registering ex-Confederates
- new state constitutions had to guarantee black suffrage
- voters had to ratify these constitutions and Congress had to accept them
- state legislatures had to accept (approve) the 14th Amendment
- enough states had to ratify to make the 14th Amendment part of the Constitution
- barred from political office those Confederates enumerated by the 14th Amendment
This Amendment forbade states from prohibiting its citizens the right to vote on the basis of race, color, or previous servitude.
REASONS FOR THE OVERTURN OF RECONSTRUCTION
Reasons in the SouthReasons in the North
- State governments in the South quickly restored the voting rights of former Confederates.
- Reconstruction governments' appeal for and interest in industrialization locked southern Republicans into a conservative strategy. They were too interested in appealing to a white elite which never responded and they did not fully investigate the possibility of building a strong class-based appeal to poorer whites.
- Reconstruction governments were burdened by indebtedness and corruption.
- Reconstruction governments were forced to increase taxes to pay for roads, schools, etc. and this raised much opposition.
- Reconstruction governments fell victim to terrorism (KKK). Southern conservative whites sought to reestablish power through implementation of the Mississippi Plan.
- There was a lack of total commitment by northern Republicans. Many Northerners tired of the financial aid and bloodshed needed to support the policies of Reconstruction. There was a growing belief that the freedmen should fend for themselves without more federal assistance.
- Congressional Republicans never made any serious, long-lasting attempt to implement a plan for massive land distribution among freedmen. Blacks were thus never equipped with the economic means to strengthen their new right to vote. Whites were therefore able to compromise/weaken the Blacks' political freedom.
- Congress weakened in its resolve to enforce the acts of Reconstruction
- 1870-1871 Force Acts to counterattack the KKK did not result in enough convictions
- Congressional Joint Resolution removed the political disabilities imposed upon former Confederates by the 14th Amendment
- 1872 Amnesty Act provided sweeping amnesty to most former Confederates
- 1875 Civil Rights Act had no effective enforcement provisions
- The North was distracted by other issues--industrialization; immigration; expansion westward; Panic of 1873 and economic badtimes; search for monetary solutions to ease the bad times
- President Hayes removed all remaining federal troops from the South
CURRENCY ISSUES IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY (1870-1896)
After the Civil War, increased industrial and agricultural production led to a fall in prices. These prices would plummet even further with depressions in the 1870s and 1890s. Farmers, most of whom were debtors, suffered with lower prices for their crops becuase they still had to pay mortgage and interest payments. Farmers and debtors thus became inflationists, hoping that an increased money supply would ease their difficulties. these inflationists called for greenbacks and the coining of silver as solutions.
GREENBACKS (paper money unbacked by gold) had been issued during the Civil War and debtor interests hoped to keep them in circulation and even increase their supply. In 1874, Congress voted to increase the number of greenbacks in circulation, but Grant vetoed it in response to those who supported sound money (the gold standard). The 1875 Resumption Act responded to sound money interests by mandating that greenbacks could be converted into gold beginning in 1879. This was a great blow to inflationists because it limited the inflationary impact of greenbacks.
SILVER was another way to increase the money supply so as to help debtors and stabilize prices. Up until 1873, the government coined both silver and gold dollars (the bimetallic standard). A silver dollar weighed 16 times more than a gold dollar, meaning that gold was officially worth 16 times as much as silver. When new gold discoveries lowered gold's market price compared to silver, silver producers preferred to sell silver on the open market rather than to the government. Silver dollars disappeared as they were hoarded and in 1873, Congress officially stopped coining silver dollars. This "demonetization" of silver was called the Crime of '73 by inflationists.
In a few years, new silver mines in the U.S. began to flood the market with silver and its price dropped. It would have been profitable to sell silver to the government in return for gold, but the government was no longer buying silver. Those who saw silver as a way to expand the currency supply now joined with silver interests to denounce the Crime of '73 and press for the resumption of coinage at at the old 16:1 ratio.
The political parties and Congress were both split in gold/silver factions and Congress tried to neutralize the issue with compromise legislation. The 1878 Bland-Allison Act required the Treasury to buy between $2 and $4 million in silver each month. This act remonetized silver with strict limits. It required the government to purchase and coin between $2 and $4 million monthly. The next piece of compromise legislation was the 1890 Sherman Silver Purchase Act which directed the Treasury to purchase a set weight of silver (4.5 million ounces) a month. The Treasury was to issue legal tender Treasury notes (silver certificates) in payment for it. These silver certificates were to be redeemable in either gold or silver coin. Both these Acts were compromises as the go;vernment was not required to coin all the silver offered to its mints.
The Populist Party made the silver issue its key issue. The Populists called for the free and unlimited coinage of silver at a 16:1 ratio. This would increase the money supply and enable farmers to pay debts more easily. The free and unlimited coinage of silver would go beyond set limits of purchase mandated by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. However, proponents of the gold standard, like President Grover Cleveland, opposed free silver. When gold reserves fell after the Panic of 1893, not only did Cleveland turn his back on free silver, he urged and received the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893. When the depression failed to ease, supporters of silver kept up their demand.
The 1890s saw the money question become an issue that separated parties. Prior to that, the money issus cut across party lines. The Republicans supported McKinley and the gold standard in 1896 while the Democrats turned to William J. Bryan and free silver. The Populists eventually also nominated Bryan. Bryan's emphasis upon free silver did not find a receptive audience among workers in cities and in the Northeast. Urban workers shied away from the silver issue because they feared that high prices would result. Freesilver was thus one of the reasons for Bryan's defeat in 1896. The Democrats miscalculated on the silver issue and they held their support only in the South. The depression, Bryan's pietistic campaign which alienated the liturgical constituents of the Democratic Party, and free silver all contributed to the Democrats' losses in 1896. The Democrats were unable to withstand the Republicans' message of prosperity and their acceptance of pluralism. The Republicans became the majority political party for many years.
THE GILDED AGE AND ETHNOCULTURAL POLITICS
During the Gilded Age, religious and ethnic identification began to play a more significant role in party identifications and affiliations. People of liturgical or ritualist religions (Catholics, German Lutherans, Episcopalians, orthodox Calvinists and others) tended to be Democrats. People of pietistic or evangelical religions (Mehtodists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and others) tended to be Republicans.
Why was there such an affiliation? The liturgicals stressed the rituals and the institutions of their churches and they assigned the responsibility for individual morality and salvation to the church. Therefore, they restricted the government or state's role in prescribing the tone for personal morality. Consequently, they were more comfortable with the Democratic party which had a tradition of advocating minimal, limited government and limits on state authority.
On the other hand, pietists deemphasized church ritual and instead stressed the belief in and individual's role in providing for his/her salvation. They believed that individual salvation would be confirmed in a life of pure behavior. Therefore, they believed that the government or the state should be utilized to achieve the goals of morality. Consequently, they were more comfortable with the Republican party which had a tradition of advocating active, expansive government intervention in society.
Pietists (Republicans) believed that government should promote morality and purify society through prohibition, the implementation of teaching all school subjects in English, and the installation of Sunday closing laws. Liturgicals (Democrats) called for a pluralist society where more than one norm of conduct could be enjoyed and they viewed the Democratic party as the defender of individual liberties against the encroachment of government authority. The Democrats opposed prohibition, Sunday closings and they supported aid to parochial schools.
An understanding of ethnocultural politics is important in analyzing the election of 1896 and its role in ending political equilibrium and establishing the Republican party as the majority party through political realignment. William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic candidate, conducted his campaign as a moral crusade and he spoke in highly pietistic terms. He spoke of an "older America" where the values of moral life and rural life outweighed the values of urbanization and industrialization. His morally authoritative and pietistic tone was not welcomed by the liturgical Democrats' constituency who were interested in an acceptance of pluralism and diversity. On the other hand, William McKinley, the Republican candidate, retreated away from making his party the party of morality. He deemphasized the pietistic arguments that had hurt the Republicans earlier in the decade and instead called for themes of prosperity anad progress that all Americans could enjoy. While Bryan's stance was alien to the traditional Democrats, McKinley's pluralist arguments brought many former Democrats into the Republican fold. Consequently, the Republicans made strong "inroads" into Democratic ranks and established the Republican party as the majority party for most of the time until the New Deal. The Republicans argued that they were better equipped to govern a country of diversity and the 1896 election thus broke the era of political equilibrium.
| THE FIRST NEW DEAL | |||
| RECOVERY | RELIEF | REFORM | |
| Emergency Banking Act Economy Act Banking Act of 1933 (FDIC) Beer and Wine Revenue Act Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) Farm Credit Act National Industrial Recovery Act (NRA) |
Home Owners Refinancing Act (HOLC) Civilian Conservation Corps Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA) Public Works Administration (PWA) Civil Works Administration (CWA) |
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Federal Securities Act 1934 Securities Exchange Act (SEC) |
|
| It can be argued that parts of the First New Deal typified TR's New Nationalism in that several of the agencies demonstrated planning, centralization, and a partnership between government and business. The First New Deal told business what it must do. The First New Deal represented FDR's attempt to construct a "via media" (middle way) through a classless coalition of all interests. FDR hoped to act as the arbiter of all interests--the rich and poor, workers and farmers, rural and urban. | |||
| THE SECOND NEW DEAL | |||
| National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) Social Security Act Emergency Relief Appropriation Act
Public Utilities Holding Company Act Revenue Act (Wealth Tax Act) |
The Second New Deal demonstrated FDR's abandonment of the "via media" (middle way). The Second New Deal was a dramatic movement to the left (more lberal) as FDR reacted to criticism from the right (conservatives) and pressure from the left. It can be argued that certain parts of the Second New Deal typified Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom as those parts hoped to restore individual opportunity and economic competition. The Second New Deal contained certain aspects which told business what it must not do. | ||
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