APUSH 6 PART 2
Terms
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- Ex parte Milligan
- This was an 1866 Supreme Court limiting the authority of martial law and the suspension of habeas corpus in times of war. In this case, the court declared that "martial law can never exist where the courts are open in the proper and unobstructed exercise of their jurisdiction."
- Radical Republicans
- Powerful block of Republican congressmen who advocated immediate emancipation of the slaves and even to the extent of complete equality. Criticized Lincoln on his slow emancipation actions and the delayed use of African Americans as soldiers. During Reconstruction, they wanted to remove the white elite power structure from the south.
- Wade-Davis Bill
- Congress, in July 1864, called for a stricter form of Reconstruction than that proposed by Lincoln. This included an Iron Clad oath and military reconstruction. After Lincoln pocket vetoed this bill, radicals sought to displace him. They issued a statement, which declared the primacy of Congress in matters of the Reconstruction.
- Reconstruction Acts of 1867
- This divided the Confederate states except Tennessee into five military districts. Military commanders in the districts were appointed to oversee constitutional conventions in the districts and the creation of state constitutions. This military occupation would last until the states created new constitutions that included black suffrage, the permanent disfranchisement of Confederate leaders, and ratification of the 14th Amendment.
- Scalawags
- This was a white Southerner who joined the Republican party during the Reconstruction period. They were considered traitors to the Southern cause and were condemned by Southern Democrats. The term was applied both to entrepreneurs who supported Republican economic policies and Whig planters who had opposed secession.
- Carpetbaggers
- These were Northerners who went to the South during Reconstruction, and most intended to settle in the South and make money there. The African-American vote won them important posts in Republican state governments.
- Black Codes
- These were local laws intended to force African-Americans to continue working as plantation laborers. They imposed prohibitive taxes, harsh vagrancy laws meant to intimidate the freedmen, restrictions on blacks’ ability to own property. Essentially, they condemned the newly-freed slaves to conditions not unlike slavery.
- Ku Klux Klan
- This was an organization formed by ex-Confederates and led by Nathan B. Forrest. It was founded in the South in 1866 in opposition to Reconstruction. Members used disguises, rituals, whippings and lynchings, to terrorize African-Americans and their supporters.
- Thaddeus Stevens
- As a leader of the radical Republicans’ Reconstruction program after the Civil War, he saw the Southern states as "conquered provinces." He sincerely desired the betterment of the lives African-Americans. He proposed the Fourteenth Amendment, guaranteeing civil rights and was a leader in the impeachment of President Johnson.
- Charles Sumner
- He was the aggressive abolitionist who was physically assaulted by Preston Brooks after making a strong antislavery speech. He was one of the leaders of the radical Republicans’ Reconstruction program and was also an active participant in the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.
- Freedmen’s Bureau
- It furnished food and medical supplies to blacks, and to needy whites as well. It was also concerned with the regulation of wages and working conditions, the maintenance of schools for illiterate former slaves, and the distribution of lands abandoned by or confiscated from Southern proprietors.
- Thirteenth Amendment
- : It prohibited "slavery or involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." This guaranteed freedom for African Americans.
- Fourteenth Amendment
- It said that no state can make or enforce any law which "deprives any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Also, states could not "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
- Fifteenth Amendment
- This explicitly forbid denial of the right to vote for citizens "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
- Tenure Of Office Act
- This was a measure passed by Congress in 1867. It prohibited the president from dismissing any cabinet member or other federal officeholder whose appointment had required the consent of the Senate unless the Senate agreed to the dismissal. Johnson’s violation of this act caused the impeachment crisis.
- Compromise of 1877
- As a result of the electoral vote from the election of 1876, Congress created a 15-member bipartisan commission, on January 29, 1877, to resolve the dispute concerning the electoral votes between Tilden and Hayes. The committee consisted of five Democrats, five Republicans, and five Supreme Court justices. Hayes was unanimously awarded the electoral votes from Oregon and South Carolina and the ones from Louisiana by a commission vote of 8 to 7.
- Solid South
- After Reconstruction, the South became extremely Democratic. Once they gained control, the Democrats cut back expenses, wiped out social programs, lowered taxes, and limited the rights of tenants and sharecroppers. These white southerners remained a major force in national politics well into the 20th century.
- Sharecropping
- It was the farm tenancy system that arose from the cotton plantation system after the Civil War. Landlords provided land, seed, and credit. The farmers contributed labor and received a share of the crop’s value, minus their debt to the landlord. The workers could be tied indefinitely to the land due to an accumulation of debt. This along with the crop lien system held back African Americans economically.
- Crop Lien System
- The white southern landowners possessed a tight hold over African American farm production during much of the Reconstruction period. Black economic rights were eroded away with this and along with sharecropping. A cycle of dependency and debt would be the result of these systems.
- Whiskey Ring
- ": Grant’s private secretary, Orville Babcock, was unmasked in 1875 after taking money from a group of distillers who bribed federal agents to avoid paying millions in taxes. On May 10, 1875, 16 distillers in areas of Saint Louis, Milwaukee, and Chicago were captured.
- Credit Mobilier
- Officials of the Union Pacific Railroad created a fake construction company, in order to cheat the government out of money allotted to the construction of the Union Pacific Railroads. Grant’s vice-president, Colfax, was linked to this scandal.
- Election of 1872
- Republicans unhappy with the reelection of President Ulysses S. Grant formed the Liberal Republican party and nominated as their candidate the journalist Horace Greeley. Although he was also endorsed by the Democrats, Greeley was defeated, and the new party collapsed.
- "Waving the bloody shirt"
- During the election of 1876, the Republicans backed Rutherford Hayes against the Democratic candidate, Samuel Tilden. The tactic emphasized wartime animosities by urging northern voters to vote the way they shot.
- Election of 1876
- The presidential election resulted in neither Democrat Samuel Tilden nor Republican Rutherford Hayes receiving the 185 electoral votes necessary to become president. There were 20 disputed votes, and a Congressional committee gave all of these to Hayes, making him president. In exchange, he ended military rule of the South.