“Redeemers” And The End Of Reconstruction

ASU HST 200 (Historical Themes) The Era of Reconstruction, 1865–1877 “Redeemers” And The End Of Reconstruction The Klan and other covert White supremacist terrorist groups may have been viewed by the president and Congress as a threat to Southern stability and advancement, but many Southern Whites saw them as a necessary tool for maintaining order in a world gone crazy. The radical reconstruction project and the way Republicans had transformed southern society—putting Black people in positions of power and charging rich landowners to fund the education of freed slaves—humbled many White southerners. Redeemers were those who vowed to free their states from northern rule and bring back the antebellum social structure, which kept Black people safely under the heel of White people, and who were dedicated to reversing the tide of Radical Reconstruction in the South. As the Democratic Party's representative in the South, they put up endless effort to put an end to what they perceived as a period of "negro misrule." By 1877, they had succeeded in bringing about the "redemption" of the South, therefore crushing the hopes of Radical Reconstruction. Even though Ulysses S. Grant prevailed in the 1872 presidential contest for a second term, the Republican hold on national political authority started to loosen in the early 1870s. Republican rule was threatened by three significant incidents. First, a protracted economic depression began in the United States in 1873 as a result of economic unrest in Europe that had spilled over into the country. The bank of Jay Cooke & Company went bankrupt in the fall of 1873 due to unfulfilled debts, which caused a panic in the American financial markets. Democrats blamed Republicans for the ensuing economic downturn, which persisted for the majority of the decade. Second, there were internal conflicts within the Republican Party that resulted in two groups. Republicans started to criticize the federal government's overreaching role and advocated for restricting the scale and reach of federal projects. These supporters, who founded their own breakaway party, were known as Liberal Republicans because they supported limited government in line with classical liberalism. Their theories challenged the South's reliance on federal assistance to effect change, which altered the character of the Reconstruction argument. Republicans are now advocating for reducing Reconstruction operations. Third, scandals dogged the Grant administration, further undermining the Republicans and favoring the Democrats. A particular controversy surfaced about the embezzlement of funds from whiskey excise duties. Those at the top of the Grant administration were participating in the so-called "Whiskey Ring," which included Orville Babcock, the president's personal secretary. A different incident involved Crédit Mobilier of America, a construction business that is a subsidiary of the significant French banking group Crédit Mobilier. Crédit Mobilier was paid by the Union Pacific Railroad business, which was established by the federal government to build a transcontinental railroad during the Civil War. Nevertheless, Crédit Mobilier purchased Union Pacific Railroad bonds with the money it was given and sold them for a great profit. Vice President Schuyler Colfax and a few members of Congress had taken money from Crédit Mobilier in exchange for delaying an investigation. Democratic opponents of Reconstruction used the Crédit Mobilier swindle, which came to light in 1872, as proof that less government was preferable and as an illustration of corruption in the Republicandominated federal government. In the 1870s, the Democratic Party in the South made great strides toward removing the Republican-dominated state governments from political power. In the former Confederate states, the Ku Klux Klan and other paramilitary organizations in the South sometimes functioned as the armed branch of the Democratic Party. In an infamous incident that transpired after a closely watched 1872 Louisiana governor's race, up to 150 Republican-affiliated freedmen were shot and killed in the Colfax courthouse by armed Democrats, despite the fact that many of them attempted to surrender. The Democratic Party took controlled state politics in other parts of the South. By 1873, Democrats had taken control of Texas, and the following year, Arkansas and Alabama also became Democratic states. The Democrats made gains in national politics as well, particularly in the 1874 elections when they took back control of the House of Representatives for the first time since the Civil War. Except for Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana, which retained federal soldiers, every other southern state succumbed to the Democratic Party and the reestablishment of White supremacy. Everywhere they went, Southerners rejoiced in their "redemption" from the radical Republican regime.