2 Reconstruction II Key Terms Fifteenth Amendment Enforcement Acts Election of 1876 I Fall of Johnson Rise of Grant 1 Johnson s Impeachment In 1867 the political fights pushes all reconstruction to the side In 1868 Johnson is impeached by the radical republicans Impeachment comes from House of Representatives The two groups issued charges against Johnson The trail for the president goes to the Senate He got articles of impeachment first time in American history He only gets kicked out of presidency if he is found guilty In March 1868 he goes on trial Radical republicans were worried if it happened the first time it would continue and become easier making the government unstable so they re looking to make a deal Make a deal for Johnson to stay president the Radical Republicans want two promises first for him to swear he will never run for president again which Johnson agrees to Second promise republicans want Johnson to pass every single law they put through He can t veto must sign everything they want Basically took every presidential power he has a squashed it In the process they haven t been rebuilding the country Reconstruction eventually grind to a halt In 1868 it begins to pick up again 2 Election of Grant Ulysses S Grant is general that one the war for North and radical republicans want him to be president He is republican nominee which should be a no questions asked victory Samuel Tilden runs for president on democratic side They end up having the nastiest presidential campaign in history Got racially ugly Democrats saying vote for Grant is voting to allow black men to rape white women but Republicans are all for equality Republicans say if you vote for Tilden you re voting for people responsible for murder and Civil War The campaign is much closer than expected Grant wins the election but by a very small margin The power looks like it is going down for Republicans because they did not win by as much as they thought The next time around they could very easily lose 3 Fifteenth Amendment Part of a series of amendments from radical republicans Deals with voting rights of African Americans in 1870 You cannot deny the right to vote based on race They were not allowed to say no to African Americans that wanted to vote Has a benefit for republicans BUT THERE ARE SOME LOOPHOLES AMENDMENT FAILS TO ADDRESS 3 ways to decide if people can or cannot vote 1 Poll tax you have to have a certain amount of money paid to the state to be able to vote African Americans have little money so might not be able to vote but there is also white people that have limited money as well It targets the poor as a whole 2 Literacy test Must read to vote but it was not basic literacy it was very hard African Americans struggled and also whites that had limitations on their education Again poor are targeted 3 Grandfather clauses if your grandfather voted then you will have the right to vote Even if you do not pass the first two Whites were added back because whites were most likely potential voters but African Americans couldn t because their grandfathers were black which meant they weren t voting Significance opens up participation for African Americans to vote In the short term the amendment tell us radical republican power is limited because of the loop holes they needed in order for amendment to pass Big demonstration of Radical Republican decreasing power When these loop holes were placed it will have lasting impacts because in the end it excludes blacks Individual states decide who can vote they are the ones that have that power and authority II The Reconstructed South 1 Rise of the Ku Klux Klan White southerners handled their emotions by making groups like the KKK These were secret societies who used violence as a tool to spread fear and terror to specific people African Americans The KKK were founded in Pulaski Tennessee in 1866 The KKK didn t target massive groups at once they tend to target individuals These violent attacks ended in death These people targeted tend to be leaders political minister etc because any success of these African Americans is hurting the whites Fear and terror are one of the key goals of these violent acts This tells the next leader not to do it or they will be killed too These people are a threat KKK wore masks hoods of some kind to keep their identity a secret It takes their responsibility out of it they are rather part of a big group it gives people a way to divorce their responsibility from their actions They are not very worried about getting caught because the police typically look the other way or even be members of this group Everything about this system is designed to systematically purposefully oppress African American and those who help them of getting equality in the south 1865 1870 a massive increase of acts of racial violence towards African Americas 2 Enforcement Acts 1870 and 1871 the Radical Republicans pass laws called the enforcement acts The acts authorize the US Army to go into southern states the army can arrest put on trial execute those committing racial violence These laws give Army this power because the South is not following the law The enforcement acts outlaw secret societies It s illegal to even belong to one You could be arrested for the US to even think someone is associated with the group Acts of violence go dramatically down the message that gets sent is if you re a KKK member stop because army is coming after you to put you on trial to execute you and make an example of what not to do Within the next year after the act is not renewed racial violent sky rockets Once the laws are off the books KKK feels perfectly at ease to go back and kill Significance in short term it stalled the problem theoretically government is trying to fix the problem but in the long term it gets worse Once radical republicans stop renewing this law acts of violence goes up III The End of Reconstruction 1 Republicans growing tired By early 1870 s radical republicans are getting sick and tired of reconstruction because south refuses to adopt this idea of equality They tried doing a number of things for equality but was not working After nothing is happening republicans get a little tired of no results They are tired of fighting the south every step of the way to get white southerners to buy into equality Its wearing them down 2 The Panic of 1873 Republicans find a strong and striving economy 3 Election of 1876 to be their number one goal In 1873 there is a financial