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THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE

CHAPTER XXXII

POLITICS FROM 1868 TO 1880

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494. New Issues before the People. Five years had now passed since the surrender of Lee, and nine since the firing on Sumter. During these years the North, aroused and united. by the efforts put forth to crush the Confederacy, had entered on a career of prosperity and development greater than ever enjoyed in the past. With this changed condition came new issues, some growing out of the results of the war, and some out of the development of the country.

495. Amnesty. In the first place, now that the war was over, the people were heartily tired of war issues. Taking advantage of this, certain political leaders began, about 1870, to demand a "general amnesty"1 or forgiveness for the rebels, and a stoppage of reconstructive measures by Congress.

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496. The National Finances. A second issue resulting from the war was the management of the national finances. ary 1, 1866, the national debt amounted to $2,740,000,000, including (1) the bonded debt of $1,120,000,000, and (2) the unbonded or floating debt of $1,620,000,000, that part made up of "greenbacks," fractional currency, treasury notes, and the like. Two problems were thus brought before the people: 1. What shall be done with the national bonded debt? 2. How shall the paper money be disposed of and "specie payment" resumed?

1 In 1863, Lincoln offered "full pardon" to "all persons 99 except the leaders of the "existing rebellion." Johnson, in 1865, again offered amnesty, but increased the classes of excepted persons; and, though in the autumn of 1867 he cut down the list, he nevertheless left a great many men unpardoned.

As to the first question, it was decided to pay the bonds as fast as possible; and by 1873 the debt was reduced by more than $500,000,000.

As to the second question, it was decided to "contract the currency" by gathering into the Treasury and there canceling the "greenbacks." This was begun, and their amount was reduced from $449,000,000 in 1864 to $356,000,000 in 1868.

By that time a large part of the people in the West were finding fault with "contraction." Calling in the greenbacks, they held, was making money scarce and lowering prices. Congress, therefore, in 1868 yielded to the pressure, and ordered that further contraction should stop and that there should not be less than $356,000,000 of greenbacks.

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497. "The Ohio Idea"; the Greenback Party. But there was still another idea current. To understand this, six facts must be remembered. 1. In 1862 Congress ordered the issue of certain 5-20 bonds; that is, bonds that might be paid after five years, but must be paid in twenty years. 2. The interest on these bonds was made payable "in coin." 3. But nothing was said in the bond as to the kind of money in which the principal should be paid. 4. When the greenbacks were issued, the law said they should be "lawful money and a legal tender for all debts, public and private, within the United States, except duties on imports and interest as aforesaid." 5. This made it possible to pay the principal of the 5-20 bonds in greenbacks instead of coin. 6. Fearing that payment of the principal in greenbacks might have a bad effect on future loans, Congress, when it passed the next act (March 3, 1863) for borrowing money, provided that both principal and interest should be paid in coin.

At that time and long after the war "coin" commanded a premium; that is, it took more than 100 cents in paper money to buy 100 cents in gold. Anybody who owned a bond could therefore sell the coin he received as interest for paper and so increase the rate of interest measured in paper money. The bonds, again, could not be taxed by any state or municipality.

Because of these facts, there arose a demand after the war for two things-taxation of the bonds and payment of the 5-20's in greenbacks. This idea was so prevalent in Ohio in 1868 that it was called the "Ohio idea," and its supporters were called "Greenbackers."

498. Opposition to Land Grants to Railroads. Much fault was now found with Congress for giving away such great tracts of the public domain. In 1862 a law known as the Home

stead Act was passed. to be given to any head of a family, or any person twentyone years old, who was a citizen of the United States or, being foreign born, had declared an intention to become a citizen, provided he or she lived on the farm and cultivated it for five years. Under this great and generous law 103,000 entries for 12,000,000 acres were made between 1863 and 1870. This showed that the people wanted land and was one reason why it should not be given to corporations.

By it a farm of 80 or 160 acres was

499. The Election of 1868. The questions discussed above (pp. 437-439) became the political issues of 1868.

The Republicans nominated Grant and Schuyler Colfax and declared for the payment of all bonds in coin; for a reduction of the national debt and the rate of interest; and for the encouragement of immigration.

The Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour and Francis P. Blair, and demanded amnesty; rapid payment of the debt; "one currency for the government, and the people, the laborer, and the office holder"; the taxation of government bonds; and no land grants for public improvements.

The popular vote was 5,700,000. In the electoral college Grant had 214 votes, and Seymour 80.

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500. Troubles in the South; the Ku Klux Klan. Grant and Colfax began their term of office on March 4, 1869, and soon found that the reconstruction policy of Congress had not been so successful as they could wish, and that the work of protecting the freedman in the exercise of his new rights was not yet completed. Three states (Virginia, Mississippi, and

Texas) had not yet complied with the conditions imposed by Congress, and were still refused seats in the House and Senate. No sooner had the others complied with the Reconstruction Act of 1867, and given the negro the right to vote, than a swarm of Northern politicians, generally of the worst sort, went down and, as they said, "ran things." They began by persuading the negroes that their old masters were about to put them back into slavery, that it was only by electing Union men to office that they could remain free; and having by this means obtained control of the negro vote, they were made governors and members of Congress, and were sent to the state legislature, where, seated beside negroes who could neither read nor write, but who voted as ordered, these "carpetbaggers," as they were called, ruled the states in the interest of themselves rather than in that of the people.

Now, you must remember that in many of the Southern states the negro voters greatly outnumbered the white voters, because there were more black men than white men, and because many of the whites were still disfranchised; that is, could not vote. When these men, who were property owners and taxpayers, found that the carpetbaggers, by means of the negro vote, were plundering and robbing the states, they determined to prevent the negro from voting, and so drive the carpetbaggers from the legislatures. To do this, in many parts of the South they formed secret societies, called "The Invisible Empire" and "The Ku Klux Klan." Completely disguised by masks and outlandish dresses, the members rode at night, and whipped, maimed, and even murdered the objects of their wrath, who were either negroes who had become local political leaders, or carpetbaggers, or "scalawags," as the Southern whites who supported the negro cause were called. 501. The Fifteenth Amendment. To secure the negro the right to vote, and make it no longer dependent on state action,

1 As the men were not natives of the South, had no property there, and were mostly political adventurers, they were called "carpetbaggers," or men who owned nothing save what they brought in their carpetbags.

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