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→Policy Issues
==Policy Issues==
==Policy Issues==
[[File:Lynch.jpg|thumb|450px|left|The first victims (yellow line) were Republican [[carpetbagger]]s; once they were driven out the Democrats turned on Blacks (blue line).<br>Source: Historical Statistics of the U.S., and is based on the 1952 Negro year Book.]]
There were conflicting theories of what the national government could and should do to restore the South to a normal status. The key constitutional provision was the national government must guarantee to every state a "republican form of government." Exactly what that meant was the issue. Radical Republican [[Charles Sumner]] argued that secession had destroyed statehood alone but the Constitution still extended its authority and its protection over individuals, as in the territories. [[Thaddeus Stevens]] and his followers viewed secession as having left the states in a status like newly conquered territory.
There were conflicting theories of what the national government could and should do to restore the South to a normal status. The key constitutional provision was the national government must guarantee to every state a "republican form of government." Exactly what that meant was the issue. Radical Republican [[Charles Sumner]] argued that secession had destroyed statehood alone but the Constitution still extended its authority and its protection over individuals, as in the territories. [[Thaddeus Stevens]] and his followers viewed secession as having left the states in a status like newly conquered territory.
Republican leaders agreed that slavery and the [[Slave Power]] had to be permanently destroyed, and that all forms of Confederate nationalism had to be suppressed. Moderates said this could be easily accomplished as soon as Confederate armies surrendered and the Southern states repealed secession and ratified the 13th Amendment (which abolished slavery); all of which happened by September 1865, when Johnson felt Reconstruction was finished.
Republican leaders agreed that slavery and the [[Slave Power]] had to be permanently destroyed, and that all forms of Confederate nationalism had to be suppressed. Moderates said this could be easily accomplished as soon as Confederate armies surrendered and the Southern states repealed secession and ratified the 13th Amendment (which abolished slavery); all of which happened by September 1865, when Johnson felt Reconstruction was finished.
By 1866, however, Johnson, with no party affiliation, broke with the moderate Republicans and aligned himself more with the Democrats who opposed equality and the Fourteenth Amendment. Radicals attacked the policies of Johnson, especially his veto of the Civil Rights Bill for the Freedmen.
By 1866, however, Johnson, with no party affiliation, broke with the moderate Republicans and aligned himself more with the Democrats who opposed equality and the Fourteenth Amendment. Radicals attacked the policies of Johnson, especially his veto of the Civil Rights Bill for the Freedmen. The [[Ku Klux Klan]] was founded the same year by members of the [[Democratic Party]] to inflict violence against black leaders and white Republicans.<ref>http://www.history.com/topics/ku-klux-klan</ref> Its purpose was to take control and return Democrats to power. One of the founders, and the first "Grand Wizard," was former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Attempts were made to break up the Klan by President [[Ulysses S. Grant]] and the U.S. Army using the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act).
The House elections of 1866 decisively changed the balance of power, giving the Radicals control of Congress and enough votes to overcome Johnson's vetoes and even to impeach him. Johnson was acquitted by one vote, but he remained almost powerless regarding Reconstruction policy. Radicals used the Army to take over the South and give the vote to black men, and they took the vote away from an estimated 10,000 or 15,000 white men who had been Confederate officials or senior officers. The Radical stage lasted for varying lengths in the different states, where a Republican coalition of Freedmen, Scalawags, and Carpetbaggers took control and promoted modernization through railroads and public schools. They were charged with corruption by their Southern Democrat opponents, calling themselves "Redeemers" after 1870. Violence sponsored by the Democrat-founded [[Ku Klux Klan]] was overcome by federal intervention.
Republicans stripped [[white]] [[male]]s who engaged in rebellion against the [[United States]] of the [[vote]], and gave it to Blacks. Newly freed Blacks held local, state and federal elected and non-elected positions as Republicans. The white males who were deprived of the vote were also barred from holding any civil service position and were universally Democrats. This disenfranchisement created enormous resentment among Democrats, so they formed the Ku Klux Klan to engage in voter intimidation and suppression.
[[Image:Artoon.jpg|left|200px|thumb|A political cartoon depicting the KKK and the Democrat Party as continuations of the Confederacy]]
The House elections of 1866 decisively changed the balance of power, giving the Radicals control of Congress and enough votes to overcome Johnson's vetoes and even to impeach him. Johnson was acquitted by one vote, but he remained almost powerless regarding Reconstruction policy. Radicals used the Army to take over the South and give the vote to black men, and they took the vote away from an estimated 10,000 or 15,000 white men who had been Confederate officials or senior officers. The Radical stage lasted for varying lengths in the different states, where a Republican coalition of Freedmen, Scalawags, and Carpetbaggers took control and promoted modernization through railroads and public schools. They were charged with corruption by their Southern Democrat opponents, calling themselves "Redeemers" after 1870.
By 1877, however, Redeemers regained control of every state, and President [[Rutherford Hayes]] withdrew federal troops, causing the collapse of the remaining three Republican state governments. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were permanent legacies. Bitterness from the heated partisanship of the era lasted well into the 20th century.
The Ku Klux Klan started attacking Black Republican conventions. At the Republican convention in Louisiana, the Klan joined with [[New Orleans]] police and New Orleans' Democrat mayor. The New Orleans Republican convention was attacked. 40 Blacks and 20 whites were killed. Another 150 were wounded. In 1868 the Democrats put out push cards in South Carolina listing what they called the 'radical' members of the South Carolina legislature. A push card is about the size of a baseball card. The cards had the pictures of 63 legislators they wanted to kill. 50 of the legislators were Black and 13 were white. All 63 were Republicans. On the back of the was the name of the legislator.
By 1876, the situation had become ungovernable for Republicans.<ref><small>"the Compromise of 1877, which resolved the disputed presidential election of 1876 by awarding the presidency to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes (who had lost the popular vote) in exchange for the removal of federal troops from the South after the Civil War (which benefited Democrats, who wished to end Reconstruction and return white supremacy to southern state governments)."</small> [https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/the-gilded-age/gilded-age/a/gilded-age-politics-patronage Gilded Age politics: patronage]. khanacademy.org</ref> The Republicans had been able to pass the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments which guaranteed Blacks basic equality and civil rights, but eventually had to declare an amnesty for whites who engaged in rebellion. Reconstruction ended, and Republicans withdrew from [[social engineering]] which had divided the country so deeply and stirred up such bitterness and hatred among Democrats toward both Blacks and Republicans. Reconstruction earned Republicans the undying [[hatred]] of Democrats.<ref>See for example [https://youtu.be/-yY7g2jOquM James O'Keefe debate with Hairy Hillbilly Hippie] for an example of a partisan Democrat who votes against his own economic interests.</ref><ref>See excerpt from [[Dinesh D'Souza]]'s, ''[https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/dinesh-dsouza-the-secret-history-of-the-democratic-party Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party]'', Regnery Publishing, July 18, 2016.</ref>
By 1877, however, Redeemers regained control of every state, and President [[Rutherford Hayes]] withdrew federal troops, causing the collapse of the remaining three Republican state governments. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were permanent legacies. [[African American]]s in the South were left to the mercy of increasingly hostile state governments dominated by white Democratic legislatures; neither the legislatures, law enforcement or the courts worked to protect freedmen.<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties|author=Finkelman, Paul|year=2006}}</ref> As [[Democrats]] regained power in the late 1870s, they struggled to suppress black voting through intimidation and fraud at the polls. [[Paramilitary]] groups such as the [[Red Shirts]] acted on behalf of the Democrats to suppress black voting. From 1890 to 1908, 10 of the 11 former Confederate states passed disfranchising constitutions or amendments,<ref>{{cite book|title=Democracy's Privileged Few|author=Chafetz, Joshua Aaron|year=2007}}</ref> with provisions for [[poll tax]]es,<ref name="Klarman, Michael J. 2004">{{cite book|title=From Jim Crow to Civil Rights|author=Klarman, Michael J.|year=2004}}</ref> residency requirements, [[literacy test]]s,<ref name="Klarman, Michael J. 2004"/> and [[grandfather clause]]s that effectively disfranchised most black voters and many poor white people. The disfranchisement also meant that black people could not serve on juries or hold any political office, which were restricted to voters; those who could not vote were excluded from the political system. Bitterness and hatred of Republicans by Democrats of the era lasted well into the 20th and 21s centuryies.
==Further reading==
==Further reading==