Ulysses Grant and Reconstruction
On May 22, 1876 (135 years ago today) President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Amnesty Act into law. This federal law removed voting restrictions and office-holding disqualification against most of the secessionists who served in the Confederacy during the Civil War. This act affected over 150,000 former Confederate troops who had taken part in the American Civil War, but exempted some 500 military leaders of the Confederacy. The original legislation which took away these rights from these people was passed by Congress on May 1866.
Grant's presidency included eight years of the period that historians call Reconstruction. Grant supported amnesty for former Confederates and signed the Amnesty Act to further this. He was also in favor of a limited number of troops being stationed in the South in sufficient numbers to protect Southern Freedmen, suppress the violent tactics of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), and prop up Republican governors, but not so many as to create resentment in the general population. That was his goal, though it is debatable whether he achieved any of these goals. But in a very enlightened move for the times, Grant signed the Naturalization Act of 1870 that allowed persons of African descent to become citizens of the United States.
In 1873, Grant met resistance from angry factions of northers because of the economic depression that began that year. Others in the country were tired of Grant's continuing to use the army to control politics in the former Confederate states. From 1873 to 1875, he watched as the Democrats took the control of all but three Southern states. The Republican coalition in the South was collapsing. When urgent telegrams from Republicans begged for Army help to put down the violence by paramilitary groups at election time, he told his Attorney General "the whole public is tired of these annual autumnal outbreaks in the South,", insisting that state militias should handle the problems, not the Army.
Grant was concerned with the plight of African Americans and native Indian tribes, in addition to civil rights for all Americans. Grant's 1868 campaign slogan was "Let us have peace." As president for two terms, Grant made many advances in civil and human rights. In 1869 and 1871, he signed bills promoting black voting rights and prosecuting Klan leaders. He won passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave freedmen the vote, and of the Ku Klux Klan Act, which empowered Grant "to arrest and break up disguised night marauders."
Grant pressed to have former slaves "possessed of the civil rights which citizenship should carry with it." But by 1874, a new wave of racist paramilitary organizations arose in the Deep South. The Red Shirts and White League, who conducted insurgency in Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Louisiana, operated openly and were better organized than the Ku Klux Klan had been. They aimed to turn Republicans out of office, suppress the black vote, and disrupt elections. In response to the renewed violent outbreaks against African Americans, Grant was the first President to sign a congressional civil rights act: the Civil Rights Act of 1875. This legislation called for equal treatment in public accommodations and jury selection.
Grant also attempted to provide rights for Native Americans, in a radical reversal of what had long been the government's policy. Grant told Congress "Wars of extermination are demoralizing and wicked," He lobbied to preserve Native American lands from encroachment by the westward advance of pioneers.
Grant's presidency included eight years of the period that historians call Reconstruction. Grant supported amnesty for former Confederates and signed the Amnesty Act to further this. He was also in favor of a limited number of troops being stationed in the South in sufficient numbers to protect Southern Freedmen, suppress the violent tactics of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), and prop up Republican governors, but not so many as to create resentment in the general population. That was his goal, though it is debatable whether he achieved any of these goals. But in a very enlightened move for the times, Grant signed the Naturalization Act of 1870 that allowed persons of African descent to become citizens of the United States.
In 1873, Grant met resistance from angry factions of northers because of the economic depression that began that year. Others in the country were tired of Grant's continuing to use the army to control politics in the former Confederate states. From 1873 to 1875, he watched as the Democrats took the control of all but three Southern states. The Republican coalition in the South was collapsing. When urgent telegrams from Republicans begged for Army help to put down the violence by paramilitary groups at election time, he told his Attorney General "the whole public is tired of these annual autumnal outbreaks in the South,", insisting that state militias should handle the problems, not the Army.
Grant was concerned with the plight of African Americans and native Indian tribes, in addition to civil rights for all Americans. Grant's 1868 campaign slogan was "Let us have peace." As president for two terms, Grant made many advances in civil and human rights. In 1869 and 1871, he signed bills promoting black voting rights and prosecuting Klan leaders. He won passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave freedmen the vote, and of the Ku Klux Klan Act, which empowered Grant "to arrest and break up disguised night marauders."
Grant pressed to have former slaves "possessed of the civil rights which citizenship should carry with it." But by 1874, a new wave of racist paramilitary organizations arose in the Deep South. The Red Shirts and White League, who conducted insurgency in Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Louisiana, operated openly and were better organized than the Ku Klux Klan had been. They aimed to turn Republicans out of office, suppress the black vote, and disrupt elections. In response to the renewed violent outbreaks against African Americans, Grant was the first President to sign a congressional civil rights act: the Civil Rights Act of 1875. This legislation called for equal treatment in public accommodations and jury selection.
Grant also attempted to provide rights for Native Americans, in a radical reversal of what had long been the government's policy. Grant told Congress "Wars of extermination are demoralizing and wicked," He lobbied to preserve Native American lands from encroachment by the westward advance of pioneers.