Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of Reconstruction [1868-1876]

President Grant seeks to secure reconciliation, not conquest as white Southern
obstructionists threatened to spoil the fruits of Northern victory.

Election of 1868

Republican Ulysses Grant  a Military hero of the Civil War, defeats Democrat Horatio Seymour. The Democratic platform condemned “Negro supremacy,” and demanded a restoration of states’ rights, including the right of southern states to determine for themselves whether to allow suffrage for adult freedmen.

Grant led a corrupt administration, consisting of friends and relatives. Although Grant was personally a very honest and moral man, his administration was considered the most corrupt the U.S. had had at that time.

Issues facing Grant Administration

Fighting Racial Violence

Finances  

Frontier and Expansion

Election of 1872 

The United States presidential election of 1872 The incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant was easily elected to a second term in office with Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts as his running mate, despite a split within the Republican Party that resulted in a defection of many Liberal Republicans to opponent Horace Greeley. The other major political party, the Democratic Party, also nominated the candidates of the Liberal Republican ticket that year. 

  Corruption during Grant’s Administration

Credit Mobilier 1872

SCANDAL: Credit Mobilier was a dummy construction company formed by the Union Pacific RR to provide profits from the building of the line which were distributed to “worthy” congressmen in return for political favors

IMPACT: The fraud was exposed in 1872. It was apparent that Vice president Schuyler Colfax had been bribed with stock. House Speaker James A. Garfield was linked to the dealings, but his participation was never proven. Despite the loss of $20 million (a huge sum in the 1870s), no prosecutions ever occurred. 

Whiskey Ring 1875 

SCANDAL: President Grant’s personal secretary, General Orville E. Babcock allegedly directed the “Whiskey Ring”  by which the government was defrauded of millions of dollars in taxes through the sale of forged revenue stamps.

IMPACT: Indictments of more than 200 individuals, many from the Treasury department.

Indian Ring  1876

SCANDAL: Secretary of War William Belknap was impeached  by the House for accepting bribes from companies with licenses to trade on the reservations of many Native American tribes.

IMPACT : Belknap was impeached by the House of Representatives, but acquitted by the Senate in August 1876

Assessment  of Corruption during Grant’s Administration

 These unsavory dealings led to the establishment of a Liberal Republican Party. The true villain in these scandals was the spoils system in which successful officeholders rewarded their supporters with political appointments (remember the Age of Jackson?). An ever-growing part of the population began to recognize the need for some type of civil service reform.

Slaughterhouse Cases  In its first decision involving the 14th Amendment, the Supreme Court ruled that the amendment applied only to federal, and not state, violations of the privileges and immunities of U.S. citizens. It also held that the amendment’s equal protection clause applied only to state laws discriminating against African Americans 

In a 5-4 decision the Court ruled a sharp distinction between state privileges and rights and federal privileges and rights. The 14th Amendment protected only the latter; it offered no protection against state infringements. Later cases that held that the 14th amendment applies to the states as well. 

Slaughterhouse Cases (1873) – Excerpt from Majority Opinion, Justice Miller

 …We venture to suggest some [privileges and immunities] which owe their existence to the Federal government, its National character, its Constitution, or its laws. …It is said to be the right of the citizen of this great country, protected by implied guarantees of its Constitution, “to come to the seat of government to assert any claim he may have upon that government, to transact any business he may have with it, to seek its protection, to share its offices, to engage in administering its functions. He has the right of free access to its seaports, through which all operations of foreign commerce are conducted, to the subtreasuries, land offices, and courts of justice in the several States.” Another privilege of a citizen of the United States is to demand the care and protection of the Federal government over his life, liberty, and property when on the high seas or within the jurisdiction of a foreign government. …The right to peaceably assemble and petition for redress of grievances, the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, are rights of the citizen guaranteed by the Federal Constitution. The right to use the navigable waters of the United States, however they may penetrate the territory of the several States, all rights secured to our citizens by treaties with foreign nations, are dependent upon citizenship of the United States, and not citizenship of a State…

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