A School History of the United States

by John Bach McMaster

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 Homestead Act was passed. By it a farm of 80 or 160 acres was to be given to any head of a family, or any person twenty-one 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.

%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.

%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," [1] as they were called, ruled the states in the interest of themselves rather than in that of the people.

[Footnote 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.]

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, a Fifteenth Amendment was passed by Congress in February, 1869, and, after ratification by the necessary number of states, was put in force in March, 1870. As the Ku Klux were violating this amendment, by preventing the negroes from voting, Congress, in 1871, passed the "Ku Klux" or "Force" Act. It prescribed fine and imprisonment for any man convicted of hindering, or even attempting to hinder, any negro from voting, or the votes, when cast, from being counted.