Reconstruction

The Reconstruction era 1865-77 included Lincoln's plan, Johnson's plan, and Radical Reconstruction 1867-77 at the national and state and local levels. Thomas Nast chronicled culture and politics in his cartoons, and D. W. Griffith later told the story of this era in his film Birth of a Nation. During the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant 1869-77, the KKK was suppressed, the transcontinental railroad built, homesteading began in the West, the Indian wars heated up after the failure of Grant's Peace Policy. A cattle boom began in Texas, and the mining boom that started in California expanded to other western states. Immigration to California caused nativism and federal regulation. The Centennial exposition of 1876 celebrated American progress, while the presidential election produced a constitutional crisis.

• Reconstruction part 1
• Reconstruction part 2
• Reconstruction part 3
• Reconstruction part 4
• BOAN
• Nast
• Centennial Exposition

   

   

   

   

   

   

XIV. Reconstruction

A. 3 kinds:

1. President

• Lincoln and Stanton's "soft" plan
• A. Johnson's 2 proclamations
  
• appoints W. Holden governor of North Carolina
  

2. Congress

• Sen. Charles Sumner, Lyman Trumbull
  
• House Joint Committee - Thaddeus Stevens
  
• 14th Amendment - 5 parts
  
• 4 Reconstruction Acts
  

3. State

• "fragile coalition" of scalawags, carpetbaggers, freedmen
  
• H. Revels, B. Bruce, John Lynch in Miss.
  

B. Impeachment

• "culmination of long power struggle" 1865-67
  
• compromises reached in Congress on process of readmission
  
• but no compromise on Stanton - Tenure of Office Act
  
• Johnson's personal behavior, 1866 National Union Party
  
• Republican whiggish ideology, activist program
  

C. film BIRTH OF A NATION 1915 by D.W. Griffith

• from distorted novel CLANSMEN by Thomas Dixon
  
• Cameron family (South) & Stoneman family (North)
  
• carpetbagger mulatto Sylas Lynch
  
• renegade black Union soldier Gus
  
• innocent little sister Flora
  
• "sugarcoating" of romance (Ben & Elsie)
  
• "pill" of history (South Carolina legislature)
  

D. Thomas Nast

• 1840-1902 from Germany to New York
  
• engraver for Harpers Weekly 1857-1886
  
• technique: caricature, emblem, allegory
  
• themes: urban, Republican, ethnocultural
  
• pro-freedman (emancipation emblem)
  
• anti-Johnson (Roman emperor)
  
• pro-Grant (1868 Chicago - loyal soldier)
  
• anti-Democrat (1868 evil alliance of 3 figures)
  
• anti-Tammany Hall in NY (Peter Sweeney)
  
• anti-Irish (church-state plot like Europe)
  
• anti-Tweed (thumb, pear, tiger symbols)
  
• anti-Liberal Republican (Sumner & conspirators)
  
• anti-Carl Schurz (as carpetbag traitor)
  
• anti-Greeley (clasping hands with enemies)
  
• pro-Chinese (California vs Burlingame Treaty)
  
• pro-Indian (victims of corrupt Congress)
  
• pro- women's rights (Ohio movement)
  
• anti-socialist, unions (1870 Paris commune)
  
• anti-soft money (rag baby symbol)
  
• Thomas Nast article by R.J. Brown

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