Compromise of 1877

Examples of Compromise of 1877 in the following topics:

• The Compromise of 1877

  • The Compromise of 1877 was a purported bargain in which the White House was awarded to the Republican Party after the election of 1876.
  • The "Compromise of 1877" refers to a purported informal, unwritten deal that settled the disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election, regarded as the second "corrupt bargain," and ended congressional ("Radical") Reconstruction.
  • Some historians have argued that Democrats and Republicans reached an unwritten, "back room" agreement (the Compromise of 1877) under which the filibuster would be dropped in return for a promise to end Reconstruction.
  • The following elements are generally said to be the points of the compromise:
  • With the removal of Northern troops, the President had no method to enforce Reconstruction, thus the Compromise of 1877 signaled the end of American Reconstruction.

• Social Trends

  • Urbanization (the rapid growth of cities) went hand in hand with industrialization (the growth of factories and railroads), as well as expansion of farming.
  • The rapid growth was made possible by high levels of immigration.
  • Starting in the end of the 1870s, African Americans lost many of the civil rights obtained during Reconstruction and became increasingly subject to racial discrimination.
  • Increased racist violence, including lynchings and race riots, lead to a strong deterioration of living conditions of African Americans in the Southern states.
  • Jim Crow laws were established after the Compromise of 1877.

• Partisan Politics

  • Civil War and Reconstruction issues polarized the parties until the Compromise of 1877 finally ended the political warfare.
  • Grant and his war veterans, bolstered by the solid vote of freedmen.
  • After Hayes removed the last federal troops in 1877, the Republican Party in the South sank into oblivion, kept alive only by the crumbs of federal patronage.
  • Democratic magazine ridicules the GOP's use of "bloody shirt" memories of Civil War.
  • Outline the contours of partisan politics in the latter half of the nineteenth century

• The Radical Record

  • The Radical Republicans were a faction of American politicians within the Republican Party of the United States from about 1854 until the end of Reconstruction in 1877.
  • The Radical Republicans were generally in control of policy, although they had to compromise with the moderate Republicans.
  • Johnson said it was an invasion by federal authority of the rights of the United States.
  • With the Compromise of 1877, army intervention in the South ceased and Republican control collapsed in the last three state governments in the South.
  • Many of the ambitions of the Radical Republicans were, in the end, undermined and unfulfilled.

• The Spread of Segregation

  • As a result of a national compromise related to the presidency, the federal government withdrew its forces from the South in 1877.
  • Starting with the Georgia poll tax in 1877, southern Democratic legislators created new constitutions with provisions for voter registration that effectively completed disfranchisement of most African-Americans and many poor whites.
  • Examples of Jim Crow laws are the segregation of public schools, public places and public transportation, as well as the segregation of restrooms, restaurants and drinking fountains.
  • Board of Education.
  • When the laws of racial segregation were enacted at the end of the 19th century, they became known as Jim Crow laws.

• The Freed Slaves

  • Southern states undermined efforts at equality with laws designed to disfranchise blacks, despite of a series of federal equal-rights laws.
  • During the Reconstruction period of 1865–1877, federal law provided civil rights protection in the U.S.
  • In 1877, a national compromise to gain Southern support in the presidential election resulted in the last of the federal troops being withdrawn from the South.
  • Because of this, the phrase "forty acres and a mule" has come to represent the failure of Reconstruction policies in restoring to African Americans the fruits of their labor.
  • The most widely recognized of the Freedmen's Bureau's achievements is its accomplishments in the field of education.

• Reconstruction in the South

  • Reconstruction from 1865-1877 was characterized by the conflicting views of President Johnson and Congress over Reconstruction policy.
  • The views of Lincoln and Johnson prevailed until the election of 1866, which enabled the Radicals to take control of policy, remove former Confederates from power, and enfranchise the freedmen.
  • Southern Democrats, alleging widespread corruption, counterattacked and regained power in each state by 1877.
  • The deployment of the U.S. military was central to the establishment of Southern Reconstructed state governments and the suppression of violence against black and white voters.
  • They were generally in control, although they had to compromise with the moderate Republicans.

• Final Efforts at Compromise

  • In the House, the Committee of Thirty-Three (composed of one member from each state) was formed to reach a compromise to preserve the Union.
  • Many of the delegates came in the belief that they could be successful, but many others (from both sides of the spectrum) came to safeguard sectional interests rather than support any measures that would compromise their interests in order to preserve the union.
  • Essentially, the key proposal of the Crittenden Compromise provided for a sectional division of the territories at the old 36, 30' latitude line that would stretch to the Pacific.
  • With the adjournment of Congress, the inauguration of Lincoln as president, and the flood of new Republican leaders to power in Washington, Democrats in Congress could no longer work towards a sectional compromise.
  • Crittenden's Compromise was a final attempt to prevent disunion by proposing an extension of the Missouri Compromise boundary between free and slave territories to the Pacific

• The Missouri Compromise

  • The Missouri Compromise of 1820 concerned the regulation of slavery in the western territories.
  • Prior to the agreement, the House of Representatives had refused to accept this compromise and a conference committee was appointed.
  • The debate leading up to the Compromise raised the issue of sectional balance.
  • The Compromise of 1820 was an important example of Congressional exclusion of slavery from U.S. territories acquired since the Northwest Ordinance.
  • This map of the United States, circa 1820, shows the line between free and slave states that was established by the Missouri Compromise of 1820.

• The Triumph of Congressional Reconstruction

  • Radical Reconstruction was a period of the Reconstruction Era during which the Radical Republicans held control of Reconstruction policies.
  • They were generally in control of Reconstruction legislation, although they often had to compromise with the moderate Republicans.
  • In the elections of 1867, however, a new crop of Republican lawmakers were elected by a coalition of white Unionists, freedmen and northerners who had settled in the South.
  • History of California. 1897. v.4, p.405. ] Caricature of gubernatorial candidate George C.
  • Political cartoon from 1877 by Thomas Nast portraying the Democratic Party's control of the South.