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Ku Klux Klan
Founded as a social club for Confederate
veterans, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) started in Tennessee
in 1866. As membership in the group spread rapidly
through the South, many of the new chapters turned into
violent terrorist organizations. By 1868, the Klan existed in
nearly every Southern state. Its overarching goal was to
restore white supremacy. Its method was to prevent African
Americans from exercising their political rights. -
Failure of the Enforcement Acts
To curtail Klan violence and Democratic intimi-
dation, Congress passed a series of Enforcement Acts in 1870 and 1871. One act provided for the federal supervision of elections in Southern states. Another act
gave the president the power to use federal troops in areas where the Klan was
active. However, President Grant was not aggressive in his use of the power given
to him by the Enforcement Acts, and in 1882, the Supreme Court ruled that the
1871 Enforcement Act was unconstitutional. -
Republican Unity Shattered
By passing the Enforcement Acts, Congress
seemed to shore up Republican power. But shortly after these acts went into effect,
Congress passed legislation that severely weakened the Republican Party in the South. -
Fraud & Bribery
Beginning in 1872, a series of long-simmering scandals
associated with Grant’s administration boiled over. First,
the New York Sun exposed the Crédit Mobilier affair, in
which a construction company had skimmed off large
profits from a government railroad contract. This scandal
involved several leading Republicans, including Grant’s
first vice-president, Schuyler Colfax. -
Panic of 1873
Unfortunately, many of those who invested in these new businesses took on more debt than they could afford. A Philadelphia banker named Jay Cooke invested heavily in railroads. Not enough investors bought shares in Cooke’s railroad lines to cover his ballooning construction costs, and he could not pay his debts. In September 1873, Cooke’s banking firm, the nation’s largest dealer in government securities, went bankrupt, setting off a series of financial failures known as the panic of 1873. -
US vs Reece
The Fifteenth Amendment was determined not to
grant voting rights to anyone, but rather to restrict
types of voter discrimination. -
Continued Scandal
Finally, in 1876, an investigation revealed that Secretary of War William W. Belknap had accepted bribes from merchants who wanted to keep their profitable trading concessions in Indian territory. The House of Representatives impeached Belknap, who promptly resigned. -
Election of 1876
In 1876, the Republicans decided
not to run the scandal-plagued Grant for a third term.
Instead, they chose the stodgy governor of Ohio,
Rutherford B. Hayes. Smelling victory, the Democrats
put up one of their ablest leaders, Governor Samuel J.
Tilden of New York. Tilden had helped clean up the graft
that had flourished in New York City under the corrupt
Tweed Ring.