Posted on 06/03/2025 2:20:50 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The victorious Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant was the Republicans’ unanimous choice for president in 1868. As in so many other presidential campaigns, the Democrats made race the centerpiece of their appeal to the American people. They nominated former New York governor Horatio Seymour and ran him on a platform calling for the “immediate restoration of all States to their rights in the Union under the Constitution,” amnesty for all former Confederates, and “the regulation of the elective franchise in the States by their citizens.”
That last point meant the right of white Southerners, chiefly former slaveholders and all Democrats, to restrict the freed slaves’ right to vote. For good measure, the Democratic platform called the Reconstruction Acts “unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void.” A Seymour campaign badge proclaimed, “Our Motto: This is a White Man’s Country; Let White Men Rule.” Grant won handily, with 214 electoral votes to Seymour’s 80.
The renowned general’s only problem after that was having to govern. During the Civil War, the U.S. government had printed paper money, backed by neither gold nor silver, to cover its rapidly rising war debts. Grant attempted to curb inflation and restore some fiscal responsibility to the economy by phasing out the greenbacks and conducting the government’s business in gold coins. He also maintained high tariffs to protect American workers and industries.
The new president also had to deal with self-serving advisors. Railroad magnate Jay Gould and stockbroker Jim Fisk had personally exhorted Grant to take this course, and were poised to take advantage. They bribed Assistant U.S. Treasurer Daniel Butterfield for inside information and proceeded to try to corner the gold market. In September 1869, Grant discovered their scheme and ordered his secretary of the treasury, George S. Boutwell, to sell $4 million in gold ($75 million today)...
(Excerpt) Read more at frontpagemag.com ...
Very underrated President.
It wasn’t just former slaveholders who were disenfranchised (unconstitutionally). It was every man who had served in the Confederate Army. Since there was a draft, that meant the overwhelming majority of of voters in the Southern states were disenfranchised. Most of the voters under the Occupation were Blacks who being uneducated were easily manipulated, and carpetbaggers intent on stealing everything that had survived the ravages of war. Massive theft is exactly what they did.
It didn’t stop until 12 years later when everything that could easily be stolen already had been and a new group of White boys reached voting age every year - thus it became obvious the Carpetbagger Republicans were going to lose control over the Southern states soon anyway. This is why Republicans could not be elected so much as county dog catcher anywhere in the South for the next century.
Grant made the mistake of thinking that people outside the military were as honorable and forthright as the people in it. He didn’t consider that many of the people he appointed would operate in their own interest rather than in the nation’s.
Oh, so much misinformation, so little time. Here's a brief synopsis of what really happened
Oath of Allegiance: Most former Confederate soldiers were allowed to vote if they swore an Oath of Allegiance to the United States.
Temporary Disenfranchisement: During the Reconstruction period (1865-1877), some Confederate veterans and leaders faced temporary disenfranchisement. These were high level politicians and senior officers, not the grunts.
General Amnesty Act: In 1872, Congress passed the Generalv Amnesty Act, which removed voting restrictions for approximately 150,000 former Confederate soldiers.
Continued Restrictions: However, about 500 individuals who served as military leaders or held prominent offices in the Confederacy remained prohibited from voting after the General Amnesty Act.
Varied State Restrictions: Voting restrictions on former Confederates also varied by state during Reconstruction.
In essence, while most former Confederate soldiers could vote after the war, especially after taking the Oath of Allegiance and the passing of the General Amnesty Act, some high-ranking officials faced more stringent restrictions or were barred from voting altogether.
Considering that in any other country, those 500, and a hell of a lot more would have been hung or worse, I'd say the Confederates got off pretty easy. We did not have a reign of terror as other nations faced after failed revolts unless you count the KKKs terror against free blacks and the so called Scallywags who were just southern white pro unionists. But don't let the facts get in the way of your Lost Cause myth making.
Talk about misinformation!
You claim that all those who served in the Confederate army had to do was take an oath? Why do you suppose all those states “elected” nothing but Republican carpetbagger governments for the entire period of the Occupation? Do you think its because all those White Southerners suddenly started voting Republican? Lemme guess, you think they jacked up taxes to the point that 1/5th to 1/4 of the population lost their homes due to inability to pay those taxes too.
You say there was not a reign of terror. Ever heard of the “Union Leagues”? Obviously not. The KKK arose directly due to he disenfranchisement, massive tax hikes and theft as well as the terrorism of the union leagues. Don’t let the facts get in the way of you being a Court Historian pushing government propaganda.
So the Constitution gives the Federal government the power to decide who gets to vote?
I always thought that was a state power.
Temporary Disenfranchisement: During the Reconstruction period (1865-1877), some Confederate veterans and leaders faced temporary disenfranchisement. These were high level politicians and senior officers, not the grunts.
All native citizen white people were disenfranchised. It wasn't just the leadership and senior officers, it was everybody.
General Amnesty Act: In 1872, Congress passed the Generalv Amnesty Act, which removed voting restrictions for approximately 150,000 former Confederate soldiers.
I don't recall that being a power of Congress either.
Continued Restrictions: However, about 500 individuals who served as military leaders or held prominent offices in the Confederacy remained prohibited from voting after the General Amnesty Act.
Again, I don't think it is up to anyone but the states themselves.
Considering that in any other country, those 500, and a hell of a lot more would have been hung or worse, I'd say the Confederates got off pretty easy.
According to Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, "secession is not rebellion."
Not even Jefferson Davis was prosecuted, and again, Justice Salmon P. Chase advised Federal prosecutors to drop the case. He told them "You will lose in the courtroom everything you won on the battlefield."
They wisely decided not to charge Jefferson Davis, or anyone else with "Treason."
Funny thing too. Our very own Declaration of Independence says people have a right to independence if they want it.
Apparently the founders recognized "secession" as legal, because that is exactly what *THEY* did.
Because Blacks could vote and the people they voted for were not carpetbaggers. Not all Democrats lost, but the Republicans certainly did well under reconstruction. As did most Southerners, Black and White. Once the old guard Democrats got back in power, the south stagnated for the next 70 years until WWII.
BTW. Do you know what the vast majority of Carpetbaggers were? I bet you don’t.
Go to war against the Federal government and see what they do to you. The answer is they revoked their own citizenship by going to war. The Confederates got off easy.
That is not true.
Blacks were a minority of the population in every Southern state. Republicans only won because a lot of the voters were disenfranchised. This was so much the case that they couldn't even be voted out in 12 years despite massive corruption....corruption everybody knew about.
"I am sure," said the Secretary of the Treasury, "that I sent some honest agents South; but it sometimes seems very doubtful whether any of them remained honest for very long."
Even Frederick Douglass found the corruption appalling, as he commented on the white portion of Alabama’s 1869 Reconstruction state government - “Well, I would be a Democrat if I was a white man and had to herd with that cattle.”
Georgia’s debt went from “0” in 1865 to 50 million dollars in 1872. In Louisiana caused the cost of the 1871 legislative session was 9.5 times the average cost of a pre-Reconstruction session. In South Carolina the legislature caused the total cost of 6 years of Reconstruction to total $2,339,000, (when the average cost of a pre-Reconstruction session of the legislature had been $20,000/year!). The tax rate in Mississippi increased 14 fold during its 5 year tenure in that state and caused 20% of all privately owned land in that state to be put up for sale on the tax auction block. In Texas, there was a 400% tax increase, while at the same time, another Southern state, Tennessee, saw its state debt inflated by 16 million dollars. 25% of all the property in Little Rock Arkansas wound up in the hands of former Union General Schenck, who had purchased said property at bargain basement prices after those properties had been confiscated for non-payment of taxes.
That is the kind of corruption you can only get away with when the voters have been disenfranchised and you have a compliant unsophisticated voting population that can be easily manipulated.
Then there was the outright terrorism of the Union Leagues which gave rise to the KKK. https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/union-leagues/
BKMK
And he wasn't the chronic alcoholic it is claimed he was.
The federal government went to war with them not the other way around. Your argument boils down to might make right. There is no provision of the constitution that allows the federal government to mass disenfranchise the voters....nor to tell states they are "out" and must agree to certain conditions set by representatives of other states to have their rights under the constitution restored. This is 3rd world banana republic stuff.
It is largely true. The vast majority of the voters in the Southern states were disenfranchised. Were it not so, Republicans would never have been the majority in any Southern state at that time.
Again, you don’t know what you are talking about. Blacks were a majority in a number of Southern states and they sure as hell weren’t voting for any of the old Democrats.
So the Union fired on themselves at Fort Sumter? And does might make right? Often it does. Ask the German Nazis or the Japanese militarists.
Just remember. One Southern man is tougher than any 10 Damn Yankees. Well, turns out that wasn’t true either.
Just keep making up stories that make you feel good. The real history is out there and is far more interesting than your fictions.
Funny but from the 1870s until the 1920s, U. S. Grant held a very prestigious place among US Presidents. The people who knew and lived through Grants presidency, both North and South, had tremendous respect for him. As that generation died off and the scum Lost Cause historians began to distort history in the early 20th century your Democrat version of Grant took hold. In fact, if you listened to those “historians” there was never a “good” Republican president and never a bad Democrat.
If you cared about history, which I seriously doubt considering your ridiculous posts here, you would learn more about Grant. He was a great man.
Again, YOU don't know what YOU'RE talking about. Blacks were a majority in only TWO Southern states (South Carolina and Mississippi) according to the 1860 US census.
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