History
Book Club
Wednesday,
October 28, 2020
Unique Elections in
American History
Wednesday, October 28, 2020. Unique Elections in American
History. The forthcoming
election may seem the most unique, but this month we will look back at past
elections. Select any that you find interesting. For instance: Election of 1828: Andrew Jackson vs. John Quincy Adams; Election of 1840: William Henry Harrison vs. Martin Van Buren; Election of 1860: Abraham Lincoln vs. Stephen Douglas vs. John C. Breckinridge vs.
John Bell; Election of 1864 : Abraham Lincoln vs. George B. McClellan; Election of 1884: Grover Cleveland vs. James G. Blaine; Election of 1912: Woodrow
Wilson vs. William Howard Taft vs. Theodore Roosevelt vs. Eugene V. Debs; Election of 1948: Harry Truman vs. Thomas E. Dewey vs. Strom Thurmond vs. Henry
Wallace. [Proposed by Sam Coulbourn]
Heather Cox Richardson, The Death of Reconstruction: Race,
Labor and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 2004.
Mark Wahlgren Summers, A Dangerous Stir: Fear,
Paranoia and the Making of Reconstruction; Chapel Hill, NC: University of
North Carolina Press, 2009.
The Election of 1868. Imagine an election when Americans thought that the choice before them meant either survival of the Republic or slipping into despotism. Imagine when newspaper headlines screamed about racial violence, and people, white and black, feared that the outcome of this election could mean disaster.
Three years before, the bloodiest
war ever fought on American soil ended, with thousands dead and more thousands
suffering grievous wounds. Millions of slaves had been freed, but where could
they go, what could they do? The President had been killed, and in his place
was Andrew Johnson, a War Democrat, scooped up to run with Republican Abraham
Lincoln for fear that there were not enough votes to beat Democrat George B.
McClellan in the 1864 election.
Johnson, from Tennessee, wanted to
bring the secessionist Confederate States back into the Union without
protection for the former slaves. The country was struggling with
Reconstruction. Lincoln had led as a sensible president, inclined to welcome the
errant rebels back to the Republic, but also demanding a fair program for
handling the freed slaves.
Johnson was
no Lincoln. He lacked the calm
leadership of Lincoln, and his southern roots kept him from dealing seriously
with the eleven Confederate states and working to bring them back into the
Union. Besides, he had a strong need for alcohol. He had made a drunken
spectacle of himself at Lincoln’s second inauguration. He was having a
miserable time with Reconstruction, run by General Ulysses S. Grant, in
competition with the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton.
In 1865, millions of freedmen stayed
on or near the plantations that had enslaved them, working
to feed their families, much as before.
Rumors circulated that at New Year’s 1866 they would be given land, so
many refused tenancy agreements offered by the Reconstruction authorities. Meanwhile, rumors flew, of blacks preparing a
massive extermination of whites, and whites prepared to preempt black attacks
by exterminating them. Reports of Black boys playing with sticks like swords
got related and distorted to suggest armed black men drilling for combat.
Stories
of racial unrest in the Caribbean were relayed, which added to the fears of
whites. And, to add to the whirlwind of fear and apprehension, armed white
supremacist groups were preparing for a racial war, and just like today, there
were enough hotheads to create fire where there was none.
There
were many encounters between Blacks and whites in the south, but usually they
were initiated by whites and mostly Blacks died. Many white southerners, now that Blacks were
not safely slaving on plantations, wished they were all gone, or dead.
Reconstruction
in the former Confederate States involved bringing the states back into the
Union, swearing allegiance to the Republic all over again, acceptance by the
Congress, and sending Senators and Congressmen back to Washington. Radical
Republicans insisted on strict requirements for bringing the states back,
President Johnson, as a War Democrat, was inclined to be lax in his feelings
about readmitting the states, and lax also in demanding rights and privileges
for newly freed slaves. For most
southerners, even those who had never owned slaves, accepting blacks as their
equals was impossible to contemplate.
In 1868 President Johnson continued to clash with congressional Republicans, and disagreed with Major General Ulysses S. Grant, in charge of setting up military districts, often manned by Black troops all through the south. There was a financial crisis, as supporters of paper currency issued during the war (greenbacks) clashed with supporters of gold and gold certificates as to redemption of bonds issued during the war. Johnson also clashed with his cabinet, all appointed by Lincoln. When he sought to fire his Secretary of War, Congress impeached him, but he escaped conviction by one Senate vote.
The
Democratic convention in 1868 spent much time deciding whom to run against the
Republican candidate, Grant. Johnson fell by the wayside, as well as other
Democratic favorites, and the party settled on former New York Governor Horatio Seymour.
On November 3, 1868 voters went to
the polls to vote for either Grant, the Republican candidate, or Seymour, the
Democratic candidate. Eight of the former Confederate states took part; Texas,
Virginia and Mississippi had not re-entered the Union, so their citizens did
not vote. It was the first election in which African
Americans could vote in the
reconstructed Southern states, in accordance with the First Reconstruction Act. In the northern states,
Negro suffrage was not achieved until ratification of the 14th
Amendment to the Constitution, in 1870.
Grant won the electoral college and
the popular vote, including newly enfranchised freedmen in the South.
That was 1868. Mark Summers’ A
Dangerous Stir focused well on this period with a colorful tale of men
brought down from their lives that depended upon the cheap labor of African
slaves, and all the lifestyle that afforded them…. It’s hard to imagine the
thrill Blacks experienced when Emancipation had started the process of making
them real Americans. The rumors that by New Year’s (1866) they’d be getting a
piece of land…and then the disappointment.
Trace that forward, through years of White Supremacists raiding Black
homes and lynching men and raping and killing women. And poll tax exams and
gerrymandering and literacy tests to keep Blacks from voting.
Heather Cox Richardson, in The
End of Reconstruction takes a longer view of this period after the Civil
War. right up to the Twentieth Century, providing more analysis of American
progress and failure over the years.
Richardson gave this picture of
Black land ownership in 1870: Only 6.7% of African- Americans owned land,
almost half of Black landowners owned less than 20 acres. Prominent African-American leaders were
usually freeborn, educated, somewhat prosperous, and biracial. Men listed in census as “mulatto” were four
times more likely than regular Blacks to own land. For most freedmen, they
worked for former masters, who usually tried to reinstate an economic system as
close to slavery as possible.
Follow the story of progress of
African-Americans as they have fought to become Americans, entitled to all the
privileges of white Americans….here we are in 2020, and we have seen months of
mistreatment and murder of Blacks… Black Lives Matter protests, and a President
seizing on the moment to fan the flames of racial hatred, turning the
grievances of Black Americans into distrust of law enforcement and threats of a
Marxist society if we should honor the Black grievances.
We really haven’t come very far
since 1868.
Samuel
W. Coulbourn
Note: I have used the current custom of capitalizing “Black”, but not “White”.
swc
-end-
HISTORY BOOK CLUB TOPICS FOR 2020-2021
Wednesday, November 25, 2020. Gloucester and the Sea.
Gloucester has
throughout four centuries cast its lot with the North Atlantic, remaining a
maritime port for better or worse. The maritime culture of Cape Ann is the mix
of a noble maritime heritage; ubiquitous sea influences that reach as far as
the quarries behind Rockport and into the haunted tracks of Dogtown Common;
seductive but capricious natural splendors; and untidy independence that repels
some but converts other visitors into lifetime devotees. Read any book about
the maritime history of Gloucester and Cape Ann. [Suggested by Richard Verrengia]
There will be no
meeting in December
2021
Wednesday, February 24, 2021.
A History of
United States alliances with the rest of the world. From its very beginning, the United States has
forged alliances with other countries, from France, eager to oppose Great
Britain in 1776; Great Britain’s assistance for the Confederate States during
the Civil War; President Wilson’s attempt to form and join the League of
Nations; our alliance with Great Britain, China, France and the Soviet Union in
World War II; formation of the United Nations; the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization. How helpful have these alliances been? Home in on an agreement in
our past, or one that exists today, and discover its benefits and costs. . [Proposed by Sam Coulbourn]
LET
US HAVE YOUR IDEAS FOR AN INTERESTING TOPIC FOR 2021!
