Evolving of Federal Government; Reconstruction to Jazz Age
Uploaded by gusgus1995 on Oct 22, 2013
Jessie Wyrick
History 1032
The Evolution of the Federal Government
From reconstruction to the roaring twenties, the federal government evolved drastically. The American people went through many changes of opinions about what the federal government should and shouldn't do. Technology and business developed astonishingly and this caused more opinions to be built by the people. The importance of social issues also had ups and downs. The different stages of the governments evolving power sways in such a way that shows there is no tolerable middle-ground.
During reconstruction, the North was desperately trying to pass laws to make the freed slaves equal, laws which the South blatantly disregarded. The federal government approved the 14th amendment of the constitution, which made the freedmen citizens of the United States. This amendment meant to guarantee equal protection under law, but it was a compromise between radicals and moderates; radicals wanted black suffrage. That came when Grant was elected in 1868, the 15th amendment was approved which would give blacks the right to vote officially. For a short time after the Civil War, the laws passed by the Republican Northerners looked a success. There were blacks voting and holding office, and also many white Republicans were elected in the South. But through all of this there was still much violence against blacks and white Republicans, thus formed the Ku Klux Klan in 1866. The Northerners responded with more legislation, which would outlaw organizations that were depriving civil rights. These laws did eradicate the KKK, but there was still much racism throughout the country. Then came an economic depression, which distracted the Northern leaders from reconstruction. All the while, the Southern movement to eliminate the black vote thrived. Democrats came into power and the Southerners elected many of the same leaders as before the Civil War. They still opposed the North but could not beat them, as the end of the war indicated. Alas, the strict laws of reconstruction were continuously ignored or loop-holed by the South, and the Northerners gave up from fear of further secession of the Southern states (Liberty 587-622).
The New South actually wasn't very new. Although the federal government had tried reform, people in the south were very resistant to the new policies. Although slavery was abolished, sharecropping was a very similar substitute. In the Bargain of 1877, which concluded reconstruction and appointed Hayes as president, southern officials agreed to recognize blacks as...