Summary: An assessment of how the inclusion of more people who are able to participate in voting in the late 1860’s and early 1870’s affected the fear of lower class workers, immigrants, and African Americans leading to the redistribution of wealth for White Americans.
Timestamp 5:53: White American male industrialists have created a bureaucratic class of sorts which fears workers and women’s ability to rise as a result of the Paris Commune.
Timestamp 9:50: During the time the South should be rebuilding, which is perceived as an easy rebuild due to cotton, their main buyers (England) established cotton in both Egypt and India. This creates a large economic problem as their means to make money to lift themselves out of the aftermath of the Civil War is no longer an option.
Timestamp 15:54: Women going into college, and consequently the workforce, are taught skills that can be used outside of the home. This long term adjusts gender roles and the changing role of women in American Society.
Timestamp 21:53: In the election of 1872 Grant was backed by the Republican party, and inherited an environment where Lincoln was assassinated and his predecessor was a train wreck. This makes Republicans hesitantly back Grant as they coined him a dumb drunk. Later those who hesitantly backed Grant spread stories of his corruption and start to look towards Charles Summner.
Timestamp 36:36: In 1872, the People of Missori challenged Grant by claiming that he is corrupt and claiming he wants a one party state. This is highlighted by Virginia Minor and Charles’ Schultz’s involvement, as well as Jesse James being seen as a victim of the state when the new state constitution is applied to his case. This opens the window for the Liberal Republican Party to be created, which straddles the ideas of Confederates who don't care for Equal rights and The northerners who don’t like immigrants voting but do want to end Slavery. They also advocate lower taxes and the limitation of the power of the federal government.
Timestamp 40:50: Horace Greely is backed by the Democratic party in 1872, and the democrats don’t have faith in his ability to lead and the Republicans fear that if he wins he will back Democrats as leaders, which will put the Democratic party in charge of the finances, which will open the door for legislation to be passed that will cause redistribution of wealth. This is where they back Grant.
Timestamp 42:42: With the economic crash of 1873, the power of lower class voters and the general suffrage idea is revisited and painted as a poor idea. In 1875, the year before the 1876 election, it is said that women are indeed citizens but are not permitted the right to vote.
Timestamp 47:11: Voting is organized by the parties themselves instead of the government institutions. This led to polling to be done in places like Saloons, and the ballots were color coded which led to no secrecy of your voter. This changed in 1890 when the transition was made to the secret ballot.
Timestamp 52:28: Over a short period of time, Business leaders in the South are confronted that there is knowledge that they cheated to win the vote, primarily from voter suppression, which is an issue to this day. As they are confronted, they are told they will be provided federal money if they refrain from said activity. One of the stipulations in this agreement is that Rutherford B Hayes is backed. The “Compromise” of 1876 stated that if the South supported Rutherford B Hayes that the North would not use the government to keep Republicans in power. The troops in the South are being stationed by the government, and at one point it is said that the government is no longer able to use the government to keep them down the South. They remain in the South to this day and have been pertinent in multiple Wars, including the Spanish American War and World War 1.
[From wikipedia] Richardson’s first book, The Greatest Nation of the Earth (1997), stemmed from her dissertation at Harvard University. Inspired by Eric Foner’s work on pre-Civil War Republican ideology, Richardson analyzed Republican economic policies during the war. She contended that their efforts to create an activist Federal Government during the Civil War marked a continuation of Republican free labor ideology. These policies, such as war bonds and greenbacks or the Land Grant College Act and the Homestead Act, revolutionized the role of the Federal Government in the U.S. economy. At the same time, these actions laid the groundwork for the Republican Party’s shift to Big Business after the Civil War.
In this 2001 book, Richardson "focused on the “Northern abandonment of Reconstruction.” Building on the earlier work of C. Vann Woodward, she argued that a more complete understanding of the period required appreciation of class, not only race. As Reconstruction continued into the 1870s and especially the 1880s, Republicans began to view African Americans in the South more from a class perspective and less from the perspective of race that had driven their earlier humanitarianism. In the midst of the labor struggles of the Gilded Age, Republicans came to compare “the demands of the ex-slaves for land, social services, and civil rights” to the demands of white laborers in the North. This ideological shift was the key to Republican abandonment of Reconstruction, as they chose the protection of their economic and business interests over their desire for racial equality." [From wikipedia]
In this 2007 book, "Richardson presented Reconstruction as a national event that impacted all Americans, not just those in the South. She incorporated the West into the discussion of Reconstruction as no predecessor had. Between 1865 and 1900, Americans re-imagined the role of the federal government, calling upon it to promote the well-being of its citizens. However, racism, sexism, and greed divided Americans, and the same people who increasingly benefited from government intervention—white, middle-class Americans—actively excluded African-Americans, Native Americans, immigrants, and organized laborers from the newfound bounties of their reconstructed nation." [from wikipedia]
In this book, published in 2010, Richardson "focused on the U.S. Army’s slaughter of Native Americans in South Dakota in 1890. She argued that party politics and opportunism led to Wounded Knee. After a bruising midterm election, President Benjamin Harrison needed to shore up his support. To do so, he turned to The Dakotas, where he replaced seasoned Indian agents with unqualified political allies, who incorrectly assumed that the Ghost Dance Movement presaged war. The Army responded by sending one third of its force in order to avoid spending cuts from Congress. After the event, Republicans tried to paint the massacre as a heroic battle to stifle the resurgent Democrats." [wikipedia]
In this 2014 book, Richardson "extended her study of the Republican Party into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This book studied the entire life of the GOP, from its inception in the 1850s through the presidency of George W. Bush. The party’s founders united against the “slave power,” a small group of wealthy white men who controlled all three branches of government. These Republicans articulated a new vision of an America in which all hardworking men could rise. But after the Civil War, Republicans began to emulate what they originally opposed. They tied themselves to powerful bankers and industrialists, sacrificing the well-being of ordinary Americans. A similar process took place after World War II, when Republicans sought to dismantle successful New Deal policies and prop up the wealthy. However, in both cases, reformers within the party were able to return the GOP to its founding vision of equality of opportunity, first Theodore Roosevelt during the Progressive Era, and then Dwight D. Eisenhower, who enforced integration and maintained the New Deal. The Nixon and Reagan administrations have represented yet another fall from the GOP’s founding purpose. It's ironic, Richardson points out, that Republicans treated Barack Obama with an unprecedented level of disrespect, as Obama's rise from humble beginnings to the highest office in the nation embodied the vision of the original Republicans." [wikipedia]
In her most recent publication, Richardson argues "that America was founded with contradicting ideals, with the ideas of liberty, equality, and opportunity on one hand, and slavery and hierarchy on the other. United States victory in the American Civil War should have settled that tension forever, but at the same time that the Civil War was fought, Americans also started moving into the West. In the West, Americans found and expanded upon deep racial hierarchies, meaning that hierarchical values survived in American politics and culture despite the crushing defeat of the pro-slavery Confederacy. Those traditions--a rejection of democracy, an embrace of entrenched wealth, the marginalization of women and people of color--have found a home in modern conservative politics, leaving the tremendous promise of America unfulfilled." [wikipedia]
