History of the United States I / Unit 16 USH1 2301 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The Three National Causes
The idea
Three national developments ended Reconstruction, and none of them was about race. From eighteen seventy-three a depression followed the failure of Jay Cooke and Company, which set off a panic and a downturn lasting much of the decade, and Democrats blamed the Republicans. Liberal Republicans, following classical liberalism, questioned the federal government's expansive role and broke away, and some Republicans began arguing for downsizing Reconstruction. And scandal arrived: the Whiskey Ring reached the president's personal secretary, and Credit Mobilier reached Vice President Schuyler Colfax.
In practice
Credit Mobilier taking Union Pacific's federal money, buying the railroad's own bonds with it, and reselling them at huge profits.
Where people slip
The argument that ended Reconstruction was not primarily an argument about race. It was an argument about the size of government, made credible by corruption in a railroad. Democrats used Credit Mobilier as evidence that smaller government was preferable, and the federal enforcement that had held the Klan in check was part of what got made smaller.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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