Antebellum - Civil War Project Model: The Election of 1876
If you do a poster board or slide show, you must have 4 subtopics plus and instruction and conclusion. For example, if your topic is slavery in America then slave code is a subtopic, religion might be another subtopic. Each of the subtopics must have a minimum of six facts about the topic. You also need two images per subtopic if you do a slideshow and one image per topic if you do a poster board. A slide show must have 2 slides per subtopic. The introduction and conclusion must have the following:
If you do a physical model it needs to be clearly related to your topic. You also need to have subtopics with a minimum of six facts per subtopic plus the introduction and conclusion, in short, everything that is required of a poster board or presentation except the images. This is to be done as a shared Google Doc.
Introduction:
Why: I chose my topic because the year 1876 sounded interesting because I realized it was the centennial year. I also knew that it was a contested presidential election year and wondered if it was similar to the 1824 corrupt bargain, or like what happened in the 2000 and 2016 presidential elections.
Compelling Questions:
Background of 1876:
Rutherford B. Hayes
Samuel Tilden
Disputed Election
Conclusion:
What went well? It was easy to learn about much of the topic from the textbook. There was a lot of information on the topic at Grolier and at PBS.
What could you do to improve? I should have learned more about what else was going on in 1876. The presidential election wasn’t the only thing happening. I could have focused more on what the average person of the time was thinking. I did mention the 1876 Centennial fair and wish I had learned more about that as background.
Final Thoughts: The project to “reconstruct the South along ideals of universal equality and freedom was a noble one and speaks to many of the decent tendencies of American history. However, the way in which the project ends is a story told again in and in history. One may say it was a compromise between competing groups, but the cynic will claim it was one more corrupt bargain with entrenched power. It was a deal to deny full liberty and equality for all and in that sense showed reconstruction to be a failure. This would be born out by nearly 100 years of African-Americans being relegated to second class citizens.
If you do a physical model it needs to be clearly related to your topic. You also need to have subtopics with a minimum of six facts per subtopic plus the introduction and conclusion, in short, everything that is required of a poster board or presentation except the images. This is to be done as a shared Google Doc.
Introduction:
Why: I chose my topic because the year 1876 sounded interesting because I realized it was the centennial year. I also knew that it was a contested presidential election year and wondered if it was similar to the 1824 corrupt bargain, or like what happened in the 2000 and 2016 presidential elections.
Compelling Questions:
- Did Reconstruction fail?
- If Tilden had taken office would Reconstruction have ended?
- Why did Tilden give in even though he was clearly the choice of the people?
Background of 1876:
- Nation’s centennial year
- Radical Republicans in Congress were losing power
- People in North growing tired of Reconstruction in the South
- Many resources were devoted to controlling the South
- Republicans were losing power; Grant’s residency was hurt by financial scandals
- South was solidly Democratic; White conservatives regaining control in the South
- Millions of Americans attended the Centennial Fair in Philadelphia
- People anxious to put the Civil War behind them
Rutherford B. Hayes
- Born in 1822; Republican from Ohio
- Lawyer – attended college
- Graduated from Harvard law school
- Lieutenant General in Civil War; Wounded in battle
- Served in House of Representatives; Governor of Ohio 1876-77
- First telephone installed in the White House; First President to visit the West coast
- He and his wife were devout Methodists and prayed together every morning
Samuel Tilden
- Born in 1822 – very successful lawyer and protégée of Martin Van Buren
- In the 1850s he was a Free-Soiler but did not join the new Republican Party
- Democrat – did not support the Civil War
- Broke up the infamous tweed ring in New York; a notorious criminal gang
- Was Governor of New York
- Very intelligent but not an especially powerful or forceful politican
- Known for fighting corruption in the state
- Lost election of 1876 185 to 184 in electoral votes
- Tilden opposed “radical reconstruction”
- Left $3 million which was used to start the famous New York Library
Disputed Election
- Tilden wins more than 250,000 more votes than Hayes
- No clear winner in electoral votes – 20 were in dispute
- All disputed electoral votes except one were from Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina
- All states former Confederate states
- Democrats had won the 3 states, but elections were marred by violence at the polls
- Congress sets up a special commission to settle the crisis
- Southern Democrats agree to elect Hayes in return for ending Southern Reconstruction
- Special commission awards all disputed electoral votes to Hayes
- Hayes would be nicknamed “His Fraudulency”
Conclusion:
What went well? It was easy to learn about much of the topic from the textbook. There was a lot of information on the topic at Grolier and at PBS.
What could you do to improve? I should have learned more about what else was going on in 1876. The presidential election wasn’t the only thing happening. I could have focused more on what the average person of the time was thinking. I did mention the 1876 Centennial fair and wish I had learned more about that as background.
Final Thoughts: The project to “reconstruct the South along ideals of universal equality and freedom was a noble one and speaks to many of the decent tendencies of American history. However, the way in which the project ends is a story told again in and in history. One may say it was a compromise between competing groups, but the cynic will claim it was one more corrupt bargain with entrenched power. It was a deal to deny full liberty and equality for all and in that sense showed reconstruction to be a failure. This would be born out by nearly 100 years of African-Americans being relegated to second class citizens.