A SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Unit 3: Reconstruction and UrbanizationPart 3: Ulysses S. Grant (I)

GRANT’SMAJOR ISSUES

Immigration and the nativist backlashConflicts with the Lakota Sioux

IRISH IMMIGRATION TO AMERICA

• Between 1845 and 1852, Ireland suffered a period of great famine.

• This famine led many Irish people to emigrate to the United States.

• Over a million Irish immigrants arrived in America at this time, when the nation had a population of about twenty million.

• Another three million arrived between 1850 and 1900.

TAMMANY HALL

• Many Irish immigrants arrived and settled in the northeast, mostly New York and Boston.

• At the time, politics in New York City was strongly influenced by a powerful organization known as Tammany Hall. Tammany Hall was founded in 1786 and named after Tamenund, a revered Lenape chief.

• The men associated with Tammany Hall corrupted the politics of New York through patronage and graft.

TAMMANY HALL

• Graft is akin to bribery and/or extortion. Patronage is a means of providing rewards to political supporters. Tammany Hall would use these methods to shore up votes for its members in New York’s electoral ‘wards.’

• Wards were the smallest unit of political representation in New York. The men responsible for using graft and promises of patronage to swing the vote in the wards were known as ‘ward bosses’ or ‘ward heelers.’

TAMMANY HALL

• Tammany Hall gained and maintained its power by operating largely as a provider of welfare to the underclasses of New York, including the many new Irish immigrants.

• In times of hardship, Tammany men could lend money, provide food, offer shelter, and so on.

• Tammany men also acted as intermediaries between the city government and the immigrants who were unfamiliar with it.

TAMMANY HALL

• Finally, Tammany men gave new immigrants a readymade opportunity for social contact, and helped them to integrate into American society.

• In 1853, William M. Tweed, known as ‘Boss Tweed,’ was the head of Tammany Hall.

• He made particular efforts to help Irish immigrants achieve naturalization as American citizens, and, in return, Tammany Hall received a huge percentage of the Irish vote.

TAMMANY HALL

• In 1858, Tweed was elected as ‘Grand Sachem’ of Tammany Hall and used this position to effectively take control of the government of New York City.

• He appointed friends and allies to city planning boards. He also started major projects such as the Brooklyn Bridge and the Metropolitan Museum.

• Irish immigrants mostly worked as laborers on these and other projects, and Tweed prided himself on his control of them.

NATIVISM IN AMERICA

• Nativism is an ideological position that demands political favoritism for the native-born inhabitants of a particular society or nation.

• In the two decades before the Civil War, the white American working classes became increasingly nativist in response to immigration.

• Nativism also increased after the Civil War, in response to the Emancipation Proclamation and Congressional efforts to expand African American rights.

THE KNOW NOTHING PARTY

• The Know Nothing Party was founded in 1845, in direct response to Irish immigration.

• It was a national party whose political objectives included halting immigration and the naturalization of immigrants.

• Only white Protestant men could be members.

• The party’s most prominent member was former President Millard Fillmore, who ran as the Know Nothing candidate for President in 1856.

THE KNOW NOTHING PARTY

• The party took its name from the notion that members would publicly avow that they were not involved with it. When asked questions about the party, their response would be simply ‘I know nothing.’

• The party declined in 1857, due to Fillmore’s loss and a split on the issue of slavery triggered by Dred Scott v. Sandford.

• Most abolitionist members joined the Republican Party.

THE KU KLUX KLAN

• Several years after the Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1865, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was appointed ‘Grand Wizard.’

• The Klan effectively became a nativist insurgent organization staffed by former Confederates.

• Although the people targeted by the Klan were technically natural-born Americans, the Klan viewed them as second-class citizens who did not deserve full citizenship.

THE KU KLUX KLAN

• In 1870, the Klan was officially declared a terrorist organization by a federal grand jury. An investigation into Klan activities uncovered enough atrocities to fill twelve volumes of reports.

• In 1870 and 1871, two laws known as the Enforcement Acts were passed to stop the activities of groups like the Klan. The first act made it illegal to prevent African Americans from voting. The second allowed African American voters to receive support from federal troops at polling places.

1871: A YEAR OF CHANGES

• In 1871, in response to shortcomings in those two laws, Benjamin Franklin Butler, the House Representative who ‘waved the bloody shirt,’ drafted the Civil Rights Act.

• Ulysses S. Grant had specifically requested this legislation from the Congress.It empowered the President to suspend habeas corpus in order to fight and disband the Klan and similar organizations.

• Within a few years, Grant had completely dismantled the Klan.

1871: A YEAR OF CHANGES

• Also in 1870 and 1871, Irish immigrants in New York engaged in two major riots known as the Orange Riots.

• The riots pitted Irish Protestants against Irish Catholics, almost all laborers loyal to ‘Boss’ Tweed and Tammany Hall.

• The second riot resulted in more than sixty deaths and 150 injuries, and demonstrated that Tammany Hall could not control its loyal supporters.

1871: A YEAR OF CHANGES

• The riots put Tammany Hall under increasing pressure from nativists in the New York press.

• ‘Boss’ Tweed was removed from power later in 1871.

• Taking place against the backdrop of Grant’s response to the activities of the Ku Klux Klan, the riots demonstrated the power of nativism in post-Civil War America. Natural-born Americans were becoming more protective about who could and could not participate in American society.

A SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Unit 3: Reconstruction and UrbanizationPart 3: Ulysses S. Grant (I)