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Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Reconstruction proposal to boost support for the war in the North and persuade the South to surrender. The proclamation outlined Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan, which declared that secessionist states could be readmitted into the Union after 10 percent of voters swore their allegiance to the U.S. government.
Depression of 1873
An economic depression—caused by bad loans and overspeculation in railroads and manufacturing—that turned the North’s attention away from Reconstruction. Poor Americans, both white and Black, were hit hardest, and unemployment soared as high as 15 percent. The depression helped southern Democrats in their quest to regain political prominence in the South and diminished the reelection prospects for Republican candidates, who advocated hard-money policies and little immediate economic relief. Indeed, Democrats swept the congressional elections of 1874 and regained the majority in the House of Representatives for the first time since 1856, effectively ending Radical Reconstruction.
Compromise of 1877
A political agreement that made Republican Rutherford B. Hayes president (rather than Democrat Samuel J. Tilden) in exchange for a complete withdrawal of federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction. With election results in three southern states—Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina—in dispute, neither Hayes nor Tilden had officially won enough electoral votes to become president. In response, Congress passed the Electoral Count Act to recount popular votes in three contested states. The special counting committee determined by just one vote that Hayes had received more votes in the three states and was therefore the next president of the United States. Democrats accused the Republican-majority committee of bias, so the Compromise of 1877 was struck to resolve the political crisis—but at the cost of ending Reconstruction.
