Heather Cox Richardson West from Appomattox, The Reconstruction of America after the Civil War (2007)

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.Harper s Weekly put a brave face on Wade sspeech, calmly commenting that he had only identified what every studentand observer of modern civilization very well knows, that the capital andlabor question is one of the most vital subjects. But the New York Timesgrowled that Wade assails the whole industrial and business fabric of thecountry.[He] springs from the domain of American republicanism to theregion of French socialism. ""For those committed to developing a harmonious free labor society, otherfrightening developments loomed on the horizon.Wage laborers were notthe only ones wondering what the triumph of the northern vision of free labormeant for them.Like other northern women, Julia Ward Howe had foundfreedom during the war to work and speak outside her home, but her hus-band, famous reformer Samuel Gridley Howe, strongly opposed his wife sexpanding public life and demanded she stay at home managing the house-hold.She often flouted his demands, reflecting that the internal necessityconquer[s] the external but su"ered terribly for her daring.After a bitterThe Future of Free Labor "�fight on their twenty-second wedding anniversary in April 1865, Howe wastorn between her societal role as a wife and her responsibility to herself. Heattacked me with the utmost vehemence and temper.I feel utterly para-lyzed and brought to a stand-still know not how to live and work anyfurther, she lamented.For Howe and many other women, the enfranchise-ment of African American men on the principle that all people should have asay in the government in order to protect themselves automatically raised thequestions of women s rights. The Civil War came to an end, leaving the slavenot only emancipated, but endowed with the full dignity of citizenship, shepointed out. The women of the North had greatly helped to open the doorwhich admitted him to freedom and its safeguard, the ballot.Was this door tobe shut in their face? ""Faced with these challenges to their vision of America s political econ-omy, northern Republicans reiterated their powerful belief in America s har-monious system, in which every man had the right to the fruits of his labor.Intheir election rhetoric in summer 1867, they portrayed most southern AfricanAmericans as hardworking, thrifty, good citizens, although they, too, worriedabout black radicalism, especially when it looked like such radicalism mightbe infecting disa"ected white workers as well.The Republican PhiladelphiaInquirer reported that in Louisiana, the colored man standeth forth in hisdignity as a freeman, a citizen, a voter.And so doeth the white trash. TheNew York Times worried about land confiscation, advanced, as su"rage hadbeen, with the argument that it was necessary for black equality. It is not easyto see where it will stop.Why, if forty acres of land are essential to freedom,are not men to work it also essential? Why is land more essential than horses,or railroad stock or an investment in Government bonds? It had a di"erentprescription for black success: Habits of industry and thrift the faculty oftaking care of themselves, of thinking and acting for themselves are theirfirst necessities. While Democrats insisted that Republicans were trying tocement a permanent voting base, Republicans held firm to their free laborideas, that every man could work his way up, self-suH"cient and independentof government support."�Starting a trend that would continue throughout the rest of the century, inthe 1867 elections, voters endorsed the free labor vision of economic harmonyand rejected the idea of government aid to specific groups.In the South, newvoters replaced traditional leaders with southern white Unionists, mostlyupcountry farmers and small merchants, professionals, and artisans who hadnot previously held political oH"ce.About one-sixth of the delegates were"+" 1865 1867[To view this image, refer tothe print version of this title.]Figure 2.Emphasizing the postwar Republican view that freedmen would make goodcitizens, Thomas Nast portrayed a worker, a businessman, and a soldier as representativeblack voters in this cartoon from Harper s Weekly, November 16, 1867.Courtesy HarpWeek.young, well-educated white northern emigrants who had moved South afterthe war, and whose professional skills enabled them to draft key parts ofthe new constitutions.Although white southern Democrats denigrated the black conventions they claimed were dominated by field hands, in factAfrican Americans were underrepresented.Black delegates were a majority ofthe South Carolina and Louisiana conventions but made up only about 40percent of the Florida delegation.In Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, andVirginia, African Americans held about 20 percent of the seats, while inArkansas, North Carolina, and Texas, about 10 percent of the delegates wereThe Future of Free Labor "�black.Few of these delegates were field hands or common laborers; most wereministers, artisans, teachers, or farmers, and only a handful freeborn andeducated were major actors in their conventions."+"In the North, too, voters emphasized moderation and backed away fromthe radicalism of the past year, registering their dislike primarily of blacksu"rage, which had been put on the ballot in most northern states.Theirvotes against Republican su"rage policies indicated their distrust of presiden-tial impeachment, civil rights legislation, and land redistribution.In Ohio,voters replaced Republicans in the legislature with Democrats, guaranteeingthat radical Benjamin F.Wade would not be reelected to the Senate in 1868(for senators were still chosen by the legislature in the nineteenth century).Massachusetts Republican Nathaniel P [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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