US History

U.S. History Study Guide

14.18 Liberal Republicans Disenfranchised Republicans split off from the party in response to Grant’s corruption and formed a new political party called the Liberal Republicans. Liberal Republicans opposed corruption and favored regional harmony. The new party joined with the Democrats and nominated Horace Greeley for president. Greeley, lost to Grant but, the division in the Republican Party was a clear sign of the loss of consolidated efforts for Congressional Reconstruction. Significance • The division of the Republican Party during the election of 1872 demonstrated the weakening of support for Reconstruction. The solid core in Congress, which had pushed Reconstruction measures through, disintegrated in the wake of the Grant administration’s corruption. 14.19 The Panic of 1873 In Grant’s second term in office, the nation faced serious economic issues. As a result of over- expansion by railroad builders and businessmen, the nation’s economy collapsed, in what is known as the Panic of 1873. The stock market crashed, the largest bank in the nation failed, as did many smaller banks and firms and twenty five percent of railroads shut down. This economic panic, coupled with Grant’s many political scandals, distracted the nation from Reconstruction. Native American Persecution Continued By the early 1860’s, the U.S. government had systematized this “Indian territory” into small reservations and, in 1867 set aside two large tracts of land one north of Nebraska and one south of Kansas for tribal resettlement. The threat of force convincedmany tribes to comply with resettlement. Some tribes, the Sioux, in particular, resisted. 14.20 The Battle of Little Bighorn and the Battle of Wounded Knee In 1874, the U.S. Army sent Colonel George Armstrong Custer, a beloved Calvary leader in the Civil War, into South Dakota to fight the Sioux. At the Battle of Little Bighorn, in 1876, the Sioux crushed Custer and his men, often called Custer's Last Stand. After this defeat, the Army adopted a different tactic by launching a war of attrition, constantly harassing the Sioux and gradually weakening their will to resist. The U.S. forces finally defeated the Sioux in the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890. This battle was named because there were no casualties for the United States, not even a wounded knee. Over the next decade, the Sioux relocated to reservations. Extinction of Buffalo The mass slaughter of buffalo damaged the Native American life profoundly. Many Plains tribes

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