White terror and corruption under Grant

William Marcy Tweed, aka "Boss Tweed," began as a New York City volunteer fireman but worked his way up the political ladder. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1853. In 1858, he rose to the head of Tammany Hall, the central organization of the Democratic Party in New York, and was later elected to the New York State Senate in 1867. Tweed gathered around him a small ring of bigwigs who controlled New York City's finances. Tweed's Ring essentially controlled New York City until 1870, using embezzlement, bribery, and kickbacks to siphon massive chunks of New York's budget into their own pockets — anywhere from $40 million to $200 million (or $1.5 billion to $9 billion in 2009 dollars). Companies under control of the Tweed Ring would bill the city for work not done or would overbill for work they did, and the kickbacks would filter back to Tweed and his cronies. Those companies, under city contracts, would also do substandard work that would soon require repair, which would then be done by other Tweed Ring-controlled companies. Also, because Boss Tweed had a large stake in New York's transportation system, he delayed the construction of the subway system for years. Boss Tweed and his cronies were eventually taken down in large part because of investigative journalism by the New York Times and by the political cartoons of Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly. Tweed was tried and convicted of forgery and larceny in 1873 and given a 12-year sentence. He was released after only one year but was soon arrested again and sued by New York City in a $6 million civil suit. In 1875, he fled to Cuba and then to Spain, but authorities were waiting for him there, and he was extradited back to New York. He died in prison in 1878.

The Whiskey Ring was an American bribery scandal that took place from 1871 to 1875 during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. The scandal involved a conspiracy among whiskey distillers and distributors to bribe U.S. government officials to avoid paying government excise taxes on liquor. In 1875, it was revealed that high-level officials within President Grant’s administration had conspired with the distillers to illegally pocket liquor taxes that should have been paid to the government.

By 1877, 110 people had been convicted for their involvement in the Whiskey Ring, and over $3 million of the stolen tax revenues had been recovered. While Grant was never directly accused of any wrongdoing, his public image and legacy as president were greatly tarnished.

A former Iowa state legislator and Civil War general, Belknap had held his cabinet post for nearly eight years. In the rollicking era that Mark Twain dubbed the Gilded Age, Belknap was famous for his extravagant Washington parties and his elegantly attired first and second wives. Many questioned how he managed such a grand lifestyle on his $8,000 government salary.

By early 1876, answers began to surface. A House of Representatives committee uncovered evidence supporting a pattern of corruption blatant even by the standards of the scandal-tarnished Grant administration.

The trail of evidence extended back to 1870. In that year, Belknap’s luxury-loving first wife assisted a wheeler-dealer named Caleb Marsh by getting her husband to select one of Marsh’s associates to operate the lucrative military trading post at Fort Sill in Indian territory. Marsh’s promise of generous kickbacks prompted Secretary Belknap to make the appointment. Over the next five years, the associate funneled thousands of dollars to Marsh, who provided Belknap regular quarterly payments totaling over $20,000.

Black Friday, in U.S. history, a securities market panic that occurred on September 24, 1869, as a result of plummeting gold prices. The crash was a consequence of an attempt by financier Jay Gould and railway magnate James Fisk to corner the gold market and drive up the price.

The scheme depended on keeping government gold off the market, which the manipulators arranged through political influence. When U.S. Pres. Ulysses S. Grant finally became aware of the scheme, he ordered $4,000,000 of government gold sold on the market. This broke the corner, and gold prices plunged, resulting in a panic that also dragged down the stock market. Black Friday significantly hurt the U.S. economy and the reputation of the Grant administration.

Black Friday, in U.S. history, a securities market panic that occurred on September 24, 1869, as a result of plummeting gold prices. The crash was a consequence of an attempt by financier Jay Gould and railway magnate James Fisk to corner the gold market and drive up the price.

The scheme depended on keeping government gold off the market, which the manipulators arranged through political influence. When U.S. Pres. Ulysses S. Grant finally became aware of the scheme, he ordered $4,000,000 of government gold sold on the market. This broke the corner, and gold prices plunged, resulting in a panic that also dragged down the stock market. Black Friday significantly hurt the U.S. economy and the reputation of the Grant administration.

He was criminally indicted twice over corruption charges and associated with four scandals. Grant shielded Babcock from political attack out of a loyalty bond that stemmed primarily from their shared battle experiences during the Civil War.

After Babcock was indicted as a member of the Whiskey Ring in 1875, Grant provided a written deposition on Babcock's behalf—a first for a sitting president—which was admitted at Babcock's 1876 trial, and resulted in his acquittal. Upon his return from St. Louis, Grant gave in to pressure from Secretary of State Hamilton Fish and forced Babcock to leave the White House. A second indictment, in 1876, over the Safe Burglary Conspiracy, ended in an acquittal, but further alienated Babcock from Republicans who favored government reform, while public opinion turned against him.

Executives were exaggerating costs to get more money from investors and grants so that they could pocket the extra money.

The history of the Star Route contractors began on March 3, 1845. This legislation established a new mail service that called for private contractors to carry the mail “with celerity, certainty, and security”. Contracts for the mail service were awarded to the lowest bidders. These became known as “celerity, certainty and security” bids and postal clerks shortened the phrase to three asterisks or three stars (***). The mail delivery contract bids became known as star bids, and the routes became known as Star Routes. By 1880, there were nearly 10,000 star routes, costing the federal government nearly $6 million a year. Typically, the Star Route contracts were awarded for four-year terms and often bribes were exchanged in return for contracts. There were also fictitious delivery routes and unnecessary expenditures – claims for improvements to non-existent or scarcely used routes, and illegally increasing mail rates.
Some contractors took the money but didn’t deliver the mail. Some also colluded to submit low “straw” bids or ridiculously high bids wherein default bidding resulted in highly lucrative contracts. The fees charged were usually exorbitant too.
The Star Route Scandal investigations took place in 1872 and 1876 under President Grant, and the frauds were temporarily halted, but they reemerged during the subsequent Hayes and Garfield administrations, sparking more investigations. The Star Route scandal had defrauded the Post Office of $4,000,000.

A mob of armed whites attack a Republican rally in Georgia 1870.
-3 ‘Scalawag’ Republicans are killed (southern politicians who supported federal plans for Reconstruction)
-4 Black Americans are killed and 54 wounded

The Ku Klux Klan consisted of local secret organizations formed to violently oppose Republican rule during Reconstruction; there was no organization above the local level. Wearing white hoods to hide their identity the Klan would attack and threaten Republicans. The Klan was strong in South Carolina between 1868 and 1870; South Carolina Governor Robert K. Scott, who was mired in corruption charges, allowed the Klan to rise to power.Grant, who was fed up with their violent tactics, ordered the Ku Klux Klan to disperse from South Carolina and lay down their arms under the authority of the Enforcement Acts on October 12, 1871. There was no response, and so on October 17, 1871, Grant issued a suspension of habeas corpus in all the 9 counties in South Carolina. Grant ordered federal troops in the state who then captured the Klan; who were vigorously prosecuted by Att. Gen. Akerman and Sol. Gen. Bristow. With the Klan destroyed other white supremacist groups would emerge, including the White League and the Red Shirts.

After the contested 1872 election for governor of Louisiana and local offices, a group of white men armed with rifles and a small cannon overpowered black freedmen and state militia occupying the Grant Parish courthouse in Colfax.

Most of the freedmen were killed after surrendering, and nearly another 50 were killed later that night after being held as prisoners for several hours. Estimates of the number of dead have varied over the years, ranging from 62 to 153; three whites died but the number of black victims was difficult to determine because many bodies were thrown into the Red River or removed for burial, possibly at mass graves.

This event marks the power struggle between the republicans and the democrats.

During two raids in January and February, 500 masked men seized Union County Jail and lynched 8 Black prisoners.

Most were members of the South Carolina militia accused of killing a white man. Eleven men are known to have been killed in the two attacks or soon after. The fate of the other one is unknown