The Civil War has often been referred to as the “crucible” of the American nation. The war destroyed and then Reconstruction transformed the American nation. Emancipation was the single most important social, political, and economic outcome of the war. The federal government through Reconstruction attempted to secure the freedoms of African Americans and foster the transition from slaves to citizens. Democrats—assisted by re-enfranchisement, terrorism, and electoral fraud—restored “home rule” and reversed some of the gains non-elite blacks and whites had experienced under Reconstruction. White northerners and westerners retreated from Reconstruction in the 1870s.
A final reconciliation between former Unionists and former Confederates came by the turn of the century. Elites in all regions of the country found common cause in opposition to the demands of black and white workers. White elites in the South successfully re-established white supremacy through legal and extra-legal means, and the federal government failed to intervene. White non-elites for their part looked west for opportunity. As they left the problems of the South behind, whites agreed on western policy: that whites must spread civilization and progress across the continent and that Native Americans stood in the way. With the moneyed interest seemingly squeezing out small producers in the east, and with the conflict over slavery’s expansion to the west solved, former enemies worked together to conquer the West and its indigenous inhabitants.