Question

The expression “waving the bloody shirt” refers to which of the following?
A) The surrender of the South at the conclusion of the Civil War
B) Republican Political Tactics following the Civil War
C) Reconstruction riots
D) Government land-grant policy to the railroads
E) Immigration policies following the Civil War

Answer 1

Hint: "Waving the bloody shirt" and "bloody shirt movement" were derogatory terms used during 19th-century American election campaigns to disparage rival politicians who made emotional demands to avenge the blood of Civil War soldiers who died.

Complete answer:
Representative and former Union general Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts, during a speech on the floor of the United States House of Representatives in April of 1871, allegedly held up a shirt stained with the blood of a Reconstruction Era carpetbagger who had been whipped by the Ku Klux Klan, popularised the phrase “Waving the bloody shirt”. Butler gave a speech criticising the Klan, but he never waved a bloody shirt. White Southerners ridiculed Butler, claiming that he "waved the bloody shirt" to justify Klan thuggery and other crimes against freed slaves and Republicans.

Now let us look into the given options:
Option A) The surrender of the South at the conclusion of the Civil War: It is incorrect as the phrase was not used for the surrender of the South at the conclusion of the Civil War.
Option B) Republican Political Tactics following the Civil War : This is the correct option because the phrases were often used against Republicans, who were accused of using the Civil War's memory for political benefit.
Option C) Reconstruction riots : This is the incorrect option because the phrase was used for Republican Political Tactics.
Option D) Government land-grant policy to the railroads : This is an incorrect option because the phrase was not used for Government land-grant policy to the railroads.
Option E) Immigration policies following the Civil War : This option is incorrect because the phrase was not used for the immigration policies following the Civil War, it was used for the Republican Political Tactics.

Thus the correct answer is option ‘B’.

Note: The post-Civil War political tactic of appealing to voters by invoking the passions and struggles of the recent war is known as the bloody shirt. The tactic of "waving the bloody shirt" was most often used by Radical Republicans in their attempts to draw public attention to the country's lingering Reconstruction problems.