Download Chapter 14 – “To Punish or to Forgive”

Chapter 14
“To Punish or to
Forgive”
The North and
The South
after the Civil
War
Civil War Reminders
• Rebels = Confederates/ Southern
States who seceded the Union
• Union= Northern States
• Civil War fought to preserve the Union
• General Lee(Confederate) surrendered
to General Grant(Union) at Appomattox
The South – After the Civil
War
• 250,000 Southerners died in the war
• Burned plantations, broken bridges,
twisted railways
• The South was a wasteland
• The north needed to get the South back
into working order (Crops planted,
factories built, railroads running, and
teachers and students into school)
• The North called the Civil War – “The War of
the Rebellion”
• The South called it – “The War Between the
States”
• Lincoln had dilemma with what to do with the
South
• He thought the southern states could still run
their own affairs, but that Confederate
officials should be barred from office
• Most Democrats and some Republicans
agreed
• Lincoln wanted the Union restored(Malice
toward none), the Radical Republicans
wanted revenge
“Radical Republicans”
• Wanted to punish the South
• Wanted freed slaves to receive fair treatment
• Thought southern states had no right to govern
themselves or be represented in Congress
• Leaders of the “Radical Republicans”
- Thaddeus Stevens – Congressman from PA
- Charles Sumner – Senator from Mass-both fought
for equal rights for blacks and both were bitter about
the Southerners and wanted them punished.
Lincoln’s Plan for Reunion
• Proclamation of Amnesty and
Reconstruction
• Nickname – The 10% Plan
- Lincoln would pardon almost all
southerners, even if they fought in the
war
- They would have to take an oath to
support the Constitution
- Lincoln would then recognize the state
gov’t.
- The southern states must abolish
slavery
- This would be enough if 10% of the
voters in the 1860 presidential election
took the oath of loyalty
Wade- Davis Plan(Radical
Republicans Plan)
• Many Republicans did not agree with Lincoln-weak
• They wanted slower readmission into the Union
• Under this plan, 50% of all white men would have to
take the oath
• There would then be an election for a convention to
make a new constitution for each southern state
• In order to vote in that election, each delegate had to
take an ironclad oath – Promise for future loyalty
• They also had to swear that they never held
Confederate office or fought in the war (Most
honestly couldn’t)
• It would have been years before any
Southern state could set up a majority
government
• The whole Civil War generation would have
to be dead.
• It passed congress, but Lincoln pocket –
vetoed the Wade-Davis Bill
• Pocket veto – Failure to sign a bill within 10
days of the adjournment of Congress
• Not to upset Congress, Lincoln said that
states could choose which plan to follow
Assassination of Lincoln
• April 14, 1865 – Lincoln and his wife attended the
play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.
• Lincoln was shot by an actor, John Wilkes Booth– He believed slavery was the greatest thing that ever
happened to human-kind.
– He also blamed Lincoln for the South losing the Civil War
• Lincoln became larger through death than life- he
became a symbol for freedom.
• Andrew Johnson (Lincoln’s VP) became the new
President
Andrew Johnson
•
•
•
•
Poor southerner from Tennessee
He was a Democrat.
Distrusted by republicans.
Wanted to follow Lincoln’s Plan but HE would decide
when Southern states rejoined
• Johnson was unclear with the rules
• Southerners had to abolish slavery but created Black
Codes
*Black Codes
• Blacks could not vote
• could not marry whites
• In some states, Blacks could only be witnesses in
cases involving other blacks
• Could only work in agriculture or domestic jobs.
• Vagrancy laws were enacted
• Vagrant – wandering person without a job
Freedmen’s Bureau
• Led by Thaddeus Stevens
• Help war refugees restore southern farms and
recently freed blacks
• Handed out free meals
• Treated many illnesses
• Helped freedmen find jobs
• Tried to protect freedmen against Black Codes
• Built schools to help educate blacks
• Johnson vetoed said it gave Congress power over
the states. Congress overruled the veto
Civil Rights Bill
• Protect blacks in the South legally
• Allowed federal government to
intervene in a state’s affairs to protect
rights of all U.S. citizens
• Johnson vetoed the bill. He was an old
states rights Democrat
• Congress overrode the veto
Added Amendments
• 13th Amendment – Abolished slavery
• 14th Amendment – Blacks were made
citizens
• 15th Amendment – Gave blacks the
right to vote
Impeachment of Andrew
Johnson
• Congress and Pres. Johnson were both
trying to defeat the other
• They passed the Tenure of Office Act
- said the President could not dismiss any
federal official without the consent of the
Senate
• Johnson then fired Sec. of War Edwin
Stanton
• Johnson wanted to test the Tenure of Office
Act
• The Constitution states that the president
could not be removed except “on
impeachment of, and conviction of treason,
bribery, or other high crimes and
misdemeanors.”
• House of Representatives – Needs majority
to vote for impeachment
• After impeachment, a trial is held in the
Senate
• The Senate needs 2/3 of its members to oust
the President
• May 16, 1868 – 35 Senators voted “guilty,” 19
voted “not guilty”
• Johnson survived being removed by 1 vote
Election of 1868
• Republican – Ulysses S.
Grant
• Democrat – Horatio
Seymour (Gov. of NY)
• Winner – Grant
• Grant got 650,000 votes
from blacks– He would have
lost without them
Southern State Conventions
• The new governments in the South were made up of:
- “Scalawags” – White southerners
- “Carpet-baggers” – Northerners who had come to
the South for political gain
- Blacks
• These governments were corrupt
• Spending led to higher taxes
• People became sick of Radical Republican rule
Reconstruction Governments
didn’t last long
• Radical Republican governments could only stay in
power only as long as blacks voted for them
• Southern whites decided to make sure blacks did not
vote
• Ku Klux Klan – Organized by old Confederates in the
South
- Threatened, beat, and murdered blacks in the
South.
- Names secret - faces hidden.
• Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Acts to
prevent hate organizations
• Southern state governments (now made up
of Confederates again) did little to protect the
blacks
• Didn’t want them to vote
• Set up conditions in order to vote
• A voter might have to read from the state or
federal constitution and explain what it meant
• He might have to be on record as a taxpayer
• Many states had “grandfather clause”
could vote if had an ancestor who
could vote before 1867
• restrictions tried to keep blacks only
from voting, but they kept many poor,
illiterate whites from voting
Election of 1872
• Republican – Ulysses S. Grant
• Democrat – Horace Greely
• Winner – Grant was easily reelected
Scandals During the Grant
Admin.
• Credit Mobilier Scandal – Railroad scandal
- company was paid for work not done
• “Salary Grab” – Congress voted for a pay increase
for themselves, the Supreme Court, and the
President
- Grant signed into law day before start of 2nd term
• Whiskey Frauds – Whiskey distillers bribed Treasury
officials donn’t have to pay whiskey tax
Election of 1876
•
•
•
•
Republican – Rutherford B. Hayes
Democrat – Samuel J. Tilden
Winner – Hayes
On election day: Tilden – 184
electoral votes (1 less than
needed) Hayes had 165
• There were disputed votes
• To solve this problem, Congress created the
commission of 15 – 5 Representatives, 5 Senators,
and 5 Supreme Court Justices to determine which
returns should be accepted
• The Commission declared Hayes the winner, 185184
Compromise of 1877
• Both houses of Congress had to
approve commission’s report
• group of Southern Dems met with
Hayes’s people to use this crisis to their
advantage
• An agreement was made
• Southerners voted to accept the report. In return,
Hayes would grant 4 favors:
- The last federal troops will leave the South
- At least 1 southerner will get a cabinet position
- Hayes would support spending for internal
improvements in the South
- Hayes would give conservative Democrats part of
the local patronage
• Patronage – The distribution of government jobs to
political supporters
The Divided South
• Racism
• 1896 – Plessy v. Ferguson – Supreme Court case
that approved “separate but equal” facilities for
whites and blacks
• Rise of Jim Crow laws
• Jim Crow laws required the segregation of blacks
and whites
• These laws undermined early attempts to treat
blacks fairly because they provided southern officials
with an excuse for keeping blacks in separate,
inferior facilities