Download APUSH Talking Points 10.1 The Election of 1864, Surrender and

APUSH Talking Points 10.1
The Election of 1864, Surrender and Assassination
PLEASE NOTE: As we explore the post war years (1865 to 1877) please keep in mind the following events are
occurring simultaneously: rapid Industrial growth and labor unrest in a number of northern cities, building of
the Transcontinental RR; wars of Conquest against Native Americans on the Great Plains, significant western
migration and settlement and a financial Panic in 1873
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1870
1873
1876
1877
American Pageant: #22
TIMELINE 1864 to 1877
Lincoln elected to s second term Lincoln got 55% of the popular vote and 212 electoral votes
Civil War Ends; Lincoln assassinated; Andrew Johnson assumes the presidency; thirteenth amendment
Radical Republicans emerge in congress; KKK founded
Military Reconstruction; purchase of Alaska “Seward’s Folly”
Johnson impeach trail ends in an acquittal
Fourteenth Amendment; Grant elected president
Fifteenth Amendment
Panic of 1873
disputed election between Hayes and Tilden
Compromise of 1877; Hayes becomes President; Redeemers recapture Southern governments
Election of 1864
Republicans
Lincoln + Andrew Johnson - A Republican
and a Democrat – got both sides.
Republicans emphasized the Union
Democrats
Copperheads - Democrats who wanted peace
without victory. Attacked Lincoln as a dictator;
Mostly in the old Northwest.
Radical Republican faction - Wanted
immediate Emancipation. Complained and
criticize Lincoln throughout the War and
almost lead to his defeat in 1864
War Democrat faction were loyal to Lincoln
Lincoln (Republic)
McClellan (Democrat)
Electoral vote
212
21
Popular vote
2,218,388
1,812,807
Percentage
55.0%
45.0%
On November 8, Lincoln won by over 400,000 popular votes and easily clinched an electoral
majority. Several states allowed their citizens serving as soldiers in the field to cast ballots, a first in
United States history. Soldiers in the Army gave Lincoln more than 70% of their vote.
1
The end of the Civil War: Surrender and Impact http://www.nps.gov/archive/apco/rocco.htm
With his army surrounded, his men weak and exhausted, Robert E. Lee realized there was little choice but to
consider the surrender of his Army to General Grant. After a series of notes between the two leaders, they
agreed to meet on April 9, 1865, at the house of Wilmer McLean in the village of Appomattox Courthouse. The
meeting lasted approximately two and one-half hours and at its conclusion the bloodiest conflict in the nation's
history neared its end.
“A splendid failure did not achieve its goals in any lasting manner”
Wrote one of the first major history of Reconstruction
WEB DuBois
The Civil War is over…Now what? Questions to consider
#1 How to bring the Confederate states back into the union and how will the freedman be treated in
the wake of Emancipation? (In emancipation there was a window of opportunity, during
Reconstruction we see this window close)
#2 How drastic will the changes be in southern society?
#3 How will the South be told to change?
#4 Will recently freed African Americans achieve social and political equality? They are free, but
what are the beyond free?
#5 What would the southern states have to give up?
#6 What would they have to promise in order to be restored to full political rights?
#7 What will be the Role of the federal government? It had expanded during the Civil War. What will
its role continue to be?
#8 What is the consequence of competing ideas: Free slaves, republicans, democrats the battles
play out in President vs. Congress (the first impeachment)
#9 What will be the relationship between the North and South? (This has a lot to do with how
Reconstruction unfolds)
2
The answers to these questions will be influenced by who controls the process…
Who is in charge? The President – is it an executive process? Is Congress in charge – is it a legislative
process? Which wing of the Republican Party would lead reconstruction – the moderates or the
radicals? All of these things are uncertain in the weeks and months after the Civil War.
John Rogers (1829-1904)
Taking the Oath and Drawing Rations plaster, 1866
Presidential Reconstruction under Lincoln - 10% Plan – Dec. 3, 1863
Background
Plan
Reactions
Lincoln had already stated
that any Southerner who
took an oath to the
Constitution could become
citizens of the
U.S. When a state had a number that equaled
10% of the voting total in 1860 take this oath it
could set up a state government.
According to Lincoln’s Plan state governments
had to:
#1 be a representative, republican government
#2 recognize the free status of former slaves
and other Blacks
#3 provide Blacks with an education (plan did
not require a state to give Blacks the right to
vote)
By Jan 1864 – Tennessee, Louisiana and
Arkansas had met the requirements and
applied to be readmitted
Congress assumed
Reconstruction was a
Congressional power – not
an executive one – they set
up
their own plan. Congress
also believed:
South should be punished
Should have to pay for the
war
Ex-confederate military
leaders and political
leaders should not emerge
as the new Southern
leadership
3
Congressional Reconstruction The Wade Davis Bill , July 1864
Background
Plan
Reactions
The Congressional Plan
was much harsher than
Lincoln. Ben Wade- Sen.
Ohio and Henry Davis –
House proposed the
plan.
A state could set up a Constitutional
convention after a 50 % of the voters
in 1860 took an oath pledging that
they had always supported the
United States.
Confederate Officers and Officials as
well as anyone who had “voluntarily
bore arms against the U.S.” were
barred from voting or participating
in the convention
Lincoln pocket vetoes the
Wade-Davis Bill. That is the
card Lincoln played with the
Wade-Davis Bill he rejected it
because he did not wish "to
be inflexibly committed to
any single plan of
restoration".
What is a pocket veto?
If the President does not sign the bill
within the required time period, the
bill becomes law by default. However,
the exception to this rule is if Congress
adjourns before the ten days have
passed and the President has not yet
signed the bill. In such a case, the bill
does not become law; it is effectively,
if not actually, vetoed.
New State Governments must:
#1 Prohibit slavery
#2 Deny the vote to ex-Confederate
officers and officials
#3 Pick up the war costs
The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln April 14, 1865
Abraham Lincoln was shot while attending a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre with his
wife and two guests ( Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara)
Booth shot the president in the back of the head. Lincoln slumped over in his rocking chair, unconscious.
Rathbone jumped from his seat and tried to prevent Booth from escaping, but Booth stabbed the Major
violently in the arm with a knife. Rathbone quickly recovered and tried to grab Booth as he was preparing to
jump from the sill of the box. Booth again stabbed at Rathbone, and then attempted to vault over the rail and
down to the stage. His foot was caught on the Treasury flag, and Booth came down full-face to the audience.
He raised himself up and, holding a knife over his head, yelled, "Sic semper tyrannis,“ the Virginia state motto,
meaning "Thus always to tyrants."
4