Download Overview of Reconstruction

The time period following the Civil War, from 1865 – 1877, during which the United States began
to rebuild as the government readmitted the defeated Confederate states to the Union. The
Reconstruction period was complicated by the fact that Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, and
members of Congress all had different views of how Reconstruction would take shape.
During Lincoln’s second inaugural address, he laid out his plan for Reconstruction with the
following words, “With malice toward none, with charity for all . . . let us strive to finish the work
we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for
his widow and orphan, to do all which ma achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among
ourselves and with all nations.” It was not Lincoln’s aim to punish the former Confederate
states, nor to lay the blame for the war at their feet. When the Civil War began, Lincoln’s
stated aim was to preserve the Union, and so after the war’s conclusion Lincoln’s plan was to
reunite the Union with as little acrimony as possible.
However, Lincoln’s moderate Reconstruction plan angered a minority of Republicans in
Congress, known as the Radical Republicans.
The Radicals had spearheaded support for abolition and the war, and during Reconstruction they
proposed laws to ensure African American’s rights. Led by Senator Charles Sumner of
Massachusetts and Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, the Radicals wanted to
destroy the political power of former slaveholders. Most of all, Radicals believed African
Americans should be granted full citizenship and the right to vote. In 1865, the prospect of
granting African American’s suffrage was a remarkably radical idea since no other country that
had abolished slavery had given formerly enslaved people the right to vote.
In July 1864, the Radicals responded to the Ten Percent Plan by passing the Wade-Davis Bill,
which proposed that Congress, rather than the president, be responsible for Reconstruction and
that in order to form a state government a majority, and not just ten percent, of those eligible to
vote in 1860 would have to take a solemn oath to support the Constitution.
John Wilkes Booth’s assassination of President Lincoln in April 1865 left Lincoln’s successor,
Andrew Johnson, to deal with the Reconstruction controversy. A die-hard Unionist and an enemy
of Southern planters, Johnson had often expressed his intent to deal harshly with Confederate
leaders. As a result, most white Southerners considered Johnson a traitor to his region, while
Radicals believed that he was one of them. Johnson proved them both wrong.
Johnson Continues Lincoln’s Policies
In May 1865, with Congress in recess, Johnson announced his own plan, known as Presidential
Reconstruction, to deal with the seven remaining Confederate states. President Johnson
declared that each state (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina,
and Texas) could be readmitted to the Union if it met several conditions. Each state would have
to declare its secession illegal, swear allegiance to the Union, and ratify the Thirteenth
Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery.
To the dismay of the Radical Republicans, Johnson’s Presidential Reconstruction plan
differed little from Lincoln’s and failed to address the needs of the freedmen’s needs for
land, voting rights, and protection under the law. His plan signaled relief for most white
Southerners, however, because it supported states rights instead of a strong central government
and reassured Southern states that they could do as they wished about African American voting
rights. In addition, although Johnson had promised to punish traitors, he pardoned more than
13,000 former Confederates because he believed that “white men alone must manage the
South” and that former slaves should not gain the right to vote.
Civil War Amendments
Rights Granted
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Abolition of Slavery
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Citizenship of United States and state in which freedman resides
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Suffrage (the right to vote)
13 Amendment
14 Amendment
15 Amendment
Believing that Johnson was not carrying out his constitutional obligation to enforce the
Reconstruction Act, Radical Republicans turned their energies to getting rid of the antagonistic
president and looked for reasons to impeach him.
In March 1867, Congress had passed the Tenure of Office Act, which stated that the president
cold not remove cabinet officers “during the term of the president by whom they may have been
appointed” without the consent of two-thirds of the Senate. The act was intended to protect
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, the Radicals’ ally, whose support was essential to enforcing
congressional Reconstruction.
Johnson was certain that the Tenure of Office Act was unconstitutional because it made the
executive branch answerable to the legislature. To test the act in court, Johnson fired Secretary
of War Stanton, and his action provided the Radicals with the opportunity they needed to initiate
impeachment proceedings. The House of Representatives brought 11 charges of impeachment
against Johnson, 9 of which were based on violations of the Tenure of Office Act. Johnson’s trial
before the Senate began in March 1868 and lasted 11 weeks, during which time no one knew
what the outcome of the proceedings would be. Ultimately, the Senate found President Johnson
not guilty, despite many members’ strong feelings against him.
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This act did not recognize state governments formed under the Lincoln and Johnson plans
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(except Tennessee which had ratified the 14 Amendment and been readmitted to the Union).
The Reconstruction Act of 1867 divided the other ten former Confederate states into five military
districts, each headed by a Union General. Voters in the district, all African American men and
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white men who were not disqualified by the 14 Amendment, would elect delegates to
conventions called to write new state constitutions. The new constitutions had to grant African
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American men the right to vote and required states to ratify the 14 Amendment. Once these
conditions were met, Congress would allow a state to reenter the Union. Johnson vetoed the
Reconstruction Act of 1867 but Congress quickly overrode his veto.