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Reconstruction
Reconstruction: The process of bringing former Confederate states back into the Union.
→Goal: to keep the union together but how are you going to reconstruct it?
Two very different views on Reconstruction
Conservative: Reconstruction synonymous w/ restoration of anti-bellum conditions w/o slavery
Radical: Reconstruction to involve total, political, economics, and social transformation of the South.
→ Dates of Recon. Traditionally 1865-1877, but actually starts before war ends
→ Port Royal Sea Islands Experiment -S. Carolina-Raising cotton w/ free labor
→ Davis Plantation in Mississippi - (Yep! That’s Jefferson Davis’s home – don’t you love irony☺) -taken over by exslaves, showed signs of working, but operated in an artificial vacuum – no whites around
→ Military Governors -Union field officers were to “run the war and be in charge of the government”
Presidential Reconstruction
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to
finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.”
→ From Lincoln’s second inaugural address (Yes, you should be familiar with this…but what does it mean?
→ Lincoln’s view of Reconstruction will be very lenient! – Referred to as
“conservative”
→ Wants to heal the wounds quickly, to reunite the country, making no major
changes just getting on with it.
→ Honor the dead Union soldiers by rebuilding a new, better union, to punish
the South, but not too much.
→ Forgiveness of slaveholders but reliance on their providing for welfare of
former slaves
Lincoln's Reconstruction: 1863-1865
10% Plan (1863)
→ Lincoln held that states did not secede
→ Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction - loyal citizens in Confederate
states that would swear an oath of loyalty to the Union and approve of
emancipation; when 10% of those who voted in the 1860 election took an oath of future loyalty to the Union, they could form a
new state government, write a constitution without slavery and reenter the Union
→ All confederates except prominent military and political leaders could regain citizenship by taking oath to support
Constitution and 13th Amendment
→Maybe even a few select blacks given suffrage
Congressional Reconstruction
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
→ Radicals in Congress believe 10% Plan was too mild!
→ Believed Congress rather than President would / should run reconstruction, so come up with Wade-Davis Bill
→ Majority (50% +) rather than 10% must take an “iron clad” oath that they had always sworn allegiance to the
Union and would continue to swear loyalty to the Union before state could be reenter the Union
→ Military and political leaders are disenfranchised (no voting ever!)
→ Slavery abolished
→ Confederate debts are repudiated
→ Lincoln pocket vetoes measure
→ Congress passes the Wade Davis Manifesto (1864) -- Criticized Lincoln for usurping
Congressional power
→ What do you do?
→ North felt that they had given a great sacrifice to the cause of the Union and did not
want the South to reenter the Union so easily. 300,000 Union soldiers died, there were
3,000 Northern women working as nurses, the US sanitary commission, etc. Lincoln's
proclamation of amnesty and reconstruction was too easy for the South and the WadeDavis bill was too harsh
War Ends, Lincoln Assassinated, Johnson becomes President
→ What happened to Hannibal Hamlin?- Andrew Johnson, a southerner, placed on
ticket for purposes of unity (all know that the war is almost over)
→ Radicals hope he will be strict
→ Southerners hope to be able to influence
Johnson’s Reconstruction Policies
→ Attempts to follow Lincoln’s ideas…but he is no Abraham Lincoln
→ 1965 Johnson issues amnesty proclamation
→ Amnesty to former Confederates who will take oath of loyalty
→ Amnesty denied to
→ Highest-ranking civil and military leaders of the Confederacy
→ Individuals who deserted positions in government
→ Persons whose taxable property was worth more than $20,000
→ To regain rights application to President Johnson for pardon
→ Johnson’s requirements for states to reenter the Union and more
→Convention will be held to amend state constitution to restore state to its constitutional relationship with the Federal
Government
→ Both political and land rights were to be given back to the Southerners
→Many Southerner leaders are returned to Congress, and Congress will not seat them
→ On December 6, 1865, President Johnson declared that the South had satisfied all of the conditions needed, and that the
Union was now restored
Congress reacts to Johnson’s policies
→ Congress is not happy!
→ By 1865, when many of the Southern states came to be reintegrated into the
Union, among them were former Confederates and Democrats, and most
Republicans were disgusted to see their former enemies on hand to reclaim
seats in Congress.
→ During the war, without the Democrats, the Republicans had passed
legislation that had favored the North,
→ The Morrill Tariff
→ the Pacific Railroad Act
→ the Homestead Act 1866 - made land available to freedmen and
loyal whites in South from lands confiscated from
states. Freedmen got almost no land and whites got most of it
→ Civil Rights bill to repudiate Dred Scott decision and Black codes – (Johnson vetoed)
→ Freedman’s Savings Bank
o Interstate private bank, federally sponsored
o Freedmen encouraged to deposit savings and wages
→ Freedman’s Bureau created to help the newly freed slaves
(primitive welfare agency)-General Oliver O.
Howard put in charge
(Johnson vetoes re-charter of Freedman’s Bureau)
→ Morrill Land Grant Act (1862)-Generous grant of public lands
to states for support of education-“Land-Grant Colleges)-later
became state colleges-in return these colleges bound themselves to
provide government services, like military training (ROP) R&D
→ 13th Amendment - abolished slavery (only Delaware and
Kentucky still had legal slavery)
→ 14th Amendment - civil rights bill –
→ Black suffrage left to states, if states refused black the
right to vote, they would have less representatives
in the House
→ Permanently disqualified from holding state or federal office any person that previous to the Civil War
had given an oath of loyalty to the Union and then broke that oath by siding with the Confederacy
→ Union war debt to be paid, repudiated Confederate war debt, did away with compensated emancipation
→ Granted Congress the power to enforce the amendment
→ Johnson opposed and campaigned around the country against it Swing ‘round the circle” (see below)
→ many Republicans didn’t want to give the power that they had gained in the war.
→ Northerners now realized that the South would be stronger politically
than before, since now, Blacks counted for a
whole person instead of just 3/5 of one, and Republicans also feared that
the Northern and Southern Democrats would
join and take over Congress and the White House and institute their Black
Codes over the nation, defeating all that the
Civil War gained.
Congressional Elections 1866
→ Johnson hopes to use elections to place supporters in Congress and defeat
Radicals
→ Johnson’s “Swing ‘Round the Circle”
→ In 1866, Republicans would not allow Reconstruction to be carried on
without the 14th Amendment, and as election time approached, Johnson
wanted to lower the amount of Republicans in Congress, so he began a
series of ‘Round the Circle speeches.
→ However, as he was heckled by the audience, he hurled back insults, gave “give ‘em hell” speeches, and generally
denounced the radicals, and in the process, he gave Republicans more men in Congress than they had before—the
opposite of his original intention.
→Not acting in a presidential manner
→Johnson is warned of problems in Memphis and New Orleans (radical violence) but does nothing to prevent their outbreak
→ Radicals win large victory
→ “Radicalization” of Congress
Radical Reconstruction
→ Radical Republicans take charge
→ Republicans had a veto-proof Congress and nearly unlimited control over
Reconstruction, but moderates and radicals still couldn’t agree.
→ Major leader in the Senate:
→ Charles Sumner, long since recovered from his caning
→ Major leader in the House: Thaddeus Stevens
→ Stevens is usually credited with promising Freedmen “40 acres and a mule”,
but
40 acres and a mule was a term for compensation that was promised to be
awarded to freed African American slaves after the Civil War— 40 acres of land to farm, and a mule with which to drag a plow
so the land could be cultivated.
→ The award—a land grant of a quarter of a quarter section (160 acres) deeded to heads of households presumably formerly
owned by land-holding whites—was the product of Special Field Orders, No. 15, issued January 16, 1865 by Maj. Gen.
William T. Sherman, which applied to black families who lived near the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
Sherman's orders specifically allocated "the islands from Charleston, south, the abandoned rice fields along the rivers for thirty
miles back from the sea, and the country bordering the St. Johns river, Florida." There was no mention of mules in Sherman's
order, although the Army may have distributed them anyway. Federal and state homestead grants of the time ranged from 1/4
section up to a full section.
→After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, his successor, Andrew Johnson, revoked Sherman's Orders. It is
sometimes mistakenly claimed that Johnson also vetoed the enactment
of the policy as a federal. In fact, the Freedmen's Bureau Bill which he
vetoed made no mention of grants of land or mules. (Another version
of the Freedmen's bill, also without the land grants, was later passed
after Johnson's second veto was overridden.)
→By June 1865, around 10,000 freed slaves were settled on 400,000
acres (1,600 km²) in Georgia and South Carolina. Soon after,
President Johnson reversed the order and returned the land to its white
former owners. Because of this, the phrase has come to represent the
failure of Reconstruction and the general public to assist African
Americans.
→ Radical Reconstruction does push through legislation:
→Civil Rights Act of 1866
→ Vetoed by President Johnson
→ Congress overrides the veto
→ Pushes moderates to the side of the radicals
→ The Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867 divided the South into five military zones, temporarily disfranchised tens of
thousands of former Confederates, and laid down new guidelines for the readmission of states (Johnson had announced the
Union restored, but Congress had not yet formally agreed on this).
→ All states had to approve the 14th Amendment, making all Blacks citizens.
→ All states had to guarantee full suffrage of all male former slaves.
→ The 15th Amendment, passed by Congress in 1869, gave Blacks their right to vote.
→ Johnson vetoes act, his veto is overridden
→ Reconstruction enters a period of Radical Reconstruction as known as Military Reconstruction
→ 10 Confederate states divided into 5 military districts, each
commanded by a military general
→ Granted full authority over judicial and civil functions
→ Police power
→ Register a new, loyal electorate
→ New voters elected delegates to state constitutional convention
→ New constitutions adopted
→ Grants universal manhood suffrage
→ Acceptable constitution = Congress accepts members
Civil War Amendments
→ 13th Amendment – December 1865 - Frees all slaves in the United States
→ 14th Amendment – April 1866
→ All persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens
→ Southerners must enfranchise all male citizens or lose
representation
→ Disqualified all who had taken an oath to support the Constitution
and supported the Confederacy
→ 15th Amendment – March 1870
→ Clearly states right of citizenship
The Realities of Radical Reconstruction in the South
→ Blacks began to organize politically, and their main vehicle was the Union
League.
→ It became a network of political clubs that educated members in
their civic duties and campaigned for Republican candidates, and later even
built Black churches and schools, represented Black grievances, and recruited
militias to protect Blacks.
→Black women attended the parades and rallies of Black
communities.
→ Black men also began to hold political offices, as men like Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce served in
Congress (they represented Mississippi).
→ Southern Whites hated seeing their former slaves now ranking above
them, and they also hated “scalawags,” Southerners who were accused
of plundering Southern treasuries and selling out the Southerners, and
“carpetbaggers,” Northerners accused of sleazily seeking power and
profit in a now-desolate South.
→ Note that Southern governments were somewhat corrupted during
these times.
The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (1868)
→ Radical Republicans wanted not just to curb Johnson’s authority, but to
remove him from office altogether
→ Tenure of Office Act (1867) passed over Johnson’s veto – president had to
secure consent of Senate before removing
any appointees who had previously received approval of Senate
→ Purpose – keep Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton in office (was serving as a
“spy” for Radical Republicans) and provoke
Johnson into breaking the law, setting the stage for his impeachment
→ Johnson believed Act to be unconstitutional (thought it didn’t apply to those he hadn’t actually appointed himself
– Lincoln’s holdovers) and thought the Supreme Court would back him up, so he fired Stanton in early 1868 to initiate the case
→ The House of Representatives voted to impeach Johnson (“high crimes and misdemeanors” – violation of Tenure of
Office Act central issue) with a vote of 126-47
→ Case would then be tried in the Senate (needed 2/3 majority to remove from
office)
→ If Johnson removed, Benjamin Wade, President Protempore of
Senate(longest seated member of majority party in
Senate) would become President
→ Long, complicated trial allowed passions to cool off – doubts remained if
Johnson had actually violated act;
Moderate Republicans disliked precedent would set if removed president from
office and disliked Wade
→ Behind the scenes – Johnson agreed to appoint well-respected General John
M. Schofield as Secretary of War and stop
obstructing Reconstruction acts
→ Result – May 16, 1868, Johnson is acquitted by 1 vote!
→ Legacy – first president to be impeached (Clinton the second); had Johnson been
removed, would have most likely set
destructive precedent and severely weakened the Executive Branch
Reconstruction and the Grant Administration
→ Ulysses S. Grant elected in 1868 & again in 1872
→ Republican Party begins to withdraw commitment -no longer want association with
radicals
→"Redeemers" (AKA - "Bourbons"), white, conservative, Antebellum-style
Southern politicians take back control of Southern seats in Congress
→ “Solid South” means a Democratic South – anything other than the party of
Lincoln!! (This will begin to change in approximately 100 years to a “Republican
South” (AKA – Today’s “Red States”)
→ Grant administration gives lack luster enforcement of military reconstruction
→ Amnesty Act of 1872 - Pardons most of the remaining rebels and left only 500 banned from political office holding
Election of 1876
→ Republican candidate – Rutherford B. Hayes (Ohio)
→ Democratic candidate – Samuel J. Tilden (New York)
→ Election results were inconclusive (disputed) with Tilden leading the popular vote but not having enough electoral votes
to win outright
→ Question of fraud and violence in South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana (states that were still under Republican control
– troops still occupied) the major issue
→ A number of groups throughout the South were trying to infringe upon blacks right to vote
(“bulldozing”)
→ White Leagues (LA), Rifle Clubs (MS), Red Shirts (SC), KKK (throughout the South)
→ Negotiations took place between Southern political leaders and representatives of Hayes and
the reached a compromise
→ Compromise of 1877 – Hayes would be inaugurated as President (appease the North) and in
turn he agreed to remove
Federal troops from SC, FL, and LA and allow Democrats to dominate southern state politics
(appease the South)
→ Because of the Compromise of 1877, Rutherford B. Hayes was known as "His Fraudulency"
or "Old 8 to 7"
→This signals the end of Reconstruction – Republican party all but disappears in the South
→ The “Solid South” meant the Democratic South
→ Southern Democrats will stifle dissent, and effectively nullify 14th and 15th amendments;
blacks will be discriminated against for years (until Civil Rights Movement in the 1950’s and
1960’s); Federal Government will stand by indifferently
while this goes on
→Time period that follows (The Gilded Age) marked by Congressional dominance and the “nameless, faceless” presidents
→ As reconstruction ended, South returned to conservative policies
Supreme Court and Reconstruction
→During the war
→Ex parte Merryman (1861) was not actually a Supreme Court case, although it was heard by then-Chief Justice Roger Taney
Taney protested Lincoln's secret notice granting military personnel the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. This case is
an example of a U.S. President ignoring a court's ruling on the grounds of necessity.
→Ex parte Vallandigham (1863), a former congressman and leader of the Copperheads, was
tried before a military tribunal by General Ambrose Burnside for treason after he delivered an
incendiary speech at Mount Vernon. A writ of certiorari brought the case to the Supreme
Court under Chief Justice Salmon Chase. The court avoided disagreement with the President
or military by arguing that since the extra-legal tribunals were, unsurprisingly, not listed in
any documents enumerating courts over which the Supreme Court had authority,
Vallandigham had no grounds for appeal.
→After the War
→ Ex parte Milligan (1866), the Supreme Court led by Chase ruled that, so long as local
civilian courts are open, citizens may not be tried by military tribunals. It further observed
that, during the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, citizens may only be held without
charges, not tried, and certainly may not be executed by military tribunals.
→ Cummings v. Georgia & ex parte Garland 1867 - Invalidated the use of loyalty oaths,
opens the way for former Confederate government officials to return to positions within the federal judiciary.
→ Texas v. White (1869), the Court held in a 5–3 decision that Texas had remained a state of the United States ever since it
first joined the Union, despite its joining the Confederate States of America and its being under military rule at the time of the
decision in the case. It further held that the Constitution did not permit states to secede from the United States, and that the
ordinances of secession, and all the acts of the legislatures within seceding states intended to give effect to such ordinances,
were "absolutely null".
→ Efforts to weaken the 14th Amendment
Bradwell v Illinois (1873)
→ State of Illinois denied right of female attorney to practice law because of her gender, she appeals on grounds of 14th
amendment “privileges and communities”, loses
→ Slaughter House cases (1873) - Ruled that states could define rules by which citizens could conduct their lives
→Blow to black citizens’ right and privileges protected
**** → Later Big Business will use the 14th Amendment to protect their monopolies
→Efforts to weaken the 15th Amendment
→ Untied States v. Reese -Court notes that 15th amendment does not guarantee a citizen’s right to vote, but lists contain
impermissible grounds for denying suffrageOpens door for nonracial restrictions
Legacy of Reconstruction
→ Many Southerners regarded Reconstruction as worse than the war itself, as they resented the upending of their social and
racial system. Some historians refer to Reconstruction as the “Second Civil War”
The Republicans, though with good intentions, failed to improve the South, and the fate of Blacks would remain bad for almost
another century before the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s secured Black privileges.
→ Positive:
→ Freedmen celebrate freedom
→ Jubilee Day - Uniting of families
→ Civil War Amendments
→13th Amendment
→ 14th Amendment
→ 15th Amendment
→ The rebuilt economy of the “New” South is much more industrial (textiles, lumber,
iron-making) Although their industry doesn't quite catch up to North)
→ State education established in south
→ Freedman’s Bureau schools
→ African-American colleges established
→ Fisk and Atlanta University
→ Howard University in Wash, D.C.
→ African-American politicians
Hiram Revels Alabama and Blanche K. Bruce Miss.
→ Sharecropping
→The Purchase of Alaska
→In 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward bought Alaska from Russia to the United States for $7.2 million, but most of
the public jeered his act as “Seward’s Folly.”
→Only later, when oil and gold were discovered, did Alaska prove to be a huge bargain.
→ Negative:
→ Ku Klux Klan Founded in Pulaski, Tennessee
→General Nathan Bedford Forrest was the first grand wizard
→ the “Invisible Empire of the South,” scared Blacks into not voting or not seeking jobs, etc… and often resorted to
violence against the Blacks in addition to terror.
→ Forrest ordered the group disbanded in 1869 due to its violent development
→ Ku Klux Klan continues
→ As black citizens assert rights Klan begins to grow
→Terrorist actions, burning, lynching, etc
→ Attorney General Amos Akerman (ex. Confederate colonel) takes action
→ Force Act 1870
→ Ku Klux Klan Act 1871
→ 600 convictions helped to break up the organized Klan
→ This illegal group undermined much of what abolitionists sought to do.
→ Black Codes
→ Southern whites attempted to control freedom
→ Based on codes used with free African Americans before the war in the South
→ Special Licenses
→ Punishment for vagrancy
→ Severely restricted the activities of the freedmen
→ Purpose to see that freed people continue to de dependable source of labor
→ Jim Crow" laws (1880s)
→Instituted by Southern governments
→ Segregated whites and blacks
→ Blacks' right to vote was restricted:
→Poll taxes (most Southern blacks were poor)
→Grandfather clauses
→Literacy tests
→ Supreme Court upheld "Jim Crow" laws (See Supreme Court and
Reconstruction above)
→ Tenant farming
→ Sharecropping