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Lesson 8-Politics
Reconstructing the Union
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as planters and bankers with taxable property
over $20,000, to the list of Southerners who
could not be pardoned, he offered the opportunity for these groups to apply for a special
Presidential pardon. By the close of 1865,
he issued over 13,000 pardons. In addition,
Johnson removed the 10 percent requirement
and encouraged Southern states to rejoin the
Union. By December 1865 many Southern
state governments were reconstituted and
appeared hauntingly similar to those that
existed during the Civil War. As the legislative branch convened in December, numerous
former Confederate officials appeared in the
Halls of Congress to take their seats.
Objectives
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To determine the tenets of the Reconstruction plans of Congress, Abraham Lincoln,
and Andrew Johnson
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To define areas of agreement and disagreement between the three Reconstruction
plans
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To develop a resume for a proponent of
Congressional or Presidential Reconstruction that reflects the accomplishments of
one of these plans
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Two core issues drove the attempts to
bring the Union back together at the conclusion of the Civil War. The first issue was
Constitutional. Which branch of government
had the Constitutional authority to manage
the unification of the divided nation? The
second issue was that of rights for the newly
freed African- American population. To what
extent should the nation go to manage the
transition from slavery to freedom? In light of
these issues, three plans for Reconstruction
were developed and implemented.
Johnson's plan did not go unopposed.
Arguing that the responsibility for Reconstruction belonged to Congress and not the
executive branch, the Radical Republicans
offered a more dramatic plan. The Radicals
required a majority of white male citizens to
take an "iron-clad" oath of past loyalty. This
oath implied that the people working to have
a southern state re-admitted to the Union had
to swear that they had always been loyal to
the Union. Otherwise they could not participate
in the government. In addition, the Radicals
required that the Southern states ratify the
Thirteenth Amendment, and provide for the
distribution of land and education to assist
with the transition from slavery.
The first plan was that ofAbraham Lincoln.
Lincoln's plan, announced on December 8,
1863, entitled the "Proclamation of Amnesty
and Reconstruction," had two major tenets.
First, ConfederateStates could rejoin the Union
when they were able to get 10 percent of their
population to take an oath of loyalty to the
Constitution of the United States. Excluded
from taking the oath were former Confederate
political officers. and any judge, congressman,
or military officer who deserted his post to
side with the Confederacy. The second tenet
was the abolition of slavery. Lincoln's plan
was met with success in Tennessee, Arkansas,
and Louisiana, but was resisted by Radical
Republicans in Congress.
From late 1865 until 1868, the history of
Reconstruction became a battle between the
executive and legislative branches. President
Johnson vetoed both the Civil Rights Act
and the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, but both
vetoes were overturned by Congressional vote
and became law. In addition, the Fourteenth
Amendment and the Reconstruction Acts
were passed to divide the South into military
districts. Congress required that Southern
states accept African-Amertcan suffrage and
the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The battle between the two branches over the
course of Reconstruction peaked with the 1868
impeachment of President Johnson. Although
acquitted by one vote, the impeachment proceedings ended Presidential interference with
Reconstruction and allowed Radical Reconstruction to go forward.
The assassination of Lincoln in April 1865
saw a transition to a different type of Reconstruction plan. President Andrew Johnson of
Tennessee argued that the Southern states
had never left the Union and therefore any
extensive Reconstruction was unnecessary.
Although Johnson added many groups, such
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Three Plans for Reconstruction
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Primary Sources, 1865-1877
Lesson 8
Handout 23
Use the following chart to record information regarding the Reconstruction plan you have been
assigned. When your classmates provide information on the other plan, record the information
here .
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Categories
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Land
Abraham
Lincoln's
Plan
Andrew Johnson's
Plan (Presidential
Reconstruction)
Congressional Plan
(Radical Republican
Reconstruction)
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Conditions and
restrictions for
returning to the
Union
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Voting rights
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Equality
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Specific laws or
programs
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Summary
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Name
Primary Sources, 1865-1877
Lesson 8
Handout 24 (page 1)
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Date
Lincoln's Reconstruction
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Plan
Read the following excerpts to determine what President Abraham Lincoln had in mind for
reconstructing the nation. Fill in the answers on your Reconstruction Plans chart.
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I. The Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction,
December 8, 1863
Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do proclaim.
declare, and make known to all persons who have, directly or by implication.
participated in the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted, that a
full pardon is hereby granted to them and each of them, with restoration of
all rights of property, except as to slaves ....
I,
, do solemnly swear, in presence of almighty god. that I will
henceforth faithfully support, protect. and defend the constitution of the
United States thereunder; and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support all acts of congress passed during existing rebellion with
reference to slaves . . . and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully
support all proclamations of the president made during the existing rebellion
having reference to slaves ....
The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing provisions are all
who are or shall have been civil or diplomatic officers of· agents of the socalled Confederate government; all who left judicial stations under the United
States to aid the rebellion; all who are or shall have been military or naval
officers of said so-called Confederate government ...
all those who left seats
in the United States congress to aid the rebellion . . . all who have engaged
in any way treating colored persons, or white persons in charge of such,
otherwise lawfully as prisoners of war.
And I do further proclaim. declare. and made known that whenever, in
any of the states of Arkansas. Texas. Louisiana, Mississippi. Tennessee,
Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina. a number of
persons, not less than one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such state
at the presidential election of the year AD 1860, each having taken the oath
aforesaid. and not having since violated it . . . shall be recognized as the
true government of the state ....
And I do further proclaim. declare, and made known that any provision
which may be adopted by such state government in relation to the freed people of such state which shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom,
provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent as a temporary
agreement with their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless
class will not be objected to by the national executive ....
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'Roy P. Basler, et al., eds., The Collected Works oj Abraham Lincoln, vol. 7 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers
University Press, 1953) 53-6.
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Lesson 8
Handout 24 (page 2)
Date
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II. "It May be My Duty to Make Some New Announcement,"
Lincoln's Last Public Address, April 11, 1865
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We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper
relation with the union; and that the sole object of the government. civil and
military, in regard to those states is to again get them into that proper practical relation. I believe it is not only possible, but in fact, easier to do this,
without deciding, or even considering, whether these states have even been
out of the union, than with it ...
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It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given
to the colored man (sic). I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on
the very intelligent. and those who serve our cause as soldiers ...
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Some twelve thousand voters in the heretofore slave-state of Louisiana
have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the rightful political
power of the state. held elections, organized a State government. adopted a
free-state constitution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to black
and white, and empowering the legislature to confer the elective franchise
to the colored (sic) man. Their legislature has already voted to ratify the
constitutional amendment recently passed by Congress. abolishing slavery
throughout the nation. These twelve thousands persons are thus fully committed to the Union . . . and nearly all the things the nation wants-and
they ask the nations recognition .. , Now. if we reject. and spurn them,
we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse them. We in effect say to the
white men "You are worthless. or worse-we will neither help you nor be
helped by you." To the blacks we say "This cup of liberty which these, your
old masters. hold to your lips, we will dash from you. and leave you to the
chances of gathering the spilled and scattered contents in some vague and
undefined when. where, and how."
No exclusive. and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed as to details
and collaterals. Such exclusive. and inflexible plan, would surely become a
new entanglement. Important principles may, and must be, inflexible."
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2Basler, The
Collected Works oj Abraham Lincoln,
vol. 8,
399-405.
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Name
Primary Sources, 1865-1877
Lesson 8
Handout 24 (page 3)
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Johnson's Reconstruction Plan
Read the following excerpts to determine what President Andrew Johnson had in mind for reconstructing the nation. Fill in the answers on your Reconstruction Plans chart.
I. Andrew Johnson's First Annual Message
December 4, 1865
to Congress,
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Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives ... The relations of the General Government toward the 4,000,000, inhabitants whom the
war has called into freedom have engaged my most serious consideration ...
concession of the elective franchise to the freedmen by an act of the President
of the United States must have been extended to all colored men, wherever
found, and so must have established a change of suffrage in the Northern.
Middle, and Western States, not less than in Southern and Southwestern.
Such an act would have created a new class of voters, and would have been an
assumption of power by the President which nothing in the constitution ...
would have warranted ....
Every danger of conflict is avoided when the settlement of the question is referred to the several states. They can, each for itself,
decide on the measure. and whether it is to be adopted at once and absolutely
or introduced gradually and with conditions. In my judgment the freedmen, if
they show patience and manly virtues, will sooner obtain participation in the
elective franchise through the states than through the General Government. "3
II. Proclamation
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of Amnesty and Pardon for the Confederate
States, May 29, 1865
I, Andrew Johnson. President of the United States, do proclaim and declare
that I hereby grant to all persons who have, directly or indirectly. participated in
the existing rebellion ... amnesty and pardon, with restoration of all rights of
property, except as to slaves ....
[E)very person shall take and subscribe the following oath ....
I,
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do solemnly swear (or affirm), in presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth
faithfully support, protect. and defend the constitution of the United States and
the Union of States thereunder, and that I will in like manner abide by and
faithfully support all laws and proclamations which have been made during the
existing rebellion with reference to the emancipation of slaves.
The following classes of persons are excepted from the benefits of this
proclamation (6 out of 14 provided):
· civil or diplomatic officers . . . of the pretended Confederate government.
· all who left judicial stations under the United States to aid the rebellion.
· all who left seats in the Congress of the United States to aid the rebellion.
.. all who resigned ...
their commissions in the Army or Navy of the
United States to evade duty in resisting the rebellion.
. . . all persons who held the pretended offices of governors of states in
insurrection against the United States.
. . . all persons who have voluntarily participated in said rebellion and
the estimated value of whose taxable property is over $20,000.
3Jarnes Richardson, ed., A Compilation oj the Messages and Papers
(Washington. D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1907), 353-61.
oj the Presidents,1789-1897,
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1865-1877
Lesson 8
Handout
24 (page 4)
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Provided, that special application may be made to the president for pardon by any person belonging to the excepted classes. and such clemency will
be liberally extended as may be consistent with the facts of the case, ... 4
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III. Impromptu
Speech,
February 22,
1866
Let them repent and let them acknowledge their allegiance. Let them become loyal and willing supporters
and defenders of our glorious stripes and
stars and the Constitution
of our country. Let their leaders, the conscious,
intelligent
traitors.
suffer the penalty of law; but for the great mass who
have been forced into this rebellion and misled by their leaders, I say leniency, kindness,
trust, and confidence ...
I say that when these states comply
with the constitution,
when they have given sufficient evidence of their loyalty and that they can be trusted, when they yield obedience to the law, I
say, extend them the right hand of fellowship, and let peace and union be
restored ....
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IV. Veto of Civil Rights
Bill, 1866
I regret that the bill, which has passed both houses of Congress entitled
"An Act to protect all persons in the United States in their civil rights and
furnish the means of their vindication,"
contains provisions which I cannot
approve consistently
with my, sense of duty to the whole people and my obligations to the Constitution
of the United States. I am therefore constrained
to return it to the Senate ...
with my objections to its becoming law."
V. Veto of the Freedmen's
Bureau Bill, February 19, 1866
I have examined with care the bill, which originated in the Senate and
has been passed by the two houses of congress, to amend an act entitled
"An act to establish a bureau for the relief of freedmen and refugees." and
for other purposes. Having with much regret come to the conclusion that it
would not be consistent
with the public welfare to give my approval to the
measure. I return the bill to he Senate with my objections to its becoming
law.'
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"Richar'dson, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, vol. 6, 310-2.
5 From the New York Herald, 23 February
1866. InThe Annals of American History, vol. 10,1866-1883:
Reconstruction and Industrialization, (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968), 8-10.
"Tne Congressional Record, vol. 39 (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1868). 1755-61.
"Richardscn, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, vol. 6, 405-13.
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Name
Primary Sources, 1865-1877
Lesson 8
Handout 24 (page 5)
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Date
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The Congressional Reconstruction
Plan
Read the following excerpts to determine what the Radical Republican members of the United
States Congress had in mind for reconstructing
the nation. Fill in the answers on your Reconstruction Plans chart.
I. The Wade Davis
Plan. July 2. 1864
Be it enacted . . . So soon as the military resistance to the United
States shall have been suppressed . . . The oath of allegiance shall be
taken and subscribed on the poll book by every voter in the form above
prescribed. but every person known by or proved to the commissioners to
have held office, civil or military, State or Confederate, under the rebel
usurpation, or the have voluntarily born arms against the United States
shall be excluded ...
Involuntary servitude is forever prohibited,
sons is guaranteed .... 8
II. First Reconstruction
and the freedom of all per-
Act. March 2. 1867
Whereas no legal State governments or adequate protection for life or
property now exists in the rebel States of Virginia, North Carolina. South
Carolina. Georgia. Mississippi. Alabama. Louisiana. Florida. Texas, and Arkansas: and whereas it is necessary that peace and good order should be
enforced ....
Be it enacted . . . that said rebel states shall be divided into military districts and made subject to the military authority of the United States ....
And be it further enacted
sign to the command of each
to detail a sufficient military
ties and enforce his authority
And
signed .
suppress
punished
be it further
. . to protect
insurrection,
all disturbers
that it shall be the duty of the President to asof said districts an officer of the army ... and
force to enable such officer to perform his duwithin the district ....
enacted That it shall be the duty of each officer asall persons in their rights of person and property. to
disorder, and violence. and to punish, or cause to be
of the public peace and criminals .... 9
III. Thaddeus Stevens Speech. Lancaster. Pennsylvania.
September 11. 1865
We hold it to be the duty of the Government to inflict condign punishment on the rebel belligerents, and so weaken their hands that they can
never again endanger the Union. . .
The foundation of their institutions, both political, municipal, and social,
must be broken up and re-laid, or all our blood and treasure have been
spent in vain. This can only be done by treating and holding them as a conquered people. . . .
Give. if you please forty acres to each adult male freedman.'?
8Richardson, A Compilation oj the Messages and Papers oj the Presidents. vol. 6.
223.
"Tne Public Statutes at Large oj the United States oj America Jrom the Organization oj the Government in
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1868).
IONewYork Tribune, 11 September 1865.
f789,
vol.
14
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Primary Sources. 1865-1877
Lesson 8
Handout 24 (page 6)
Date
IV. Civil Rights
Act, April 9, 1866
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of representatives ...
that all
persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power. excluding Indians not taxed. are hereby declared to be citizens of the United
States: and such citizens. of every race and color. without regard to any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude . . . shall have the same
right. in every state and territory in the United States. to make and enforce
contracts; to sue: be parties and give evidence; to inherit. purchase. lease.
sell. hold. and convey real and personal property; and to full and equal
benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property
enjoyed by white citizens ....
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lIThe Public Statutes at Large oj the United States oj America, 27-9.
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Lesson 8
Handout 22
Date
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"The Good Old Rebel"
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Read the following lyrics, and be prepared to answer questions.
"The Good Old Rebel" is attributed to Major Innes Randolph. It was sung to the tune of a
favorite camp song of the Forty-niners. The song was a favorite of Southerners who continued
to support the Confederacy.
The Good Old Rebel
.Oh, I'm a good old Rebel,
I followed old Mars' Robert
For four year, near about,
Now that's just what I am,
For this "fair land of Freedom"
I do not care a damn.
Got wounded in three places,
And starved at Pint Lookout,
I'm glad I fit against it-I only wish we'd won;
I cotch the roomatism
A campm' in the snow,
And I don't want no pardon
But I killed a chance of Yankees-And I'd like to kill some mo'.
For anything I've done.
I hates the Constitution,
This great Republic, too;
Three hundred thousand Yankees
I hates the Freedmen's Bureau,
We got three hundred thousand
In uniforms of blue.
I hates the nasty eagle,
With all his brag and fuss;
But the lyin', thievin' Yankees,
Befo' they conquered us.
They died of Southern fever
And Southern steel and shot;
And I wish it was three millions
I hates 'em wuss and wuss.
Instead of what we got.
I hates the Yankee nation,
And everything they do;
I hates the DecIaration
I can't take up my musket
And fight 'em now no mo'.
But I ain't a-gom' to love 'em,
Of Independence, too;
Now this is sartin she':
I hates the glorious Union,
'Tis dripping with our blood;
And I don't want no pardon
Is still in Southern dust;
For what I was and am,
And I won't be reconstructed,
And I don't care a damn.
And I hates the striped banner-I fit it all I could.
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