Download 1. Reconstruction i. Purpose: Students will learn about how the

D. The House Rebuilt?
1.
Reconstruction
i. Purpose: Students will learn about how the definition of freedom changed for
all Americans, black and white, Northerners and Southerners in the post-Civil
War period. Attention will be paid to the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th
Amendments as examples of the federal government’s commitment to equal
rights between the races (for men, at any rate), while the Compromise of 1877
and Hayes’s withdrawal of troops from the South will be examined to
demonstrate the unfulfilled promise of that commitment. The ultimate failure of
“Reconstruction” shall be investigated through the lens of so-called Southern
Redemption—when the white South hit back….
ii. Background Website:
1.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/subtitles.cfm?titleID=28
iii. Key Terms:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
13th Amendment
The Freedmen’s Bureau
The Wade-Davis Bill, 1864
“Radical” Reconstruction
14th Amendment
15th Amendment
The Compromise of 1877
The Ku Klux Klan
iv. Primary Documents:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Thaddeus Stevens: Speech of December 18, 1865
An address to the Loyal Citizens and Congress of the United States of
America adopted by a convention of Negroes held in Alexandria,
Virginia, from August 2 to 5, 1865
The 14th Amendment
The 15th Amendment
v. Book Review: Posted on my webpage: Simkins and Woody: South Carolina
During Reconstruction. Ensure you print this out, read it, and put it in your
binder. Be prepared to discuss the review in class.
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Reconstruction Listening Guide
I.
Freedom?
II.
Work
3
III.
“Reconstruction”
IV.
“Redemption”
4
V.
Legacy
5
VI.
Reconstruction Documents
Thaddeus Stevens: Speech of December 18, 1865
The President assumes, what no one doubts, that the late rebel States have lost their constitutional
relations to the Union, and are incapable of representation in Congress, except by permission of
the Government. It matters but little, with this admission, whether you call them States out of the
Union, and now conquered territories, or assert that because the Constitution forbids them to do
what they did do, that they are therefore only dead as to all national and political action, and will
remain so until the Government shall breathe into them the breath of life anew and permit them to
occupy their former position. In other words, that they are not out of the Union, but are only dead
carcasses lying within the Union. In either case, it is very plain that it requires the action of
Congress to enable them to form a State government and send representatives to Congress.
Nobody, I believe, pretends that with their old constitutions and frames of government they can
be permitted to claim their old rights under the Constitution. They have torn their constitutional
States into atoms, and built on their foundations fabrics of a totally different character. Dead men
cannot raise themselves. Dead States cannot restore their existence "as it was." Whose especial
duty is it to do it? In whom does the Constitution place the power? Not in the judicial branch of
Government, for it only adjudicates and does not prescribe laws. Not in the Executive, for he only
executes and cannot make laws. Not in the Commander-in-Chief of the armies, for he can only
hold them under military rule until the sovereign legislative power of the conqueror shall give
them law. Unless the law of nations is a dead letter, the late war between two acknowledged
belligerents severed their original compacts and broke all the ties that bound them together. The
future condition of the conquered power depends on the will of the conqueror. They must come in
as new states or remain as conquered provinces. Congress . . . is the only power that can act in the
matter.
Congress alone can do it. . . . Congress must create States and declare when they are entitled to be
represented. Then each House must judge whether the members presenting themselves from a
recognized State possess the requisite qualifications of age, residence, and citizenship; and
whether the election and returns are according to law. ...
It is obvious from all this that the first duty of Congress is to pass a law declaring the condition of
these outside or defunct States, and providing proper civil governments for them. Since the
conquest they have been governed by martial law. Military rule is necessarily despotic, and ought
not to exist longer than is absolutely necessary. As there are no symptoms that the people of these
provinces will be prepared to participate in constitutional government for some years, I know of
no arrangement so proper for them as territorial governments. There they can learn the principles
of freedom and eat the fruit of foul rebellion. Under such governments, while electing members
to the territorial Legislatures, they will necessarily mingle with those to whom Congress shall
extend the right of suffrage. In Territories Congress fixes the qualifications of electors; and I
know of no better place nor better occasion for the conquered rebels and the conqueror to practice
justice to all men, and accustom themselves to make and obey equal laws. .
They ought never to be recognized as capable of acting in the Union, or of being counted as valid
States, until the Constitution shall have been so amended as to make it what its framers intended;
and so as to secure perpetual ascendancy to the party of the Union; and so as to render our
republican Government firm and stable forever. The first of those amendments is to change the
basis of representation among the States from Federal numbers to actual voters. . . . With the
basis unchanged the 83 Southern members, with the Democrats that will in the best times be
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elected from the North, will always give a majority in Congress and in the Electoral college. . . . I
need not depict the ruin that would follow. . .
But this is not all that we ought to do before inveterate rebels are invited to participate in our
legislation. We have turned, or are about to turn, loose four million slaves without a hut to shelter
them or a cent in their pockets. The infernal laws of slavery have prevented them from acquiring
an education, understanding the common laws of contract, or of managing the ordinary business
of life. This Congress is bound to provide for them until they can take care of themselves. If we
do not furnish them with homesteads, and hedge them around with protective laws; if we leave
them to the legislation of their late masters, we had better have left them in bondage.
If we fail in this great duty now, when we have the power, we shall deserve and receive
the execration of history and of all future ages.
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An address to the Loyal Citizens and Congress of the United States of America adopted by
a convention of Negroes held in Alexandria, Virginia, from August 2 to 5, 1865
We , the undersigned members of a Convention of colored citizens of the State of Virginia, would
respectfully represent that, although we have been held as slaves, and denied all recognition as a
constituent of your nationality for almost the entire period of the duration of your Government,
and that by your permission we have been denied either home or country, and deprived of the
dearest rights of human nature: yet when you and our immediate oppressors met in deadly
conflict upon the field of battle -the one to destroy and the other to save your Government and
nationality, we, with scarce an exception, in our inmost souls espoused your cause, and watched,
and prayed, and waited, and labored for your success.
When the contest waxed long, and the result hung doubtfully, you appealed to us for help, and
how well we answered is written in the rosters of the two hundred thousand colored troops now
enrolled in your service; and as to our undying devotion to your cause, let the uniform
acclamation of escaped prisoners, "whenever we saw a black face we felt sure of a friend,"
answer.
Well, the war is over, the rebellion is "put down," and we are declared free! Four fifths of our
enemies are paroled or amnestied, and the other fifth are being pardoned, and the President has, in
his efforts at the reconstruction of the civil government of the States, late in rebellion, left us
entirely at the mercy of these subjugated but unconverted rebels, in everything save the privilege
of bringing us, our wives and little ones, to the auction block. . . . We know these men-know them
well-and we assure you that, with the majority of them, loyalty is only "lip deep," and that their
professions of loyalty are used as a cover to the cherished design of getting restored to their
former relations with the Federal Government, and then, by all sorts of "unfriendly legislation," to
render the freedom you have given us more intolerable than the slavery they intended for us.
We warn you in time that our only safety is in keep ing them under Governors of the military
persuasion until you have so amended the Federal Constitution that it will prohibit the States from
making any distinction between citizens on account of race or color. In one word, the only
salvation for us besides the power of the Government, is in the possession of the ballot. Give us
this, and we will protect ourselves. . . . But, is said we are ignorant. Admit it. Yet who denies we
know a traitor from a loyal man, a gentleman from a rowdy, a friend from an enemy? The twelve
thousand colored votes of the State of New York sent Governor Seymour home and Reuben E.
Fenton to Albany. Did not they know who to vote for? . . . All we ask is an equal chance with the
white traitors varnished and japanned with the oath of amnesty. Can you deny us this and still
keep faith with us? .
We are "sheep in the midst of wolves," and nothing but the military arm of the Government
prevents us and all the truly loyal white men from being driven from the land of our birth. Do not
then, we beseech you, give to one of these "wayward sisters" the rights they abandoned and
forfeited when they rebelled until you have secured our rights by the aforementioned amendment
to the Constitution. .
Trusting that you will not be deaf to the appeal herein made, nor unmindful of the warnings
which the malignity of the rebels are constantly giving you, and that you will rise to the height of
being just for the sake of justice, we remain yours for our flag, our country and humanity.
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The Fourteenth Amendment- 1868
SEC. I. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make
or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
States, nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of
law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
SEC. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their
respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not
taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and VicePresident of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of
a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such
State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged,
except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be
reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number
of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
SEC. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and
Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State,
who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United
States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State,
to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion
against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of
two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
SEC. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts
incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or
rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay
any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any
claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be
held illegal and void.
SEC. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of
this article.
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The Fifteenth Amendment -1870
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Notes: Blacks who had been slaves became citizens under the terms of the 14th Amendment. The
15th Amendment does not specifically say that all blacks must be allowed to vote. The states are
free to set qualifications for voters. But a voter cannot be denied the ballot because of race.
Attempts by some states to do this indirectly have been struck down by Supreme Court decisions,
federal and state laws, and the 24th Amendment.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.