Download History 16–Reconstruction Lecture

Reconstruction (1865-1878)
I.
Questions that Arose during the War that Reconsx would try to answer
a. How the Union could be restored, and the defeated South be integrated into it?
b. How would the Southern states be treated?
c. Who would set the standards…Legislative, the States, or the Executive?
d. Would the ex-confederates be punished? Would they retain their property and rights?
e. What would happen to the millions of slaves in the South?
II.
Lincoln’s Presidential Reconstruction—very conciliatory to the defeated South
a. Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865—“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, to care fore him who shall have borne the battle and
for his widow and orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace
among ourselves and with all nations.”
b. Lincoln’s 10% plan (1863)—easy re-admittance for Southern States
i. Organization of loyal gvts by 10% of the number of voters in 1860 who accepted
Lincoln’s general amnesty offer and an oath of allegiance to the Union
ii. Plus abide by emancipation of slaves
iii. LA, ARK, Tenn. accept…they were already under military occupation
III.
Radical (Congressional) Reconstruction (Take I)
a. Reaction in Congress to Lincoln’s 10% PlanWade-Davis Bill of 1864harsh
i. 50% of states voters take the oath of allegiance and demanded stronger safeguards for
emancipation—“iron-clad oath”
ii. Lincoln “pocket vetoed” the bill while Congress was out of sessionCongress upset
iii. Significance
1. Begin to see President vs. Congress
2. Republican Vs. Republican
a. Majority Moderate Republicans vs. Minority Radical Republicans
b. NOTHING comes of Wade-Davis Bill but shows Congress’ ideals on Reconstruction
IV.
Andrew Johnson’s (AJ) Presidential Reconstruction
a. After Lincoln’s Assassination, Congress gets more radical!
b. Johnson agrees with Lincoln’s idea (moderate plan) and presented his own version in May 1865
i. disfranchised certain leading Confeds (those with taxable property worth more than
$20,000)Rich Confederates
1. but they could petition for pardons
2. Johnson gives 14,000 in 9 months
3. Johnson was NOT a slave owner (but a southerner) and never was treated great by
other rich slave-owning southerners until he was president!
4. Power-trip! As he savored his newly found power over aristocrats who begged
him
ii. Call special state conventions to repeal ordinances of session, repudiate all Confed debts,
and ratify the 13th Amendment
c. ALL Republicans (in Congress) upset as it became clear that the “new” state gvts were like the
old secessionist Confederate State GVTs…problem!!
V.
Radical (Congressional) Reconstruction (Take II)
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a. Thinking Johnson was too soft on the old Confederacy, Congress took over Reconstruction!
b. Civil Rights Act of 1866—vetoed by Johnson but overridden by Congress (this is a theme!!!)
i. All persons born in the US were citizens (except Native Americans)
ii. Concern that Demo might take Congress in elections to follow so…push for an
Amendment to the US Constitution
c. Congressional Election of 1866
i. Republican Congressmen rally and win a 3 to 1 advantage in both houses over Dems!!!
ii. Humiliation for President Johnson
d. Military Reconstruction Act of 1867
i. set up provisional military GVTs in the South
ii. South divided into 5 military districts.
1. Each district governed by a Union General
iii. This act established the requirements for re-admission to the Union too!
1. Purpose of the military districts was to register qualified voters
2. adult white and black males who had NOT participated in the rebellion
3. Once registered, they vote on a new state Constitution with provisions for Black
suffrage/voting
4. Then allowed back to the Union
iv. Vetoed by Johnson but overridden (per the usual by this time)
e. Tenure of Office Act of 1867
i. Johnson had to keep his radical cabinet members
ii. Only removal with Congressional consent
iii. Completely unconstitutional but never challenged in court
f. Commanding General Law
i. required the president to issue military orders through the Commanding General ONLY
1. This was US Grant (at the time)
ii. once again, unconstitutional but not challenged in the Supreme Court
1. SC has to have lawsuits brought to it!
2. SC can NOT unilaterally make decisions without cases brought to it!
iii. This law was a part of an Army appropriation bill—pay for military bill
iv. Took Johnson’s Constitutional military powers away from him!
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g. 14 Amendment (1868)
i. Johnson tried to stop 3/4th of the States from passing this Amendment but failure again!
ii. Civil rights for all (except Native Americans).
iii. Does not guarantee black suffrage!
1. however, it did threaten to reduce legislators from states that denied Black votes
iv. Barred any state and/or national pre-war officeholders (both civil and military and both
state and Federal) who had supported the Confederacy from holding federal or state
offices unless Congress removed their disqualifications by 2/3 vote!
v. Guaranteed the federal debt but repudiated all Confederate debts
h. Impeachment of Johnson—2-23-1868.
i. House impeached him but Senate does not remove…missed by one vote
ii. Why do it?
1. Johnson violated the Tenure of Office act when he removed a cabinet member
without consent of Congress + excessive vetoes
iii. Supreme Court rules that the Tenure of Office Act was Unconstitutional (in 1926 over 40
years after its repeal!)
i. 15th Amendment—1870
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i. Black-male suffrage
ii. forbid states to deny citizens the right to vote on the grounds of race, color, or “previous
condition of servitude”
iii. Controversial for Women’s Rights MVT
1. Some women supported the Amendment while others did NOT!
2. Frederick Douglass v Elizabeth Cady Stanton (famous disagreement!)
a. This should be discussed further in History 17!
j. KKK & Enforcement Acts 1 & 2 (1871)
i. The Acts were in response to KKK acts of violence vs Blacks in the South
ii. These laws gave the president the authority to use military force to suppress conspiracies
to deprive citizens of the right to vote
iii. Act also made crimes by private citizens violations against federal law
iv. KKK Founded in TN and 1st Grand Wizard was Nathan Bedford Forrest
1. KKK’s objective: stop black men from voting!
v. By 1870, the Klan was operating almost everywhere in the South and most of damage
had been done.
1. KKK Acts (as they became known) were effective and President Grant used them
but…
2. As a result, by mid 1870s, KKK had mostly fizzled out
3. Was made famous again in 1915 by the movie, Birth of a Nation
a. Resurgent of KKK in 1920s with over 5 million members
VI.
Local or State Reconsx
a. Black Codes
i. Ideal—keep social hierarchy of the South with Blacks on the bottom of the scale much
like the slave codes had done before the Civil War
ii. Mississippi was the 1st state to pass the first one in 11-1865 (7 months after end of war)
iii. Examples of Black Codes
1. Economicmost were designed to keep a stable and subservient labor force
a. Vagrancy Clause—if no jobjail and bailed out by working off payment
b. “Debt peonage”—sharecropping and buying from central farm
stores…overpriced goods, etc…
c. ALSO borrow money to buy lands from landlords at high ratesdebts
accumulated and Blacks made to work to pay off their debt
d. More info… Sharecropping/Crop-in-Lien System
i. Freedmen workers as renters of land exchanged their labor for use
of that land, house, seed/fertilizer, etc…
ii. Contracts written up often say that they have to give 50-66% of
their crops to the landlord as rent (usually whites)
iii. Often times freedmen have to borrow $$ to make it through the 1st
growing season.
iv. County storekeepers will give loans & would take as collateral a
lien of the 1st crop…in essence ownership of the crop until loan
paid off!
v. Once indebted, u could no longer shop around for a better loan
with lower % rates…hence debt peonage
2. Social and PoliticalSystem of Race Relations of pre-emancipation South
a. Blacks could not serve on a trail jury
b. Some could not even allow them to own or lease land
c. No voting
i. Stopped by KKK intimidation
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ii. Poll taxes
iii. Grandfather clauses (if previous relative had voted or could vote in
1860 than so could u even if can’t pay tax or pass test!! NO
Blacks in the South could vote in 1860 so they can’t vote now!!),
iv. Literacy tests
b. Scalawags—Southern whites who support Reconsx.
i. Many were former Whigs who wanted political power
ii. Many were poor and ignorant
iii. Supported Republican tariffs and banking system
c. Carpetbaggers—Northern White Republicans
i. 25% go south in search of new economic opportunities/$$/political power
ii. Many were former Union soldiers
iii. Wanted to start factories and buy land for farming
d. Freedmen’s Bureau—March 1865
i. Ideal—assist newly emancipated slaves and provide emergency aid
ii. ONE Of the few successes of Reconstruction but lost favor by early 1780s
iii. Tasks
1. Negotiate wages and work contracts
2. Open black schools and universities (Howard U.)—Bureau achieved its greatest
success here as it caught an estimated 200,000 blacks to read
3. Provide food, clothing, medical care
4. Supposed to give 40 acres of land from ex-confeds but little land actually given to
Blacks as mischievous acts give land to others.
5. Johnson tried to veto it often
6. Expired in 1872 anyway!
VII.
Politics of Reconstruction and the Early Guilded Age
a. Grant Administration (1869-77)
i. Secretary of State “Seward’s Folly” “Seward’s Ice Box
ii. Alaskan Purchase (1867) for $7.2 million from Russia
b. Republicans keep a 2/3 majority in both houses
c. Corruption Abound—
i. Credit Mobilier
1. FAKE RR company formed by infighters’ of the Union Pac RR
2. They hired themselves to build the RR line and sometimes paid themselves as
much as $50,000 a mile of construction that only cost $30,000 a mile.
3. In one yr, paid dividends resulted in 348% increase
4. Stock given to congressmen so they would be quiet
5. 1872 investigation stop
ii. Whiskey Ring
1. 1875 scandal shows that the “whiskey ring” had robbed the Treasury of millions
in excise-tax revenues.
2. Grant’s own private secretary one of the ones indicted…
3. Some take as much as $24,000
4. Sec of Treasury exposed the ring and prosecuted more than 350 distillers and gvt
officials
d. Panic of 1873
i. Grant blamedmake for an interesting Election of 1876
ii. 1st World Wide economic depression caused by industrial capitalism
iii. This began a regular pattern of “boom and bust” cycles which continue even today!
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VIII.
End of Reconstruction—Election of 1876 and Compromise of 1877
a. The Players
i. Rutherford B. Hayes—Repub
ii. Samuel Tilden—Demo
b. The Outcome
i. Tilden won popular vote with 51% but Republicans claim fraud and KKK intimidation in
LA, SC and FL and that these states should be Republican victories instead…thus Hayes
should win
c. Congress had an electoral commission to decide (7 demo/7 Rep +1 Supreme Court judge Repub)
i. ALL states’ electoral votes in question went to winner of the electoral commission vote
ii. Vote along party lines and Hayes wins electoral vote by 1 (185 to 184)
d. Question of Compromise?
i. No Evidence of a Compromise but if so…here’s the provisions:
1. Southerners would be appointed to top cabinet posts
2. RR would be built throughout the South and an RR from TX to Pacific
3. All northern troops would be removed (especially from militarily occupied SC
and LA)this effectively ENDS RECONSTRUCTION!
ii. Hayes had promised these during his election campaign speeches anyway!