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Notes on Reconstruction Reconstruction - the period of time/the process to rebuild the South and to bring the Southern states back into the Union. Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction As Union troops took Southern territory, Lincoln appointed Union governors for these territories Wanted a moderate policy to patch things up with the South and NOT to punish them. Plan entitled the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction - Dec. 1863 1. offered general amnesty to all southerners who took an oath of loyalty to the US and accepted the USA’s viewpoint on slavery 2. When 10% of a state’s voters had taken the oath, the state could create a new government Radical Republicans (put forth in the Reconstruction Act of 1867) Radical Republicans were a large group in Congress led by Thaddeus Stevens of PA and Charles Sumner of MA) did not want to reconcile with the South - they wanted to punish the South and change the way things were done in the South. Their plan for Reconstruction was threefold: Stop former Confederate leaders and officers from coming back into power in the South Wanted the Republican Party to gain strength in the South Wanted the African Americans to gain political equality in the South and be able to vote (they would vote Republican) Moderate Republicans - believed that Lincoln was being too easy on the South, but that the Radical Republicans were too harsh - they came up with their own plan, that was supported by the Radical Republicans. The Wade-Davis Bill said Majority (not 10%) of men in a state would have to swear on oath of loyalty to the USA; when that occurred, they could hold a convention to make a new state government Each state, in convention, would have to outlaw slavery and reject all debts incurred as a result of the Confederacy No former Confederate officers or government officials could vote or hold office. ***Lincoln blocks this after it passes through the House and Senate with a pocket veto - doesn’t want to anger or push the Southerners away with harsh penalties. But, something has to be done with all the Freedmen - the slaves who became free as the Union army pushed through the South. Sherman had over 25,000 former slaves following his army. Sherman takes the land along the coast in SC and GA and turns it over to the slaves and relocated about 40,000 there. Congress takes matters into their own hands and created the Freedmen’s Bureau (actually known as the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands). The job of the Freedmen’s Bureau is to feed and clothe the former slaves. They also helped the former slaves to find work, negotiate contracts with former slave owners, and be educated. Conflict over the taking of Confederate plantations and land led to the “forty acres and a mule” expected by the freedmen never to materialize - Congress voted against taking the land. The biggest success of the Freedmen’s Bureau was in the area of education - many of the former slaves received an education at schools started and supported by the Freedmen’s Bureau. Many African-Americans moved west with the military and fought against the Native Americans in the Indian Wars. These soldiers fought with much bravery and were nicknamed “Buffalo Soldiers” by the Native Americans. After Lincoln was assassinated, his vice president, Andrew Johnson, took over. Johnson was a Democrat from Tennessee and was one of the few, if only, Congressmen from Confederate States to remain with the Union. He was brought on as Lincoln’s VP in the election of 1864 with the hope that he could bring some of the Democrats’ votes to the ticket. Johnson’s Plan for Reconstruction - much like Lincoln’s; issued in May 1865: A pardon for all citizens of the Confederacy who took the oath of loyalty to the USA All former Confederate officials and officers, and all former Confederates who owned property worth more than $20,000 were excluded. He felt that these were the people who had caused the Civil War. He would allow them to be pardoned, but they had to apply in person to the President.. Johnson’s plan was generally accepted and became the way that some states were brought back into the Union, until December 1865 - the Southern states sent their representatives to Congress - many of them were former Confederate officers and officials, including Alexander Stephens, VP of the Confederacy. The Radical and many moderate Republicans were furious and refused to seat the new representatives to the Senate and the House. In addition to bringing back their former leaders to positions of power, the former Confederate states were intent on making things as much like they were before as possible. Black Codes were passed, laws much like the earlier slave codes, designed to keep the Freedmen in a position as close to slavery as possible and to restrict their abilities to be treated equally. As a result, the Moderate Republicans banded with the Radical Republicans and took over Reconstruction. to override the Black Codes, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 was passed granted citizenship rights to all who were born in the USA except Native Americans. It granted African-Americans the right to own property and to be treated equally by the courts. The Federal Government was given the authority to enforce the law. To keep the Civil Rights Act from being overturned as unconstitutional, the Fourteenth Amendment was passed which guaranteed citizenship rights to all born in the USA; no state could deny anyone of life, liberty, or property without due process of law and guaranteed “equal protection under the law.” March 1867, the Military Reconstruction Act was passed - this did away with all the President Johnson had done and divided the former Confederate States (except Tennessee) into 5 military districts with a General from the Union placed in charge of each. The MRA also made each state hold a convention to create a state Constitution which would have to be accepted by Congress. The new constitutions had to contain 1. the right to votes for all adult males regardless of race 2. State had to ratify the 14th amendment Conflicts between the Congress and President Johnson resulted in the impeachment of Johnson; Johnson was tried in the Senate, but those who wanted to be rid of Johnson were just 1 vote short of removing him from office. While Johnson stayed in power, this rendered him virtually powerless. In the election of 1868, the Republicans nominated General Ulysses S Grant for President and the Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour who ran on the racist slogan, “This Is a White Man's Country, Let White Men Rule” Grant, with his popularity in the North and with the support of the Freedmen in the South (many of the Democrats were former Confederate and could not vote), Grant won by an overwhelming majority. After the election of 1868, the Republican firmly held control of the National Government. They passed the Fifteenth Amendment to guarantee the former slaves the fight to vote. In the South, the white Southerners hated the Republican Party and those who sided with them. They also hated the Northerners who came south - thinking that all had come to capitalize on the South’s problems. While some certainly had come south for that reason, many had come to help, especially with the newly freed slaves. For whatever reason the Northerners were here, the Southerners lumped them all together and called them carpetbaggers for the type of luggage that many brought with them. Another hated group in the south was the Scalawags, white Southerners who supported the Republicans and Reconstruction. They were considered traitorous. Many had their own reasons for supporting the Republicans - some believed that the Republican idea for the development of the South’s economy was good; others were small farmers who did not want to see the planters of old regain power, and finally many were those who had not totally supported the war at the start. Many African-Americans took power in state and national governments. Without the white (former Confederates) men’s’ votes, the African-Americans were elected by Republicans and other African-Americans. Hiram Revels, from Mississippi, was the first African American elected to the Senate. Joseph Rainey of Georgetown, SC was the first African-American elected to the House of Representatives. Republican Reforms in the South repeal of black codes established state hospitals and institutions rebuilt roads and railroads and bridges established a system of public schools White Southerners turned to secret societies to such as the Ku Klux Klan to help them maintain control of things. The KKK was started in Pulaski, Tennessee by Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. The goals for the KKK were to drive out the Carpetbaggers and Union troops and bring the Southern Democrats back to power. They used tactics of terror to break up meetings of Republicans and to keep the Freedmen from voting. Sharecropping - a form of tenant farming that developed in the South after the war. The former slaves had nothing - land, tools, animals, nor money to help them get a farm going. The former plantation owners had the land, the tools, the animals, and the seed to farm but they did not have the labor. A system developed where the freedmen would sign a contract with the landowners - the landowner would provide shelter, land, tools, etc and the freedman would provide the labor and they could agree to split the crop as spelled out in the contract. Most of the freedmen received only 1/3 - ½ of the crop. This system was ripe for corruption; the freedmen couldn’t read or write, so had to take the word of the landowner as to the content of the contract. If a year or two went by where the crop wasn’t very good, the freedman would end up owing the landowner and was therefore kept the freedman “tied to the land” or basically enslaved because he couldn’t leave until he had paid his debt. End of Reconstruction - Grant was elected President on the Republican ticket in the election of 1868. While he was a good general, he did not understand politics and left the policy making to Congress, namely the Radical Republicans. This pleased the Radical Republicans greatly, but left the presidency to be quite weak. Grant’s two terms were full of scandal and economic problems which tended to push support from the Republicans towards the Democrats. By the election of 1874, the Democrats had taken the House of Reps and made great inroads into the Senate. To pass more Reconstruction policies and enforce those already in place became more and more difficult with fewer Republican in Congress. Plus, many in the North were becoming more and more concerned about the economic situations and less concerned about what was happening in the South. Throughout the 1870s, the Southern Democrats worked to take support away from the Republicans and bring it back to the Democrats. Appealing on ideas of White Supremacy, the Democrats were able to retake the governments of all southern states except those still under Military control - Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida. Election of 1876 - because of all the scandal, Grant was not renominated for the Republican Party; Rutherford B Hayes became the nominee. Samuel Tilden was the Democrat’s candidate. In the election, Tilden clearly (and cleanly) won 184 electoral votes - one vote shy of the majority he needed. Hayes had won 165 electoral votes. Nineteen votes from the military controlled southern states had not been counted because there was so much fraud in the election that no one could be sure who won those states, plus another vote had not counted. A commission was formed to handle the situation (neither candidate had received the needed number of votes) with members of the House, Senate, and Supreme Court. The commission had 15 members; eight Republican and seven Democrat. The voting in the commission stayed along party lines with Hayes constantly getting 8 votes and Tilden 7. The Congress needed to accept the ruling of the commission for it to go into effect. It passed in the Republican controlled Senate, but not in the Democrat controlled House of Representatives. After awhile, a number of Southern Democrats sided with the Republicans to give the vote to Hayes. It was assumed that a deal was made between the Southern Democrats and the Republicans to make the Southern Democrats vote for the Republican candidate, Hayes. When Hayes pulled the remaining military troops out of the South, it was assumed that this was the deal - the end of Reconstruction in exchange for the Presidency. This was known as the Compromise of 1877. No proof of this has been shown, yet historians are fairly certain that it did take place. With this, Reconstruction was over.