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RECONSTRUCTION
A.P. U.S. HISTORY
MR. KRUEGER
AFTER WAR
• The Reconstruction of the south was difficult
• Constitution provided no guidelines because founders
didn’t anticipate a Civil War
• How far should the federal government go to secure
freedom and civil rights for 4 million former slaves
• Advocates for minimal Reconstruction favored
quick restoration with no protection for the freed
slaves beyond prohibition of slavery
• Radicals wanted loyal men to replace
Confederates in elite positions and blacks would
receive basic rights of citizenships
WARTIME RECONSTRUCTION
• Major question – how do seceded states return to the
Union
• 1863 – Lincoln issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and
Reconstruction
• Offers full pardon to southerners (not confederate leaders) who
would take an oath of allegiance to the Union and acknowledge
emancipation (10% Plan)
• Congress did not support Lincoln’s 10% Plan
• Radicals were strongly anti-slave
• They felt Lincoln exceeded his authority
• Only Congress could determine readmittance
• Congress felt that by leaving the Union, the South forfeited their
right to a republic.
• Congress passed the Wade – Davis Bill (50% plan) – but Lincoln
used his pocket veto, and his relations with Congress reached
an all time low.
ANDREW JOHNSON
• Attempts to put the Union back together with his own
authority in 1865 – angers Congress and the Rep. Party –
provokes problems between Executive and Legislative
Branches
• Johnson as President was a strange accident that a southern
democrat and white supremacist came to reside over the
Republican Administration
• Former Jacksonian Democrat
• Hated the Southern Planter Class
• Endorsed Lincoln’s Emancipation Plan
• Some Radicals liked Johnson
• Strongly Loyal to the Union
• Wanted to punish confederates and southern traitors
• Johnson’s Reconstruction Policy changes this.
• He placed N. Carolina and other states under provisional governors
• They were chosen mostly from prominent southern politicians who
opposed secession and did not serve the CSA.
JOHNSON’S PLAN
• Governor’s Responsibility
• Call for constitutional conventions
• Ensuring only legal whites would vote for delegates (must take an
oath)
• To regain political and property rights, southern land owners
loyal to the CSA must apply for a presidential pardon
• Wealthy planters were excluded if they possessed taxable property
exceeding $20,000
• Johnson Urged:
• Declare the ordinances of secession illegal
• Repudiate CSA debt
• Ratify the 13th Amendment
• Once Reconstruction process was complete, the south could
regain their rights
• Some states approved Johnson’s Plan, but with qualifications
and all constitutions that limited suffrage to whites.
BLACK CODES
• Republicans were outraged when states passed the
Black Codes, vagrancy laws, and apprentice laws
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Forced Blacks to work
Denied free choice of employers
Blacks in some states could not testify in court
Blacks were subject to special codes and laws
• Radicals thought this was similar to slavery
• A number of ex-CSA leaders were elected to Congress
• Johnson was responsible
• He granted amnesty to CSA leaders
• Johnson and Congress drift apart
• Johnson wants to restore the federal system quickly without
change
• Most Republicans did not want the return of the Southern ruling
plantation class back in power
CONGRESSIONAL INITIATIVE
• Reconcile between Johnson and Congress inevitable
because he vetoed two bills:
• Extended the Life of the Freedman’s Bureau – give black relief,
education, land, legal aid
• Civil rights bill – nullify black codes and give blacks equal rights
• Congress overrode the veto to Civil Rights Bill (1st time in
history)
• Passed the 14th Amendment
• Section 1 – equal rights to all Americans
• Section 2 – established a punishment to all states who denied suffrage to
black males
• Section 3 – denied federal office to CSA supporters
• Section 4 – Repudiated CSA debt
• During the election of 1866 – Johnson opposed the
Amendments because they violated states’ rights
• Bloody race riots in New Orleans and Memphis
• State governors were not protecting life and liberty for blacks
• Johnson had a very crude campaign
• This allowed radicals to gain 2/3 majority in Congress
RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION
• Radicals like Charles Sumner, Thadeus Stevens, George
Julian – reshape southern society before readmitting exCSA to the Union
• Regeneration before Reconstruction – Military rule to
confiscate and redistribute property of large landowners.
Provide Federal Aid to Blacks
• March 1867 – 1st Reconstruction Act passed (overrode
presidential veto)
• South divided into 5 military districts
• Black suffrage was seen as a way for Northern Reps. to stay in
power
• Reconstruction had a radical aspect. It allowed poor to
have access to the ballot box, this was a bold
application of principle of government by consent of the
governed.
• The biggest problem was to enforce equal suffrage in
the South.
IMPEACHMENT CRISIS
• Johnson opposed radical reconstruction
• Began to dismiss office holders – Congress responds with the
Tenure of Office Act, limiting presidential power and requiring
Senate approval for the removal of cabinet members
• Also limited Johnson’s ability to command the military
• Johnson objected – Congress spoke of impeachment
• 1869 – Johnson tries to dismiss the Secretary of War – the
only radical in his cabinet
• The House viewed this as a violation of the Tenure Act
• Johnson went to trial in the Senate, but a Rep. Senator broke
from party leadership and voted for acquittal
• Result – one vote short
• Arguments ensue
• President can only be impeached for high crimes and
misdemeanors
• Removal for political reasons places too much power in Legislative
hands
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC
ADJUSTMENTS
• South was devastated by war
• Problem – Emancipation had taken away planters most
productive asset
• Southern prosperity would still rely on cotton
• Sherman was hampered by a huge number of black
fugitives – set aside 40 acre plots for them along the
coasts
• Freedman Bureau gave 40 acre plots and an option to buy
after 3 years
• Most blacks on small farms failed to acquire title, problems
committing to wage labor
• Sharecropping was common
• Work a piece of land for a % of the crop
• Tenet shared the risk of crop failure, and low cotton prices
• Credit problems
• Blacks in cities found themselves living in segregation
because of Black Codes and Separate but Equal
institutions
POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION
• State governments had little respect for freed slaves
• Black codes made unemployment a crime
• Denied the right to own property
• Extreme violence – 1000’s were murdered – terrorism and
violence were used to keep blacks from voting
• Southern Republican Party was made up of 3 groups
• North Republican businessmen – carpetbaggers and
scalawags – given opportunity for commercial development
• Poor white farmers
• Nearly enfranchised blacks – formed a majority in some states
and were concerned with education, civil rights, land
ownership
• Problem – each groups stood alone and Southern
Democrats exploited this
• Corruption due to Radical Reconstruction affects
economy
AGE OF GRANT
• Grant was the only President to serve 2 consecutive terms
between AJ and W. Wilson
• Grant is regarded as a failure
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Corruption
Inconsistency
Ultimate failure of southern policy
Top priority was to old friends and politicians
• Money was an issue in the election
• Many wanted to return to greenbacks
• Others wanted to stay with the gold standard
• 1869-1870 – Congress passed a law that assured payment in
gold, but eased the burden of the huge Civil War debt for
bond holders not due for the next 10-30 years
• What should be done with 356 million in greenbacks in circulation?
• Grant administration wanted them to float until economic expansion
would bring them to par with gold
• Panic of 1873 brought economy to its knees – debt at an all time high
• Grant vetoed a Congressional greenback bill
• Deflation continued – workers and farmers upset creates the
Greenback Party
RETREAT FROM RECONSTRUCTION
• 15th Amendment – States are prohibited from denying a
citizen the right to vote based on race, color, or previous
servitude
• Limited by: Literacy Tests, Property qualifications, Poll taxes
• The amendment makers did not see that the amendment
would be used to strip blacks of the right to vote
• Feminists were upset the amendment did not extend the right
to vote to women – campaigned against it
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• Susan B. Anthony
• The Grant Administration was charged with enforcing the
Amendment. The Republican Party depended on it:
• African American Support
• Political Partnership
• Dictated federal action
• A big threat to the Republicans were white supremacists like
the KKK
KLU KLUX KLAN OR KNIGHTS OF THE
CAMELLIA
• Organized in Tennessee – grass roots movement with support
from all classes
• Klan caused Grant to lose Louisiana and Georgia during the election
of 1868
• Insurrections broke out in many states as militias were called out
against the KKK
• In Tennessee, N. Carolina, and Georgia, Klan activities brought the
Democrats to power in the 1880’s
• Grant faced overthrow in the South – passed laws to enforce
the 15th amendment
• Federal protection for black suffrage
• Use of the army against the KKK
• KKK or Force Act
• Made interference with voting a federal crime
• Gave the president the right to call federal troops
• Gave the president the right to suspend habeas corpus
• Result – Election of 1872 was peaceful
• Democrats change tactics – promote the idea of white supremacy
and agrarian hostility to the government
• Republicans start to lose the South
SCANDAL
• Grant’s power was failing
• Reformers charged that a corrupt national administration was
protecting poor southern governments for personal advantage
• Example: Grant’s administration intervened in Louisiana to protect a
poor Rep. faction headed by his wife’s brother – in – law.
• Credit – Mobilier Scandal – Grant’s 1st term VP (Schuyler
Colfax) took profits that should have gone to the Union
Pacific Railroad
• U.P. benefited from federal land grants
• To stop a government inquiry the Credit Mobilier stock was distributed
to influential Congressmen and Colfax
• Republicans split – Liberal Republicans try to create an honest
government and reconcile North and South
• Grant still wins because southern democrats do not support Liberal
Republicans
• Whiskey Ring 1875 – Federal revenue collectors conspired with
distillers to steal millions of dollars in liquor taxes
• Grant’s private secretary indicted
• Grant’s secretary of war impeached because he took bribes
COMPROMISE
• Compromise of 1877 – End of Reconstruction
• Election of 1876 – Rep. Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Sam
Tilden promised honest government
• Tilden won the popular vote and seemed to win the electoral
vote – S. Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana were contested
• Congress appointed an electoral commission of 15
members to determine the outcome
• Democrats filibuster
• Compromise is reached – Hayes would be president, southern
home rule would be restored, and blacks left to fate
• Hayes ordered the army to not to resist Democratic takeover
• Radical governments were ended
THE NEW SOUTH
• Committed to economic development, commercial
and industrial interests – led by the “redeemers”
• Wealthy planters supported a return to plantations
• Professional Politicians
• Interest groups dominate policy
• Laissez Faire, White Supremacy
• Government remained corrupt and dishonest
Embezzlement of funds, bribery and corruption of state lotterys
Cut back on money for schools and public service
Crop Loan and credit affected black and white farmers
Said they would not impede black suffrage (as long as they
voted for the Democratic Party)
• Democrats also: stuffed ballot boxes, discarded votes,
reported false totals
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• African Americans were defenseless to the Jim Crow Era