Download HIS 112 Chapter 16

HIS 112
Chapter 16
The Agony of Reconstruction
Reconstruction
Political process by which the 11 rebel
states were restored to a normal
constitutional relationship with the 25
loyal states and their national
government
 It was the UNION that was to be
reconstructed during the 12 years
following the Civil War


There was also a physical reconstruction
that needed to take place





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Cities had been burned
Bridges were gone
Railroad tracks were missing
River-borne commerce had dwindled
Commercial ties with Europe and the North
had been snapped
Fields lay fallow
Proposals for
Reconstruction

On 8 December 1863, Abraham
Lincoln submitted his Proclamation of
Amnesty and Reconstruction or his
10% Solution

As soon as 10% of voters in any
Confederate state took an oath of
allegiance to the Union, the people of
that state could organize a
government & elect representatives

The plan excluded
Confederate government officials
 Military or civil officials who had
resigned from Congress or U.S.
Commissions in 1861
Efforts to do this took place in states
occupied by Union soldiers
By 1864 Louisiana and Arkansas had
complied

After the war, Tennessee and parts of
Virginia quickly tried to set up Unionist
governments
 Congress, however, would not
recognize these governments, and the
military remained in these states

Congressional Objections to
Lincoln’s Plan
Congress didn’t like the expansion of
presidential powers during the war
 Congress felt there should be a
Congressional Reconstruction Plan
 Radical Republicans said Lincoln’s
plan made no provisions for freed
men


Radical Republicans came up with a
plan of their own called the WadeDavis Bill in July of 1864

Said 50% of all white male citizens
had to swear an oath of loyalty to the
Union before reconstruction could
begin
Radical Republicans said
Reconstruction would be designed by
Congress, not by the President
 Lincoln said he had no objections to a
Congressional Plan or to giving blacks
who fought in the Civil War the right to
vote
 But Lincoln was assassinated in April
1865

Andrew Johnson
Succeeded Lincoln as president
 Had been Lincoln’s Vice President
 Was from Tennessee and an antiConfederate
 Because Johnson had not been
elected President, he felt that he had
to prove himself

Johnson took over in May, 1865 when
Congress was not in session and
would not re-convene until December,
1865
 He wanted to have Reconstruction
completed by the time Congress got
back


So Johnson came up with his own
plan
Wanted to re-unite the country as
soon as possible
 Formed new governments in the
South by using his power to pardon
 Began pardoning in May, 1865

Johnson eventually pardoned 13,000
Confederate leaders making it
possible for them to hold office and to
get their confiscated property back,
minus slaves
 This was a switch for Johnson
because he had always thought the
South should be punished and have
their land confiscated

Some think Johnson gave in to his
vanity; he liked being sought after by
former leaders
 When Congress re-convened in
December, 1865, the members were
told that reconstruction was
completed after only a few months
 13,000 had sworn allegiance and
governments had been set up

Objections to Johnson’s
Plan

The North was dissatisfied with
Johnson’s program
Felt the election of prominent
Confederates to political office was an
act of Defiance by the South
 Practices in the South had not
changed

• Newly created Black Codes were identical
to Slave Codes
See handout
 Black Codes convinced northerners
that the South was intent upon
keeping blacks in a subservient
position
 Congress was so outraged by
Johnson that it refused to seat newlyelected Southern Representatives

Congressional
Reconstruction Plan
At this time Congress was diverse but
basically conservative
 Made up of:

Democrats
 Conservative Republicans
 Moderate Republicans
 Radical Republicans – a minority
within their own party


However, the Radical Republicans
were the only ones with a plan
Wanted to democratize the South
 Establish public education for all
 Ensure the rights of the freed men

• Favored black suffrage
• Supported land confiscation and
redistribution
Radical Republicans were also willing
to exclude the South from the Union
for several years, if necessary, to
achieve their goals
 There was a problem

Congressional elections were coming
up in 1866
 Congress knew it needed to come up
with its own Reconstruction Plan fast

So Republicans formed a coalition to
come up with an alternative to
Johnson’s plan
 Ironically, Johnson and the Democrats
pushed Congress towards the Radical
Republicans’ ideas by refusing to
cooperate with conservative or
moderate Republicans

Conservatives joined with the
Radicals and the result was the 14th
Amendment
 It was to protect blacks’ rights
 See p. 462 for 3 Civil Rights
Amendments
 The 13th Amendment freed the slaves


14th Amendment
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Section 1: declared Confederate debt null
and void and guaranteed the war debt of the
U.S.
Section 2: prohibited political power for
prominent Confederates
Section 3: gave citizenship to freed men and
all the rights of a citizen; made sure blacks
had due process of law

Section 4: dealt with representation;
the 14th Amendment did not require
states to give blacks the right to vote,
but said that states which barred
blacks from voting would have their
Congressional representation reduced
proportionally
The 14th Amendment ignored female
citizens
 This led women’s rights activists to
begin fighting for their own right to
vote
 Johnson urged states to reject this
amendment
 All southern states except Tennessee
did so

The Congressional elections of 1866
was a decisive victory for Republicans
 This showed that the people liked
their 14th Amendment

Freedmen’s Bureau



Created by Congress before there was a
Reconstruction plan
Administered by the army
Provided relief for freed men and some
whites in the form of:
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Food, clothing shelter
Attempted to find jobs
Set up hospitals & schools
Eased transition from slavery to free
The Meaning of Freedom to
Freedmen

Education
They hungered for education and filled
schools
 Freedmen’s Bureau founded over
4,000 schools
 Also founded black colleges
For many blacks, education led to
election to public office

Family Life
Many black families were reunited
 Blacks frequently tried to minimize all
contact with whites
 Black neighborhoods and black
churches were founded by their
choice

Share Cropping System
In return for the use of another’s land
and “furnishings”, the farmer paid the
landowner a share of his crops
 Resulted in blacks being cheated and
kept in debt
 South continued to grow cotton even
though the soil was poor and the
market had shrunk

Reconstruction
14th Amendment passed in June of
1866
 Reconstruction Act passed in 1867
 Governments formed under Andrew
Johnson’s plan dissolved
 The South was partitioned into 5
military provinces
 Map, p. 463


Constitutional conventions were held
Had to abolish slavery
 Give the vote to adult black males
 Ratify the 13th &14th Amendments

If Congress approved of their work, they
would be re-admitted to the Union and
to Congress
Tennessee was immediately readmitted
 1868 – 6 more states were readmitted: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida,
Louisiana, North Carolina, and South
Carolina
 Their delegations to Congress
included black representatives

Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and
Virginia did not wish to give blacks the
right to vote, so the military remained
there until 1870
 Next, Congress wanted to remove
some power from the Executive
Branch because the President’s
power had grown during the Civil War

Congressional Actions
towards the Presidency
Congress took partial control of the
army away from Andrew Johnson
 Congress tried to enforce the Tenure
of Office Act of 1867


It forbade the President from removing
any appointed official who had been
confirmed by the Senate without first
getting Senate approval
This was done to keep Johnson from
dismissing Secretary of War, Edwin
Stanton, a Radical Republican ally
 Stanton’s support would help enforce
the Congressional Reconstruction
Acts -- the ones Johnson opposed

Impeachment of Andrew
Johnson
Johnson tried to defy the Tenure of
Office Act when Congress was out of
session
 August of 1867, Johnson suspended
Stanton from office
 February of 1868, Johnson dismissed
Edwin Stanton, the only Radical
Republican in his cabinet

He did this without Senate approval
 Many said that the Tenure of Office
Act did not apply to Johnson because
he had inherited Lincoln’s Cabinet
 But the House of Representatives
drew up articles of impeachment
(Charges)
 They were passed and a prosecutor
was appointed (House Managers)

The Senate would act as jury
 The Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court presided
 There were 9 articles of impeachment
that dealt with the dismissal of
Stanton
 There were 2 articles which dealt with
Johnson’s disrespect of Congress

Removal of Johnson would need a 2/3
majority vote of the Senate
 That meant

36 Senators had to vote for conviction
 18 votes were needed for acquittal

The vote was 35 – 19
Johnson remained in office by 1 vote.
Johnson was impeached but not
removed
 1868 was an election year, so they let
Johnson serve out the rest of his time
 He then returned to Tennessee and
was elected to the Senate 5 years
later
 Andrew Johnson was exonerated in
1920s

Precedent
A precedent had been set
 You couldn’t impeach someone just
on political grounds (you disagree or
don’t like him)
 A law must have been broken

Ulysses S. Grant was elected
president first in 1868 and then again
in 1872
 Charts, pp. 470 & 474
 Grant’s election was followed by the
passage of the 3rd Civil Rights
Amendment, the 15th Amendment


15th Amendment

forbade states from denying the vote
to any person on the basis of “race,
color, or previous condition of
servitude”
Results of 3 Civil Rights
Amendments
Black voters
 Blacks represented districts and
states like Blanche K. Bruce of
Mississippi and Hiram Revels also of
Mississippi -- both were U.S.
Senators; p. 469, picture
 A less savory result was the rise of Ku
Klux Klan – KKK; p. 472


KKK was founded by a former slave
trader and Confederate general,
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Members would intimidate blacks
trying to keep them from voting
 Blacks were at first threatened, then
beaten, and too often murdered
(lynched)

Congress outlawed and suppressed
the KKK, but it has never totally gone
away
 President Grant would use force to
support Reconstruction and the 13th,
14th, & 15th Amendments but only
when absolutely needed

As the 1870s proceeded, there was
less and less support for
Reconstruction
 Other issues were more interesting


Example: the scandals and corruption
in the Grant Administration
During Grant’s first term in office there
was scandal surrounding the White
House but none connected with Grant
himself
 Grant had appointed relatives and inlaws to offices who used their offices
to make money for themselves
 Later grant accepted money from
those who expected favors

Election of 1876

Republican: Rutherford B. Hayes
3 time governor of Ohio
 Moderate on Southern policies
 Favored home rule in the South
 For civil and political rights for all


Democrat: Samuel J. Tilden
Governor of New York
 A millionaire
 A lawyer
 A reformer
 Against fraud and waste
 Fiscal conservative

Tilden won the popular vote by a small
margin and the returns from Florida
and Louisiana were challenged
 P. 475
 It was a contested election, and in a
contested election the House of
Representatives decides the outcome,
as per the Constitution


In the Compromise of 1877, Congress
decided the outcome and gave it to
Hayes after a deal was struck
between Republican leaders and
southern Democrats
Troops would be withdrawn from the
South
 Some talk of support for southern
railroads & internal improvements

Help for blacks was not discussed
 Lynchings of blacks increased 1889 –
1899

An average of 187 blacks were
lynched each year for alleged
offenses against whites
Segregation laws were passed around
the turn of the century ( Jim Crow
Laws)


1890 – 1910 -- Disenfranchisement
of blacks began with literacy tests and
other legalized obstacles to voting
Example: “How many bubbles are in
a bar of Ivory soap?”
 Poll taxes
 The North and the Federal
government did little to help
 Cases, p. 480
