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Reconstruction
Re-unifying the USA
What was reconstruction?
• Rebuilding the South after the Civil War
• Reconstruction would determine:
o How defeated the south was
o How free African Americans really were
Presidential
Reconstruction
• Lincoln’s Plan
o Amnesty – Loyalty oath
o 10% Plan
• Johnson’s Plan
o Disqualify former Confederate leaders from
holding office
o Allowed states to rejoin freely
o Pardoned thousands of southerners
o Allowed south to handle freedmen as they saw
fit
TEN PERCENT PLAN
• Since Lincoln had always
believed the prime purpose of
the war had been to preserve
the Union, he thought that, now
that it was over, all effort should
be made to restoring the Union
and ending the bitterness and
hatred of war years
o Wanted to be lenient on the
defeated South
o Favored letting them
reconstitute their state
governments and pardoning
all former Confederates
except the highest leaders
• Embodied his lenient position in
the so-called Ten Percent Plan
PROBLEM
• Many Northerners (especially
Radical Republicans) did not
like the Ten Percent Plan
o Every Southern state
contained thousands of
people who opposed the
Confederacy--Unionists
• Northerners wanted to reward Unionists
and punish Rebels
• Were afraid ex-Rebels would take
revenge on Unionists as soon as they
had the chance
o Would also try to reestablish slavery and
might even start a new
civil war once they had
regained strength
NORTHERN OPINION
• Many Northerners did not want the South admitted as a
full member of the Union as quickly or easily as Lincoln did
o Wanted the South to go through a period of
reconstruction first
• A trial period in which the North would essentially control the South in order to
make sure Southerners were sincere about re-establishing their loyalty to the
Union before allowing Southern states to become free and equal members of
the U.S.
WADE-DAVIS BILL
• Congress thought Ten Percent
plan was too lenient and passed
its own alternative, the WadeDavis Bill
o Made it difficult for southern
states to organize new state
governments
• Majority of adult white makes had to swear
oath of allegiance to Union first
o Full citizenship denied to any
man who had willingly served
the Confederacy
• Lincoln vetoed the bill and, in
response, Congress refused to
implement Ten Percent Plan
o Result was stalemate
Wade-Davis Bill
• Harsh conditions to rejoin
o
o
o
o
o
States must re-write constitutions
Outlaw Slavery
Confederate supporters could not hold office/vote
Pledge loyalty to USA (majority of people)
Vetoed by Lincoln (1864)
• Lincoln favored his 10% Plan
CATASTROPHE
• Congress and Lincoln still locked in stalemate
when the war ended (4-9-65) and Lincoln was
murdered five days later
• If Lincoln had lived, he probably would have
found a solution
o A master politician who would have found some sort of compromise
o Too smart and too ambitious to continue a fight if he knew he was going to lose
o But now he is no more
ANDREW JOHNSON
• New president, Andrew Johnson,
was well-intentioned but less
intelligent, flexible, and willing to
compromise than Lincoln
• Started off on wrong foot when he
announced his own policy while
Congress was in recess
o As lenient as Ten Percent Plan
o Pardoned all ex-Confederates
as soon as they swore oath to
support the Union
o Created procedures to set up
new Southern state
governments and allow
Southern states to re-enter Union
o Hoped lenient measures would
heal wounds of the Civil War
TROUBLE
• When pardoned
southerners went to polls
in late 1865 to elect their
new state governments,
they often selected men
who had been high
Confederate officials
o This upset Northerners
o Wanted some
assurance that the
South would not try to
leave Union again, but
these actions did not
give them any high
hopes
BLACK CODES
• Johnson did not make
any provisions for freed
slaves
o Left their future up to
new southern state
governments
• New southern state
governments had no
desire to help ex-slaves
become equal citizens
o All passed laws that
discriminated
against ex-slaves
o Called the “Black
Codes”
Black Codes
• Vagrancy Laws: Considered a vagrant if unemployed
and could be arrested if so. You could then be
worked through convict labor. In other words, you
must have home and means of supporting that home.
• In Mississippi, African Americans forbidden to rent or
own land outside towns
• In SC, black children could be “apprenticed” to whites
if parents did not educate them.
• Goal = Keep African Americans in “slavery” – insure
cheap labor supply; restore pre-Civil War conditions
• http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/recon/code.html
Black Codes
• Prohibited blacks from
testifying against whites in
court
• Prohibited blacks from
serving on juries
• Prohibited marriage between
whites and blacks
• Banned blacks from mixing
with whites in public facilities
• If a black person was
arrested for vagrancy, they
were hired out to whites and
forced to work until their fines
and court costs were paid off
o Their labor was auctioned
off to the highest bidder
NORTHERN RESPONSE
• Northern Congressmen interpreted
Black Codes as an effort to restore
slavery in the South
o Realized that Emancipation
Proclamation and 13th Amendment
were not enough
o Blacks had to given the right to vote
and hold public office so that laws
like the Black Codes could not be
passed in the future
• Most Republicans were moderates and
did not want to fight Johnson and split
the party over this issue
o Hoped that they would be able to
reason and compromise with him
and thus modify his reconstruction
program with his cooperation
RADICAL REPUBLICANS
• Johnson refused to compromise
o Thereby strengthening the radical
wing of Congressional Republicans
and gave them the ammunition
they needed to try to dump
Johnson and impose their own
Reconstruction program
• Radical Republicans were a minority
in Congress but they included some
very able men
o Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of PA
o Hated the South, blamed the entire
Civil War on southern slave-owners,
and were devoted to establishing
Negro equality
o Dedicated to restructuring southern
society by confiscating the
property of southern slave-owners
and redistributing it to ex-slaves
Congressional
Reconstruction
• The “Radical
Republicans”
o Led by Thaddeus
Stevens
• “40 acres and a
mule”
• Destroy south’s
power
o Harsh requirements
for south to rejoin
union
Freedman’s Bureau
• Created to help ex-slaves adjust to freedom
• Build Schools
• Provided clothes and food
o Vetoed by Johnson
o Overridden
Sherman’s Special Order #15 (forty acres & a mule)
• Created in Savannah, GA while war continued on January 16, 1865.
• They provided for the confiscation of 400,000 acres of land along the
Atlantic coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida on which were
to be settled approximately 40,000 freed slave families and other
freed African-Americans then living in the area.
• The orders were intended to address the immediate problem of
dealing with the tens of thousands of black refugees who had joined
Sherman's march in search of protection and sustenance, and "to
assure the harmony of action in the area of operations".
• General Sherman issued his orders after meeting in Savannah,
Georgia with twenty ministers of the black community and with U.S.
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Brig. Gen. Rufus Saxton, an
abolitionist from Massachusetts who had previously organized the
recruitment of black soldiers for the Union Army, was put in charge of
implementing the orders. In the Fall of 1865, it will be overturned.
However, many slaves were working the land as early as 1861 with the
authorization of the U.S. Army(Ossabaw & Skidaway Island, GA).
Amendments
• 14th Amendment – grants full citizenship to
all born in the USA (including freedmen)
o Ended 3/5 Compromise
o South gained seats in House of Reps
o Southern states had to ratify before being
readmitted
• 15th Amendment – Freedmen Suffrage
(guaranteed right to vote regardless of
race)
o 90% of males register quickly
TH
14
AMENDMENT
• Congress passed 2 bills to protect
Negro rights in the South
o Johnson vetoed both bills
• Not because he was a racist but because
he believed Reconstruction policy should
be a presidential, not a Congressional,
power
o Congress over-rode both
• Johnson’s stubbornness gave
Radical control of Congress
o Passed 14th Amendment
• Gave blacks equal rights and pressured
southern states to give blacks full voting
rights
o Northern states ratified
amendment but only one
southern state did
RECONSTRUCTION ACT OF
MARCH 2, 1867
• Since 14th amendment was the foundation for all
future Reconstruction policies, Radicals realized
that southern states had to be convinced to ratify
it
o Passed Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867 to do this
o Dissolved all state governments in South and divided region into 5 military districts
• Each under the control of military
commander charged with preserving order
and protecting the rights of ALL persons
o To remove itself from this situation, a southern state had to ratify the 14th
Amendment and set up a state government that granted full equality and voting
rights to blacks
Disenfranchisement
• the taking away of someone’s (in this case, former
slaves) ability or right to vote
• In the South, there were many tactics created to
insure that former slaves were not allowed to vote,
or make it extremely difficult for them
o Poll Taxes
o Literacy Test
o Violence
o Intimidation
Andrew Johnson’s
Impeachment
• Johnson attempted to block Congressional
Reconstruction
o Vetoed 29 laws, overridden 15 times
o Johnson’s appointed governments ratify Black Codes
• "This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President,
it shall be a government for white men.“
• Republicans unite to impeach Johnson
DECISION TO DUMP
JOHNSON
• Congress also passed laws to
reduce Johnson’s ability to
hinder enforcement of its
Reconstruction policy
o Such as prohibiting him
from firing an federal
official with prior
Congressional approval
• Johnson still had enough
power to get in the way and
he did so as much as
possible
o It was at this point that
Radicals made up their
mind to impeach him and
get rid of him once and
for all
•
JOHNSON IN
TROUBLE
Johnson had not committed a
“high crime or misdemeanor”
o But he had displayed an
incredible lack of political
judgment
• He then began to fire federal
officials friendly to the Radicals
o In direct violation of the law
Congress had just passed
o Gave Radicals real charge
to use to impeach him
• This and 10 other trumped up charges
were presented to and approved by
the House
Johnson’s Impeachment
• Impeached for violation of the Tenure of Office Act
o stated that a President could not dismiss appointed officials without the
consent of Congress
o Johnson viewed the act as unconstitutional
o Attempted to fire Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
IMPEACHMENT
• Impeachment trial held in Senate
from March 13-May 16, 1868
o Vote very close in the end
• 35 guilty/19 not guilty
• One vote short of necessary 2/3s majority
to impeach
• Johnson hung on to his job but it
didn’t matter any more
o U.S. Grant got Republican
presidential nomination
• Making Johnson a lame-duck for the
remaining 9 months of his term
• Grant and Republicans swept the country
in November 1868