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Reconstruction
1865-1877
Chapter 12
What difficult problems after the Civil
War did out nation face?
1. First issue was how to bring the
South back into the Union.
2. Lincoln had wanted to make the
reunion easy but after his
assassination, Congress wanted to
punish the South and to ensure
those who had been slaves would
be able to vote.
3. Yet these policy would cause
considerable tension between the
various regions.
Reconstruction Battle Begins
• Union troops and cannons had devastated most
Southern cities and the South’s economy.
• The president and Congress had to deal with
reconstruction what is this?
• Rebuilding the South after the Civil War.
• Congress also had to decide under what
terms and conditions the former
Confederate states would rejoin the Union.
• President Lincoln’s Proclamation
for Amnesty and Reconstruction
called for a general amnesty or
pardon to all Southerners who
took an oath of loyalty to the
United States and accepted the
Union’s proclamations concerning
slavery.
• After 10% of the state’s voters in
the 1860 presidential election had
taken an oath, the state could
organize a new state government.
Radical Republicans
• The Radical Republicans were
led in Congress by Rep.
Thaddeus Stevens of
Pennsylvania and Sen. Charles
Sumner of Massachusetts, they
did not want to reconcile with
the South.
The Radical Republicans had three
main goals.
1. They wanted to prevent the Confederate
leaders from returning to power after the
war.
2. They wanted the Republican Party to
become powerful in the South.
3. They wanted the federal government to
help former slaves achieve political
equality by guaranteeing them the right
to vote in the South.
• Moderate Republicans thought Lincoln’s
plan was too lenient on the South and the
Radical Republicans’ plan was too harsh.
• By the summer of 1864, the moderates
and the radicals came up with a plan that
they both could support.
• It was called the what?
Wade Davis-Bill
A more stringent plan was
proposed by Senator
Benjamin F. Wade and
Representative Henry Winter
Davis in February 1864.
• The Wade-Davis Bill required that 50 percent of a
states white males take a loyalty oath to be
readmitted to the Union.
• In addition, states were required to give blacks the
right to vote.
• Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill, but President
Lincoln chose not to sign it, killing the bill with a
pocket veto.
• What is a pocket veto?
• Letting the session of Congress expire without signing
the bill.
• Lincoln continued to advocate tolerance and
speed in plans for the reconstruction of the
Union in opposition to the Congress.
• After Lincolns assassination in April 1865,
however, the Congress had the upper hand in
shaping Federal policy toward the defeated
South and imposed the harsher
reconstruction requirements first advocated in
the Wade-Davis Bill.
Freedmen’s Bureau
• Thousands of freed African Americans
known as freedmen had followed General
Sherman on his march through Georgia.
• As a result of the refugee
crisis, Congress established
the Freedmen’s Bureau.
• The Bureau was to feed and
clothe war refugees in the
South using military
supplies.
• The Bureau made a lasting
contribution in education.
• Many freed African Americans served in
the Calvary after 1866 most were
stationed in the southwestern U.S. and
were called what?
• Buffalo Soldiers
Andrew Johnson
Vice- President Andrew Johnson would
become the 17th president after the assassination
of Abraham Lincoln.
Johnson agreed with Lincoln that a moderate
policy was needed to bring the South back to the
Union.
4
• May 1865 Andrew Johnson issued a
Proclamation of Amnesty.
• This plan offered to pardon all former citizens
of the Confederacy who took an oath of loyalty
to the Union and return their property.
• Excluded from the plan were all former
Confederate officers and officials and all former
Confederates who owned property worth more
than $20,000.
• These people could individually ask the
president for pardon. Was this fair?
• Johnson’s plan to restore the
South to the Union included
having former Confederate
States call a constitutional
convention to repeal its
order to secede and to ratify
the Thirteen Amendment-
What did the 13th
Amendment do?
• Abolished slavery
• They also had to reject all debts
acquired during the Civil War.
• The Southern States, for the most
part met, Johnson’s conditions.
• The new Southern state legislatures
would pass laws known as what?
• black codes
What are the black codes?
• They limited the rights of former slaves in
the South.
• The codes would vary from state to state
but in general they were written with the
intention of keeping African Americans in
conditions similar to slavery.
Who thought the black codes were unfair?
The
North
What was Johnson’s plan to restore the
South?
1. Have each former Confederate State
call a constitutional convention to
repeal its order to secede .
2. Ratify the 13th Amendment- abolishing
slavery.
3. Had to reject all war debts acquired
during the Civil War.
Radical Republicans take Control
• In late 1865, House and Senate
Republicans created a Joint Committee
on Reconstruction develop their own
program for rebuilding the Union.
• In March of 1866 Congress would pass
the Civil Right Act of 1866.
• What did it do?
• The act gave citizenship to all
persons born in the United
States except who?
• Native Americans.
• It also allowed former slaves to
own property and to be treated
as equals in court.
• It granted the U.S. government
the right to sue people who
violated these rights.
What amendment granted citizenship to all
persons born or naturalized in the United
States?
• 14th Amendment
• What does it state?
• That no state could deprive any person of life,
liberty or property “without due process of the
law.”
• No state could deny any person “equal
protection of the laws.”
• Congress passed the amendment in June
1866.
• The 14th Amendment became the major issue
in the congressional election of 1866.
• President Andrew Johnson was against the
amendment.
• He wanted Northern voters to elect a new
majority in Congress that would support his
plan for Reconstruction.
• In March 1867, Congress would pass the Military
Reconstruction Act.
• What was this?
• This act did away with Johnson’s reconstruction
programs.
• The act divided the former Confederate states
except Tennessee because it had not ratified the
14th Amendment, into five military districts.
• Each former Confederate State had to
hold another constitutional convention
why?
• Had to write a constitution that Congress
would accept.
• The constitution had to give the right to
vote to all adult male citizens.
• After the state ratified its new
constitution, it had to ratify the 14th
Amendment.
• Then the state could elect people to
Congress.
• The Republicans feared that President
Johnson would refuse to enforce the
Military Reconstruction Act.
• So Congress passed the Command of the
Army Act.
• This required all orders from the President
to go through the Headquarters of the
General of the Army.
• Is this fair?
• Congress also passed the Tenure
of Office Act.
• What is this?
• Required the Senate to approve the
removal of any government
official whose appointment had
required Senate approval.
• Sec. of War Edwin Stanton
agreed with the Radical
Republican Reconstruction
plan.
• On February 21, 1868,
President Johnson
challenged the Tenure of
Office Act by firing Stanton.
• After Johnson fired Stanton, the
House of Representatives voted to
impeach Johnson what is this?
• They charged Johnson with
breaking the law by refusing to
uphold the Tenure of Office Act
and with trying to undermine the
Reconstruction program.
• After more than two months of
debate, the Senate vote was one
vote short for conviction.
• The impeachment took away
what little power President
Johnson had left.
• He did not run for reelection
in 1868.
• Who would be the
Republican candidate?
• Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
• The Republican-led Congress passed the
15th Amendment to the Constitution.
• What does this amendment guarantee?
• Stated the right to vote could not be
denied on account of race, color, or
previous servitude.
• The amendment became part of the
Constitution in 1870.
Did you know?
• In 1866 the House of Rep. brought 11 articles
of impeachment against Pres. Johnson –
Tickets were sold to the President’s trial.
• In 1974 Pres. Richard M. Nixon was charged
with 3 articles of impeachment.
• Nixon resigned from office before there was a
trail in the Senate.
• In 1998 the House of Rep. brought 2 articles of
impeachment against President Bill Clinton. Like
Johnson Clinton was not convicted.
• The Republican Party became very
powerful in the South and started
many major reforms.
• The reforms included repealing the
black codes, making many more
state offices elective and
establishing a system of public
schools.
• To pay for Reconstruction
reforms, many Southern state
governments borrowed money
and imposed high property taxes.
• Graft or getting money illegally
through politics was very
common in both the South and
North.
African American Communities
• Many former slaves started to attend schools in
the South during Reconstruction.
• An important network of African American
colleges and universities began to grow in the
South.
• African Americans in the South established
churches, which served as the center for many
of them.
• There were organizations established to help
support them as well.
The Southerner Resistance
• Many Southerner whites resented
the African-Americans and the
Black Republican governments.
• Some Southerners organized
secret societies such as the what?
• Ku Klux Klan- The goal of the
Klan was to drive out Union
troops and carpetbaggers and
regain control of the South for the
Democratic Party.
•
In 1870 and 1871 Congress
passed three Enforcement
Acts to end violence in the
South.
1. Made it a federal crime to
interfere with a citizen’s right
to vote.
2. Put elections under the
supervision of federal
marshals.
3. Made the activities of the Klan
illegal.
Alabama
and
Reconstruction
Reconstruction
faltered in
Alabama as a
result of
conflicting
interests and
corruption.
In June 1865 two months
after the surrender of the
Confederacy, President
Andrew Johnson appointed
Lewis E. Parsons as
provisional governor of
Alabama.
In his first speech Parsons
made it clear there is no
longer a slave in Alabama.
Postwar Challenges
• Many of the official records for
Alabama had been destroyed
during the Civil War there is an
estimated 40,000 Alabamians were
killed in the Civil War.
• Some 35,000 sustained disabling
injuries.
• Inflation was high many of the
once powerful landowners were
now suffering bankruptcy.
Change in the Countryside
• Alabama’s farms had fallen into complete
disarray.
• Many of the fields had gone unplanted,
crops had been burnt, equipment were in
poor condition.
• The livestock was virtually gone.
Alabama’s farmers also had to cope with
the loss of slave labor.
• Why would this be a problem?
Confusing Freedom
• Thousands of African Americans
meanwhile would rejoice in their
emancipation, but they were still
uncertain about what their new status
meant to them.
• They were freemen, persons free from
slaver but they had no home no work,
and no land of their own to farm.
Freedmen’s Bureau and Alabama
• One aspect of Reconstruction that
had a positive impact was the
Freemen’s Bureau.
• Established by Congress in March
1865, the Bureau was a federal
agency that assisted those freed
from slavery. In Alabama General
Wager Swayne implemented the
Freedmen’s Bureau policy that
called for former slaves and their
employers to sign a contract
detailing in it the length of
employment and rate of pay.
Grant’s Administration
Grant Administration
Born
April 27, 1822
Point Pleasant, Ohio
Died
July 23, 1885
Mount McGregor, New
York
Political party Republican
Spouse
Julia Dent Grant
Religion
Methodist
• The presence of Union
soldiers in the South
helped many former
slaves vote in large
numbers.
• Grant easily won the
election.
• Republicans kept
majorities in both
houses of Congress.
• Ulysses S. Grant
• Late in the administration of
Andrew Johnson, Gen. Ulysses S.
Grant quarreled with the President
and aligned himself with the
Radical Republicans.
• He was, as the symbol of Union
victory during the Civil War, their
logical candidate for President in
1868.
• As President,
Grant presided
over the
Government
much as he had
run the Army.
• Indeed he
brought part of
his Army staff to
the White House.
Grant and his family
Grant’s Last Photo
• He had little political
experience, however he
believed the role of the
President was to carry out the
laws.
• He would allow Congress to
develop policy.
• This would leave the president
weak and ineffective.
• It also helped to divide the
Republican Party and
undermined public support for
Reconstruction.
• During his first term in office
the republican-controlled
Congress continued to enforce
Reconstruction.
• At the same time it worked to
expand programs to promote
commerce and industry.
• It also kept tariffs high,
tightened banking regulations
and increased federal
spending on railroads and port
facilities. And the postal
system.
• Grant kept in place the
SIN TAXES what were
these?
• Taxes on alcohol and
tobacco.
• Democrats attacked the
Republicans economic policies
saying it only helped the
wealthy at the expense of the
poor.
• Many Liberal Republicans
agreed with the Democrats
and left the party in 1872.
• In 1872 the Democrats and
Liberal Republicans would
nominate Horace Greeley for
president.
Who would win the election of 1872?
Ulysses S. Grant
• During his second term Grant
would be hurt by scandals.
• His secretary of war accepted
bribes from merchants
operating at army posts.
• In 1875 the “Whiskey Ring”
scandal involved a group of
government officials including
Grant’s private secretary and
distillers in St. Louis who
cheated the government by
filing false tax reports.
s
Crisis
• In addition to dealing with political scandals,
Grant and the nation would endure a severe
economic crisis that began in Grant’s second
term.
• What was this called?
• Panic of 1873
• The Panic of 1873 started when a series of
bad railroad investments forced the
powerful banking firm of Jay Cook and
Company to declare bankruptcy.
• This caused a series of smaller banks to
close and the stock market to plummet.
• Thousands of formerly enslaved
people took part in governing the
South.
• They were delegates to state
conventions, local officials and state
and federal legislators.
• Who became the first African
American to be elected to the
House of Representatives?
• Joseph Rainey
• Who became the first African
American elected to the
Senate?
• Hiram Revels
Republican Rule in the South
• By 1870 all former
Confederate states had
rejoined the Union.
• During Reconstruction, many
Northerners moved to the
South.
• Many were elected or
appointed to positions in the
state governments.
• Southerners referred to these
Northerners as what?
• Carpetbaggers
• Many Southerners viewed the
Northerners as intruders who
wanted to profit from the South’s
postwar troubles.
• Southerners disliked scalawags
who were they?
• White Southerners who worked
with the Republicans and
supported Reconstruction.
• Many of the scalawags who did
not want the wealthy planters to
gain power were small farmers.
Reconstruction Ends
• Throughout the 1870s Southern
Democrats had worked to regain control
of their state and local governments
from Republicans. (Redemption)
• Southern militia groups intimidated
African-Americans and white Republican
voters, while some Democrats resorted
to various forms of election fraud such
as stuffing ballot boxes bribing and
stealing ballots from boxes.
Compromise of 1877
• Rutherford B. Hayes would be nominated as
the candidate for the Republican party in
1876 instead of U.S. Grant.
• Hayes promised to pull out the military from
the South if elected President.
• This helped him win the Presidency by
gaining support from the Southern
Democrats.
• This is known as Compromise of 1877.
New South
• The alliance between powerful white
Southerners and Northern financiers
brought great economic changes to
some parts of the South.
• Railroads were built and thriving steel
and iron industry would emerge.
• What city in Alabama was the leader in
this industry?
• Birmingham
Collapse of Land
• Reconstruction ended African American hopes
of being granted their own land in the South.
• Instead many ex-slaves returned to
plantations owned by whites where they
either worked for wages or became what?
• Tenant Farmers- What is a tenant farmer?
• Paying rent for their rent for the land they
farmed.
• Most tenant farmers became
sharecroppers. What is a sharecropper?
• Sharecroppers did not pay their rent in
cash.
• Instead they paid a share of their crops
sometimes as much as half to twothirds to cover their rent as well as the
cost of the seeds, tools and animals
needed to work the land.
• Crop liens were merchants who took a
farmers’ crop to pay for and cover their
debts.
• Debt peonage was the conditions of
sharecroppers who could not pay off debts
and therefore could not leave the property
they worked.
• Furnishing merchants were merchants who
supplied sharecroppers with supplies on
credit with high interest rates.
Baseball
• William A. “Candy” Cummings of the
Brooklyn Excelsiors in a game with
Harvard threw the first curve ball.