Download Johnson`s Reconstruction plan - St. John`s School AP US History

Title:
Reconstruction &
Johnson’s
Impeachment
Original Plans of Reconstruction:
Lincoln’s Plan
• The Proclamation of Amnesty
and Reconstruction,
December 1863, gave
forgiveness to those who
pledged Union loyalty and
support for emancipation.
• When 10% of voters had
taken the oath, a new state
government could be
organized. The new
government was required to
ban slavery.
Opposition
• Wade-Davis Bill
– In 1864, Congress wrote its
own plan.
– Majority of white male citizens
would be required to take a
loyalty oath before elections
could be held.
• This plan for readmission was • Lincoln killed the bill using a
known as the Ten Percent
pocket veto (it passed in the last
Plan.
10 days of the legislative session)
Lincoln’s Assassination
•
The president did not live long enough to test his
wartime popularity against Congress for control of
Reconstruction plans.
•
Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s
Theater on April 14, 1865, and died the next morning.
•
John Wilkes Booth was part of a conspiracy, and
others were supposed to kill Vice President Andrew
Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward.
•
A grief stricken nation mourned Lincoln’s death.
•
White southerners were concerned. Lincoln’s death
meant a change in Reconstruction plans and a new
president. Some disliked Andrew Johnson and felt he
was a traitor.
At war’s end, two major questions
faced the reunited nation.
• 1) What would be the status of blacks in the
postwar nation?
• 2) Under what conditions would the Southern
states be readmitted to the Union?
• The newly liberated slaves, called freedmen,
were primarily interested in the chance to earn
wages and own property.
• Black leaders hoped that their service in the
military would earn blacks equal rights.
Vice-president Andrew Johnson
assumed the presidency
• Johnson, a Southern Democrat,
had opposed secession and
strongly supported Lincoln during
his first term
• In return, Lincoln rewarded Johnson
with the vice-presidency
• When the war ended, Congress
was in recess and would not
reconvene for 8 months.
• That left the early stages of
Reconstruction entirely in Johnson’s
hands.
Johnson’s Reconstruction plan called for
the creation of provisional military
governments to run the states until they were
readmitted to the Union
• The states would have to write new constitutions
eliminating slavery and renouncing secession.
• Required all Southern citizens to swear a loyalty oath
before receiving amnesty for the rebellion
• Many of the former Southern elite (including plantation
owners, Confederate officers, and government
officials) were barred from taking that vow, thus
prohibiting their participation in the new governments.
• Johnson did not require the states to enfranchise
African Americans
The plan did not work because Johnson
pardoned many of the Southern elite who
were supposed to have been excluded from
the reunification process
• After the states drafted
new constitutions and
elected new governments,
former Confederate
officials were again in
positions of great power
• Furthermore, many of their
new constitutions were
only slight revisions of
previous constitutions
Southern legislators also passed a
series of laws defining the status of
freedmen.
• These laws, called black codes,
which:
– Limited freedmen’s rights to
assemble and travel
– Restricted their access to public
institutions
– Instituted curfew laws
– Passed laws requiring blacks to carry
special passes
• In the most instances, state
legislatures simply took their old
slave codes and replaced the
word “slaves” with “freedmen”
When Congress reconvened in Dec 1865,
the new Southern senators included the vicepresident of the Confederacy and other
Confederate officials.
• Northern Congressmen were not pleased
• Invoking its constitutional right to examine the
credentials of new members, Congress voted
not to seat the new Southern delegation
• In many Southern states at the time, all
Republicans agreed that Johnson’s
Reconstruction needed some modification.
Congress was divided into three
“Republican” sections:
• Conservative Republicans: Generally agreed
with Johnson’s plan
• Radical Republicans: Wanted to set up a
Reconstruction that punished the South
– Confiscate land from the rich and redistributed it
among the poor (including the freedman)
– Extend democratic rights in the South
• Moderates: Large enough contingent to swing a
vote in one or the other direction
• Freedman’s
Johnson refused to work with
Bureau:
Government
the Radicals and vetoed a
program
compromise
package
that
established in
1865 to help newly would have extending the life
liberated African
of the Freedman’s Bureau
Americans
and enforced a uniform civil
establish a place
in postwar society
rights code on the South.
– Helped with
immediate
problems of
survival (food,
housing) and
developed social
institutions, such
as schools
In response, the Radicals drew up the plan that
came to be known as Congressional
Reconstruction, which included the 14th
Amendment.
• The amendment:
• (1) prohibited states from depriving any citizen of “life, liberty,
or property, without due process”
– meant to override the effect of the black codes
• (2) gave states the choice either to give freedmen the right to
vote or to stop counting them among their voting population
for the purpose of Congressional apportionment
– aimed to force states to either extend suffrage to black
men or lose power in Congress
• (3) barred prominent Confederates from holding political
office
• (4) excused the Confederacy’s war debt.
• The new Congress
quickly passed the
Military Reconstruction
Act of 1867.
In the Congressional
election of 1866, the
North voted for a
– It imposed martial law on
Congress
more
heavily
the South
weighted toward the
– Called for new state
constitutional conventions
radical end of the
– Forced states to allow
political
spectrum.
blacks to vote for
convention delegates
– Required each state to
ratify the 14th Amendment
and to send its new
constitution to Congress
for approval
Aware that Johnson would oppose the new
Reconstruction, Congress then passed a number
of laws designed to limit president’s power.
• Conflict reached its climax when the House Judiciary
Committee initiated impeachment proceedings
against Johnson
• When he fired the Sec. of War (Edwin Stanton), they
accused him of violating the Tenure of Office Act
• They stated that the President had to secure the
consent of the Senate before removing his appointees
once they’d been approved by that body
• Real reason for impeachment: He was getting in the
way of Reconstruction.
Although impeachment failed (by one vote), the
trial revealed that the power of impeachment
could not be abused, and he served the last few
months of his presidency and retired.
• With a new president, Ulysses S. Grant, in
office, Congress forged ahead in its efforts to
remake the South.
• The 15th Amendment, proposed in 1869,
finally required states to enfranchise black
men
• Ironically, the 15th Amendment passed only
because Southern states were required to
ratify it as a condition of reentry into the Union
• A number of Northern states opposed the
amendment