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Reconstruction
Chapter 16
Post war Problems
Politically – How do you put the nation back
together?
 Economically – How do you keep the nation
from utter economic ruin?
 Social – How do you ease the hard feelings of
the populous?

– What will happen to the 4 million slaves that are now
free?
– What will the future hold for all people?
Changes during the War
1862 – Pacific Railway Act gave huge
grants of land to build the transcontinental
railroad
 Land grants and federal subsidies were
major source of funding

Abraham Lincoln’s Plan

Ten Percent Plan
– 10% of the 1860 voters swear allegiance
– Accept 13th Amendment
– All except high-ranking civil and military
leaders could be pardoned
Bring the South back in as soon as
possible
 Lincoln pocket vetoed the WadeDavis Bill

Wade-Davis Bill
July 1864 – created by Ben Wade (OH) &
Henry Davis (MD)
1. Majority of white male citizens participate
in creation of new government
2. To vote or be a constitutional conventions
delegate men had to take an “iron-clad”
oath
3. All Confederate officers ranking higher
than a Lieutenant and civil officers would
be considered non-citizens

The Defeated South
Many former slaves worked on abandoned
plantations leased to Northern investors
 Sherman had given some 40 acre plots
 Congress created the Freedman’s Bureau

– March 1865
– Provided food, medicine, schools/colleges for
freed slaves and white refugees

13th Amendment – abolished slavery
(1865)
Andrew Johnson Background
V.P. only during 2nd term
 Compromise to get Democrats to vote for
Lincoln (Republican)
 Former War Democrat from Tennessee –
sympathized with fellow white Southerners
and committed to white supremacy
 Not the statesman that Lincoln was

Andrew Johnson and Presidential
Reconstruction
Restrict reconstruction to the executive
branch
 Restore the Union quickly
 Restore property rights to Southerners
who swear allegiance to the Union

Johnson’s Actions
Granted amnesty to most Southern states
while Congress was not in session
 Pardoned many of the political elite in the
South if they swore allegiance to the Union
 High confederate officials, former federal
officials, and West Point/Annapolis grads
initially were not pardoned
 Ex-Confederates with taxable property >
$20,000 personal appeal to President for
voter rights

Three Factions

Northern Democrats = supported Johnson
didn’t want racial equality

Conservative Republicans = wanted
limited federal role in the Reconstruction

Radical Republicans = wanted to
transform the South
The Radical Republican Vision
Punish the South
 Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner
 Remake the South more like the North
 Wanted land redistribution to former
slaves
 Wanted to exclude CSA officers and
soldiers from political offices
 Favored black suffrage and rights of freed
people

Congressional Reconstruction
Angry at Johnson’s plan and Southern black
codes, the Senate proposed stronger legislation:
 Civil Rights Act of 1865
-Extended the power of Freedmen’s Bureau
-Vetoed by Johnson and overridden by Congress
 14th Amendment (1867)
-Defined citizenship and
protected that right!
-Punished former Confederates
15th Amendment (1870)– right to vote regardless of
race, color or former servitude

Congressional Reconstruction
Military Reconstruction Act of 1867 (First
Reconstruction Act)
-Passed over Johnson’s veto
-Divided South into 5 military districts
-Each run by a UNION military general with
dictatorial powers
 To be “readmitted” to the Union:
-States drafted Constitution granting black
suffrage
(in other words; they had to ratify the 14th & 15th
Amendments)

3 Steps Towards Impeachement
Final Straw =Tenure of Office Act
Sec. of War Edwin Stanton
One vote short of conviction
The Election of 1868
Ulysses S. Grant – Republican
 Horatio Seymour - Democrat
 “Waving the Bloody Shirt” – Republican
tactic of reminding Northern voters of
Union casualties
 Blaming the
South & Democrats
for the war

Moving About
Black Codes – laws to restrict the freedom
of blacks
 Radical Republicans very upset by these
 After Grant’s election he wanted to
legalize voting for African Americans
 Result:
15th Amendment

White Resistance and
“Redemption”
Re-establishing white supremacy & social order
 Redeemers = Conservative Democrats who
gained control of southern states
 Violence & Intimidation: KKK

– Ku Klux Klan Act
The African-American Family
Society based family and church
 Males took on more family authority but
women continued to work outside the
home
 Allowed to practice religion without
interference
 Education – Freedman’s Bureau taught
many
 First Black colleges established

The Origins of African-American
Politics
Primary goals: equality before the law and
guarantee of suffrage (right to vote)
 Five states had more blacks than whites
 Political organizations form
 New leaders emerge and get elected
 Prevented from voting by

– Threats & intimidation
– Poll taxes, grandfather clauses, literacy tests
Land and Labor after Slavery
Spread of sharecropping and tenant
farming
 Most wanted to be self-sufficient farmers
 Not a real change from slavery and in
some ways worse

Southern Reconstruction
Major issue: how to get things back to normal
 Confirmed the federal government was supreme
over individual states
 Carpetbaggers & Scalawags

– Whites who support republicans
Grant Scandals
Credit Mobilier – stealing Union Pacific
Railroad – Congress investigates & is
bribed to keep quiet
 Whiskey Ring – not paying tax, tax
collectors being paid off
 Indian trading posts – Sec. of War being
extorted to allow man to remain in charge
 Speculation in the gold market – James
Fiske & Jay Gould

Weakening Equality

Slaughterhouse cases: said 14th
Amendment only applied to national
citizenship – not state citizenship

U.S. v. Reese & U.S. v. Cruikshank – only
applied to discrimination by the states
The Age of Capital
Rapid Industrialization – railroad boom
 Rise of monopolies & big business
 Mining & Oil

Reconstructing the States: A Mixed
Record
Civil Rights Act of 1875 – outlawed racial
discrimination in public places
 Idealism fades – Democrats gain strength
 Republican vision of modern South does
not become reality
 Cotton prices spiral downward – South
becomes an impoverished region

Liberal Republicans and the
Election of 1872
Old radicals die off
 Many appalled by corruption of the party
 Liberal Republicans call for return to
limited government
 Propose Civil Service reform

The Depression of 1873
Longest Depression in history to this point
 Clashes between labor and management
 High unemployment, falling prices on
goods

The Electoral Crisis of 1876
Samuel Tilden – Democrat
 Rutherford B. Hayes – Republican & war hero
 Disputed electoral votes
 Electoral Commission

Compromise of 1877
Hayes – president
 End of military presence in South
 Appoint a Democrat to his cabinet
 Spend federal money on internal
improvements in the South

Other
Chinese Exclusion Act – prohibited Chinese
immigration to the U.S. for 10 years
 Thomas Nast – political cartoonist –

Harper’s Weekly