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Reconstruction
1865-1877
Warm Up
POLITICAL CARTOONS OF THE CIVIL
WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION ERAS
August 5, 1865
Columbia's
sympathetic gesture
towards a wounded
black soldier is a
reply to a previous
panel in which
Southern landowners
ask her forgiveness.
Columbia asks,
"Shall I Trust These
Men, and Not This
Man?"
March 23, 1867
In this view of
Southern justice, a
Northerner and a
black man are
accused of murder
and then lynched,
while in another
panel a Southern
gentleman accused
of murder is
humorously chided
by the court.
"One Less Vote."
The Fourteenth
Amendment,
granting black
men the right to
vote, was ratified
in July 1868.
Every black vote
became a threat
to white
Southerners'
political power.
The stone reads,
"Negroe Killed,
Seymour
Ratification,
KKK."
March 23, 1867
In this commentary on
President Andrew
Johnson's veto of the
military government bill,
Nast portrays the scales
of justice favoring the
South and the
Confederate Army.


September 5, 1868
"This Is a White Man's
Government."
Nast's view of the
Democratic platform for
the divisive presidential
election of 1868 places
the Democratic
candidate in
partnership with the
poor Irish of the North
and loyal Confederates
of the South (and its
Lost Cause) to keep
black men from gaining
access to government.
October 24,
1874
The
organized
violence of
the Ku Klux
Klan and
the White
League
made life
"worse than
slavery" for
Southern
blacks.
March 14, 1874
The cover of Harper's
Weekly shows black
legislators stooping to
name-calling as
Columbia says, "You are
aping the lowest whites.
If you disgrace your race
in this way you had
better take back seats."
September 2, 1876
Recognizing the
failure of
Reconstruction, Nast
asks, "Is This a
Republican Form of
Government? Is This
Protecting Life,
Liberty, or Property?
Is This the Equal
Protection of the
Laws?"
America: Post-Civil War
What problems would the US be facing
after the Civil War?
 What issues must be addressed through
Reconstruction?
 Who will be in charge of Reconstruction?

The Reconstruction Era
President Lincoln, President
Johnson, and the Radical
Republicans
The Need for Reconstruction
Reconstruction – period when the United States
began to rebuild after the Civil War (1865-1877)
1.
To unify the Nation
1.
2.
2.
3.
Politically – allow rebel states back into the
Union
Socially
To help the Freedmen
To secure the changes created by the Civil
War
President Lincoln’s Plan
Lenient
 13th Amendment = End Slavery (1865)
 1863 – Proclamation of Amnesty and
Reconstruction

10% Plan
 Pardon Confederates who would swear
allegiance to the Union
 Readmitted to Union if 10% of those who had
voted in 1860 swore an oath of allegiance


Question: Who was able to vote in Southern states in
1960? Why would this be a problem for
Reconstruction?
President Johnson’s Plan

May, 1865

(Became president after Lincoln was assassinated)

Lenient
Break the Planters’ power



However, Johnson believed that whites should rule the
South


Keep wealthy and powerful Southerners from taking the oath
needed for voting privileges
Pardoned more than 13,000 Confederates!
1866 – Vetoed laws passed by Congress


Freedmen’s Bureau Act (create more help for freedmen)
Civil Rights Act (Outlaw black codes, give blacks full citizenship)
Radical Republican’s Plan

Leaders




Destroy all power of former slaveholders
African Americans




Given full citizenship
Given the right to vote
Overrode Johnson’s vetoes
Created 14th Amendment


Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts
Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania
All men born or naturalized in the United States are guaranteed life,
liberty, property, and protection under the law
Passed Reconstruction Act of 1867

States readmitted under Lincoln and Johnson were not recognized
until they followed the Republican’s plan
Johnson’s Impeachment


Why?


Radical Republicans thought Johnson was blocking
Reconstruction
How?

Johnson broke the law!


What does “impeachment” mean?
Tenure of Office Act (1868) – didn’t have Senate’s approval
to remove Secretary of War Edwin Stanton but did it anyway!
What happened?


Congress voted not to convict Johnson
Johnson did not run for a second term
- Reconstruction’s Course Congressional Reconstruction

Reconstruction Act of 1867 (Republicans)


Divided Confederate states into five military districts
In order to reenter the Union states had to…



Ulysses S. Grant elected in 1868


Grant African American men suffrage (the right to vote)
Ratify the Fourteenth Amendment (States cannon deny rights
and privileges to any U.S. citizen, all persons born or naturalized
in the U.S.) By 1970, also the 15th Amendment
9 out of 10 Southern blacks voted for Grant in 1868
Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment (1870)

No man can be kept from voting because of “race, color,
or previous condition of servitude”
Summary of Major
Political Changes
Amendments 13, 14 & 15
The Amendments of the Civil War

Explain this Amendment to the
Constitution in your own words.
 13th Amendment: Neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime whereof the party
shall have been duly convicted, shall
exist within the United States, or any
place subject to their jurisdiction.
The Amendments of the Civil War

Explain this Amendment to the Constitution in your own
words.
 14th Amendment: All persons born or
naturalized in the United States…are citizens
of the United States and of the state wherein
they reside. No state shall make or enforce
any law which shall abridge the privileges…of
citizens of the United States; nor shall any
state deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law; nor deny
to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws.
The Amendments of the Civil War

Explain this Amendment to the
Constitution in your own words.
 15th Amendment: The right of citizens of
the United States to vote shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States
or by any state on account of race,
color, or previous condition of servitude.