Download Reconstruction

Reconstruction
1865-1877
Punish or Pardon the South?
• Should the South be punished for their
actions, or be forgiven and allowed to recover
quickly?
• What is best for the South, what is best for the
North, and what is best for the entire nation?
Lincoln’ 10% Plan
• Denied pardons to Confederates
who had killed African American
P.O.W.s
• Permitted states to hold
conventions and create new
constitutions only after 10% of
voters in each state swore
allegiance to Union
“Radical Republicans”
• Republican Factions Emerging
– Moderates – siding with Lincoln
– Radicals – want to punish South
Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)
• Senator, then military governor of
TN during war
• Ran as VP with Lincoln in 1864 on
National Union Party ticket
• Lincoln killed in April, 1865
Lincoln Assassinated, Johnson
Becomes President
• Shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865
• Johnson, former slave-owner and Democrat
from South, now overseeing Reconstruction
• Congress adjourns in Spring
• “Presidential Reconstruction”
13th Amendment
• Ratified Dec, 1865
• Abolished Slavery
• “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,
except as punishment for crime whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted, shall
exist within the United States, or any place
subject to their jurisdiction.”
Freedom for Freedmen
• Freedom of movement
– where do they go?
• Freedom to own land
– with what money?
• Freedom to worship
• Freedom to learn
– In what schools?
Freedmen’s Bureau
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March, 1865 - 1872
Helped black southerners adjust to freedom
1st major federal relief agency
Food, schools, orphanages, clothing, medical
supplies, etc.
• Over 250,000 former slaves received first
formal ed. in bureau schools
Black Codes
• Established a “virtual slavery” in the South
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Curfews
Vagrancy laws
Labor Contracts
Land Restrictions
• By 1866, Johnson had overseen return of civilian
gov. to Southern states and was ready to
announce Presidential Reconstruction ended
• Congress disagreed, and began “Radical
Reconstruction”
1866 Civil Rights Act
• Outlawed Black Codes
• Johnson vetoed it
• Congress overrode his veto
• Congress the passed 14th Amendment
– Attempt to guarantee rights of freedmen
– Ratified in 1868
14th Amendment (1866/68)
• TURNING POINT in AMERICAN HISTORY
• “All persons born or naturalized in the U.S. and
subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens
of the U.S. and of the State wherein they
reside. No State shall make or enforce any law
which shall abridge the privileges or
immunities of citizens of the U.S.; 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.
14th Amendment Cont.
• Overruled Dred Scott n. Sandford (1857)
• Apportionment of Reps for “all citizens” living
in a state
• If citizens 21+ can’t vote, they won’t be
counted (never enforced)
• No person can be elected to federal/state
office who “engaged in rebellion”
– Could be overruled by 2/3 vote of Senate and
House
Reconstruction Act 1867
1. South put under military rule
– Divided into 5 districts
2. Ordered Southern states to hold elections for
delegates to create new constitutions
3. Required states to allow all qualified male voters
to participate
4. Barred those who had held Confederate
postions
5. Required Southern states to guarantee equal
rights to all citizens
6. Required states to ratify the 14th Amendment
First Impeachment
• 1868, Johnson tried to fire Secretary of War
Edwin Stanton, a Lincoln appointee
– Didn’t want Stanton, friend of radical republicans, to
oversee military rule of South under new Act
• Did not receive approval from Senate
– Violated 1867 Tenure of Office Act
• Feb ’68, House voted firing was unconstitutional
• Senate found him innocent (by 1 vote, need 2/3)
Ku Klux Klan
• 1866, 6 former Confederates in Pulaski TN
• Ghosts of dead Confederate soldiers
• Led by the “Grand Wizard”
– Nathan Bedford Forrest
• Goal: limit power of blacks in
the South
Terror in the South
• 1868 alone, Arkansas Klansmen killed over
300 Republicans, including a Congressman
• In Louisiana, over 1,000 murdered in 1868
• In New Orleans, nearly ½ adult white male
population belonged to the Klan
• 1870, Enforcement Act Passed
– Banned use of terror, force, bribery to prevent
voting
– Troops, cavalry, and courts wiped out KKK by 1871
Election of 1868
• Ulysses S. Grant (R) ran against Horatio
Seymour (D)
Electoral vote
States carried
Popular vote
Percentage
Grant
Seymour
214
26
3,013,650
80
8
2,708,744
52.7%
47.3%
Grant’s Presidency
• Enforced Radical Reconstruction of South
• Plagued by rampant nepotism and scandal
• North tired of supporting expensive
Reconstruction
• “Now that the
good Ship Union
has safely passed
through the Sea of
Trouble into
peaceful Waters,
shall the
Helmsman be
thrown
overboard?”
15th Amendment (1870)
• U.S. and States can not deny/impede the right
to vote of any citizen
• Section 1. 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.
• Section 2. The Congress shall have power to
enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Reconstruction Amendments
• 13th (1865) – Abolished Slavery
• 14th (1868) – All people born in U.S. are
citizens (excluded Native Americans)
– All citizens will receive due process under law
(equal rights/treatment)
• 15th (1870) – No state can deny/impede a
citizen’s right to vote
Carpetbaggers and Scalawags
• Carpetbagger – Northerners who moved
south for economic or political gain
• Scalawag – White Southern Republicans
• Both were despised by Southerners
A Carpetbagger (From Wisconsin to Missouri)
• “…joined with the quest for profit, however,
was a reforming spirit, a vision of themselves
as agents of sectional reconciliation and the
South's "economic regeneration." Accustomed
to viewing Southerners—black and white—as
devoid of economic initiative and selfdiscipline, they believed that only "Northern
capital and energy" could bring "the blessings
of a free labor system to the region.“
– Historian Eric Foner on Carpetbaggers
Tuscaloosa, Alabama Independent Monitor 1868
Changes in the South
• By 1872, all but 500 ex-Confederates had been
pardoned. Combined with other white voters
to form new bloc of Democratic voters
– “Solid South”
– Voted to block many federal Reconstruction
policies
– Reversed may reforms of Reconstruction
legislatures
• Panic of 1873 – Over-speculation of RR
Industry
Election of 1876
• Rutherford B. Hayes (R) lost popular vote to
Democrat Samuel Tilden (D)
• Tilden had support of “Solid South”
Compromise of 1877
• Electoral vote disputed due to scandal
• Congress established commission to settle
dispute (mostly Republicans)
• Selected Hayes as President, but had to
compromise
– President would have to remove all federal troops
from the South
– Subsidies to Southern Railroads, money for levees
Compromise cont.
• Comp. of 1877 opened way for Democrats to
regain control of Southern politics
• Marked the end
of Reconstruction
Reconstruction Successes
• Union is restored
• Southern economy grew and new wealth
created
• 14th and 15th amendments guaranteed
citizenship, equal protection under law, and
suffrage
• Freedmen’s Bureau help blacks to obtain
housing and schooling
• Southern states adopt policy of mandatory
public education
Failures
• White Southerners bitter toward federal govt
and Republican party
• South is slow to industrialize
• After troops withdrew, state govts and
terrorist groups denied blacks the right to vote
• Many black and white Southerners caught in
cycle of poverty
• Racist attitudes continued in North and South