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Make Your Own Reconstruction Plan!
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the
right as
God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we
are in;
to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne
the battle,
and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and
cherish a
just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: March 4, 1865 - Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
The Scenario
It is April 15th, 1865. The Civil War is over with 620,000 American men dead. The South
is in shambles. The economy is in disarray. President Lincoln has just been assassinated
at Ford’s Theater by John Wilkes Booth. Vice president Andrew Johnson, a Southern
Democrat is inaugurated. YOU and your group are members of Congress. You need to
propose a Reconstruction plan- that is, you will need to decide how to proceed in
reuniting the nation after this catastrophic civil war.
DEBATE and DELIBERATE with your group members. Anticipate questions.
After 20 minutes I will ask you to write your plans on the white board for discussion.
1. First of all, let’s discuss the South’s secession.
a. Did secession actually make the South another country entirely (Confederate
States of America)? If so, how harshly should the South be punished?
b. Were the states always part of the US even in rebellion? If so, how harshly
should the South be punished? What will the punishment be?
Space for Thoughts….
2. Now, let’s consider the role of the Federal government (Washington D.C.) …
a. Should the Confederate states be reunited into the Union? Should they be
“reunited” as is or should the federal government re-draw state boundaries? What are the
downfalls and advantages of this process?
b. Should it be up to the federal government to dictate the terms of the surrender or
should it be left up to individual states (provided you want the states to return to the
union “as is”)
c. What laws will need to be passed and how will these laws be enforced? Should the
North issue a military occupation of the South and for how long? Or….should the US
leave the South to “reconstruct” on their own?
Space for Thoughts….
3. Now, let’s consider the restoration of rights and property in the South
a. How will the Federal government go about rebuilding the South? (stuff like burned
municipal buildings, scorched cotton fields, torn up railroad tracks, etc).
b. How much $$$ will the government provide?
c. How might there be other ways to rebuild the economies of the south?
d. Should the government compensate rich Southerners for damages done during the
war?
e. Should Southern property rights be restored? That is, should ex-Confederates get their
plantations back?
Space for Thoughts….
4. What should be done with the leaders of Confederacy?
a. Did they commit treason?
b. Should they be put on trial and hanged?
c. What should their punishment be? (hard labor, jail time, loss of property?)
Space for Thoughts….
5. Let’s look at the Status of Freed Slaves
a. What will the status of freed slaves be?
b. Will all black people be given suffrage?
c. What will freed slaves do for employment?
d. What structures will need to be put in place to ease the transition from
slave to citizen?
e. How will black citizens be represented politically?
f. How will the Southern society change socio-culturally and what problems
should the government anticipate?
Space for Thoughts….
RECONSTRUCTION TIMELINE
1865
1865
1865
1865
1865
1865
1865
1865
1865
1865
1866
1866
1866
1866
1867
1868
February 1, Congress proposes the 13th Amendment, outlawing slavery and involuntary
servitude everywhere in the United States.
March 3, Freedmen’s Bureau is founded to aid former slaves
March 4, Lincoln is inaugurated for his second term with Andrew Johnson as vice-president,
pledging "malice toward none, and charity for all."
April 8, Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox, Virginia.
April 14, Lincoln is assassinated at Ford’s Theater by John Wilkes Booth.
April 18, Johnston surrender to Sherman in North Carolina, effectively ending the Civil War.
PHASE ONE- PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION
Johnson moves to Reconstruct the South on his own initiative He prefers to call the process
"restoration", emphasizing his leniency towards the rebelling Southern states. Former
Confederate military leaders and patricians with taxable property over $20,000 are
disenfranchised until further notice; only 10% of enfranchised Southern population needs to
take an oath of loyalty before readmission.
Southern states begin to pass "Black Codes" these laws subject former slaves to a variety of
restrictions on their freedom: they forbid blacks to testify against whites; they establish
vagrancy and apprenticeship laws; blacks cannot serve on juries, bear arms, or hold large
meetings.
The Thirty-ninth Congress convenes It is the first session since Lincoln’s death. All
Confederate states, with the exception of Mississippi have formally accepted presidential
requirements for readmission to the Union and representation in Congress. Led by radical
Thaddeus Stevens, the House simply omits the southerners from roll call, effectively denying
them admittance. It then proceeds to discuss punishment for the rebellious South
which according to Radical Republican Charles Sumner has committed "state suicide".
The Ku Klux Klan is formed in Tennessee it is one of the many secret societies set up
to terrorize blacks. Its methods become ever more vicious as whites become more certain
that their old way of life is being threatened.
Johnson vetoes Freedmen’s Bureau bill and Civil Rights Act of 1866; a modified version of
the Freedmen’s Bureau bill later passes, and Congress overrides Johnson’s veto of the Civil
Rights Act.
14th Amendment passed by Congress grants full citizenship to blacks, gives the
Federal government the responsibility to protect equal rights under the law to all American
citizens.
Bloody race riots erupt in Memphis and New Orleans.
In Congressional elections of 1866, Republicans increase their majority in Congress, forming
solid anti-Johnson majorities in both houses.
First Reconstruction Act passes over Johnson’s veto. Temporarily places the South under
military rule; states may be readmitted if their new state constitutions provide for black
suffrage.
Impeachment Crisis Congress impeaches Johnson but he avoids conviction by one vote.
1868
1868
1868
1869
1869
1870
1870
1872
1873
1874
1875
1875
1876-7
1877
1883
1896
1898
Georgia expels blacks from its legislature. Military rule is instantly re-imposed on the state
and earlier readmission to representation in Congress is revoked. Ratification of the 14th
amendment is now made obligatory before representation in Congress will be allowed.
14th Amendment ratified.
Grant is elected President.
15th Amendment passed by Congress prohibits any state from denying a citizen the right to
vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
The first rail line to cross the continent is completed The Union Pacific is joined with the
Central Pacific; the news is flashed by telegraph and the nation celebrates from coast to
coast. This railroad network will be the single most influential factor in the emergence of a
new industrial age.
15th Amendment ratified.
Force Acts (KKK Acts) passed by Congress seek to enforce 15th Amendment by giving
Federal protection for black suffrage, and authorize the use of Federal troops against the
KKK. These acts are declared unconstitutional in Cruikshank v. U.S. in the 1880s.
Grant wins a second term as President, defeating Horace Greeley.
Panic of 1873 plunges the nation into a depression.
Grant uses force for the last time to subvert the White League’s attempt to overthrow a
Republican government accused of stealing an election.
"Whiskey ring" scandal exposed.
Civil Rights Act of 1875 states that no citizen can be denied the equal use of public facilities
such as inns, restaurants, etc. on the basis of color.
Disputed election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden resolved in favor of
Republican Hayes.
Compromise of 1877 results in end to military intervention in the South and the fall of the
last radical governments; restores "home rule" in the South
Civil Rights Cases strike down the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Congress may not legislate on
civil rights unless a state passes a discriminatory law; Court declares the 14th Amendment
silent on racial discrimination by private citizens.
Plessy v. Ferguson upholds Louisiana statute requiring "separate but equal"
accommodations on railroads. Court declares that segregation is not necessarily
discrimination. Justice Harlan’s dissent argues that segregation is inherently discrimination;
this argument will be used to support the majority opinion in Brown v. Board of Education in
1954.
Williams v. Mississippi upholds a state law requiring a literacy test to qualify for voting.