Download Reconstruction Part I *With the end of the Civil War, the South was

Reconstruction Part I
*With the end of the Civil War, the South was devastated and needed to be rebuilt or, in the parlance of the
time, reconstructed. Who would determine how this would be done, and how would they do it?
*As early as 1863 Lincoln created a plan for bringing the Southern states back into the Union. According to his
theory that they had never seceded in the first place, this was a fairly simple affair. Lincoln’s plan required
10% of the voters registered in each Southern state in 1860 to swear allegiance to the Union. The state would
then elect a new government and function as a state of the Union again. Finally, Lincoln would pardon any
Confederate who would swear an oath of allegiance to the Union and accept the federal policy on slavery, but
it denied pardons to all Confederate military and government officials and anyone who had killed black
prisoners of war.
*The Radical Republicans in Congress thought this was too soft on the South, and refused to seat elected
representatives from Louisiana, Arkansas, or Tennessee.
*The Radical Republicans instead created the Wade-Davis Bill, and passed it in 1864. Many Radicals felt that
the Southern states, by leaving the Union, deserved to be treated as conquered provinces. Radical
Republicans believed the South needed a complete Reconstruction of its society. Among many tougher
restrictions, the Wade-Davis Bill required fifty percent of ex-Confederate men to take an oath of allegiance and
swear that they had never borne arms against the United States. After all, they could be called traitors if they
did—the Constitution defines treason as making war against the United States. Lincoln refused to sign this bill,
thus using the pocket veto.
*At the time of Lincoln’s death, nothing was resolved. Many Radicals hoped that Johnson, known to hate the
planter aristocracy, would side with them. Despite his class biases however, Johnson was still a Southerner
and did not want to see his countrymen suffer unduly. He and Congress would fight over plans for
Reconstruction for his entire presidency. Lincoln might have had the prestige to maintain his plan for
Reconstruction in the face of opposition, but his death would ensure that the transition from war to peace
*On 29 May 1865, Johnson issued his own plan for Reconstruction, known as Presidential Reconstruction. It
was based on Lincoln’s Ten Per Cent Plan, although it was not identical to it. It disenfranchised rich
Confederates worth over $20,000, and a few other prominent (but less wealthy) Confederate leaders, although
they could appeal for individual pardons personally, mostly so that backwoods Johnson could gloat over their
humiliation and defeat. Finally, the Southern states had to ratify the XIII Amendment. He also recommended
that they give the vote to blacks (although no northern state did this at the moment).
*As the Southern states returned to the Union, they found their own ways to deal with the freedmen. All the
Southern states created laws to limit the rights and opportunities of the freemen. These were called Black
Codes. These varied in severity from state to state, but had more or less the same goals. They meant to
provide a stable workforce for the South and to control the black population.
*In order to work blacks had to sign labor contracts, obliging them to work for a set period of time, usually a
year, for one master. Usually they were only paid at the end so they would not dare leave early, and they
could have their pay docked for any number of reasons, some real and some not. Contracted laborers who
ran away could be hauled back forcibly, generally forfeited back pay, and (in Mississippi) sometimes were fined
and then put to work to pay off the fines.
*The rights of freedmen were also limited. Although they were legally free and could now marry and enjoy
some other rights, they could not vote, serve on juries, or, in some states or areas, own land or even rent or
lease it. Blacks could be punished for idleness and vagrancy (i.e. not working) by being forced into labor
contracts.
*Eventually the black codes would be removed, at least nominally, but there were no easy solutions to the
economic disadvantages of blacks. Without capital, and with nothing to offer but their labor, many became
share-croppers, working for a share of the crops that they grew. Others became tenant farmers, technically
renting the land and paying the rent out of the proceeds from the sale of crops, but always in debt and unable
to leave or control their lives because they had to buy new seed, clothes, and other supplies each year, which
the subsequent harvest barely paid off. The same things happened to many poor whites, as the poor of both
races were reduced to something very like slavery.
*When Congress re-convened on 4 December 1865 after a nine-month recess, the Republicans were shocked
to see Southern Democrats back in town, many of whom were prominent former Confederates, including
generals, cabinet officials, and even the former Vice-President, still under indictment for treason.
The Republicans refused to let the traitorous Democrats to take their seats in the House and Senate. With the
emancipation of the slaves, the old three-fifths compromise no longer counted, so Southern states could count
their resident blacks as complete human beings for the purposes of electoral apportionment, giving the South
12 more seats in the House of Representatives. Congress’ refusal to seat the new congressmen angered and
upset President Johnson, however. He had thought he was restoring the Union more or less as Lincoln
wanted it done—with malice towards none, with charity for all.
*Johnson vetoed a bill passed by Congress in 1866 to extend the duration of the Freedmen’s Bureau. In
response, Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill, granting blacks the rights of citizenship and attacking the
Black Codes. Johnson vetoed this, but Congress overturned his veto, as the Republicans had more than the
2/3 majority required to do so. They would do this repeatedly, although Johnson would try to veto so many
laws that he would be called ‘Andy Veto,’ ‘Sir Veto,’ and even ‘the dead dog of the White House.’
*The Republicans, now that they saw their power, would put the Civil Rights Bill in the Constitution itself as the
XIV Amendment. Sent to the states for ratification in June 1866, it conferred civil rights (including citizenship
but not the franchise) on freedmen, reduced representation of states in Congress and the Electoral College if
they denied blacks the right to vote, disqualified any former Confederates who had earlier held federal office
from ever holding a federal or state office again
*To try to stop the XIV Amendment from passing and to support fellow Democrats throughout the Union in the
Congressional elections of 1866, Johnson went campaigning throughout the country on his way to and from
the dedication of Stephen Douglas’s tomb in Chicago. His campaign circuit was called the ‘swing ‘round the
circle,’ and was a spectacular failure. Johnson could be a good stump speaker, and he spoke passionately
against the Republicans in Congress, even accusing them of starting the recent race riots in Memphis, but he
was easily irritated, and the Republicans planted people in his audience to heckle him. His responses would
grow increasingly wild and frenzied, to the point that people began to accuse him of public drunkenness. The
only thing Johnson did was alienate the voters from himself and his party. The Republicans returned the
Congress with a larger majority than before and more radical than ever.
*The Radicals in the Senate were led by Charles Sumner (R-Mass.), recovered from his ordeal twelve years
before, and an advocate of black freedom and equality. The most powerful Radical in the House was
Thaddeus Stevens (R-Penn.), devoted to the rights of blacks (he even asked to be buried in a black cemetery
at his death) but deeply vindictive towards the South for the cruelties done to black, the death toll of the war,
and the murder of Lincoln.
*The Radicals wanted to keep the South out of the Union as long as possible so they would have the
opportunity to force drastic social and economic change on the South, to completely reconstruct society.
Moderate Republicans still believed in states’ rights to a degree, and knew their constituents would only
support so much radical change. They were willing to coerce the states, but not individuals. Both sides
agreed, though, that blacks needed the right to vote in the South (and not just because they would all vote
Republican), and the Republicans were willing to use force to ensure this if necessary.
*On 2 March 1867, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act. Along with later acts, it abolished all Southern
states (except Tennessee) saying they had forfeited their right to be states by their secession. The states were
divided into five military districts comprising one to three old states, each district having a military governor and
about 20,000 troops
*The Southern states under military reconstruction were required to ratify the XIV Amendment and to give
black males the right to vote. Many whites also lost the right to vote temporarily. The Reconstruction Act did
not do what some hoped though, neither offering free education nor forty acres and a mule.
*The Radicals were afraid that once they left the South, things would go back to the old Black Codes. So, one
year after the ratification of the XIV Amendment in 1868, Congress would write the XV Amendment in 1869
which made it illegal to deny the franchise on the basis of race of former condition of servitude. This was
ratified in 1870 by Republicans freely elected in the North and elected under military rule in the South.
*The XIV and XV Amendments had one aspect that troubled some Americans. Before the war, many women
interested in civil rights had fought mostly for black rights, saying they could get their own rights later.
However, when the new amendments were created, women’s leaders such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Susan B. Anthony suggested that they should also include provisions forbidding the restriction of civil rights
and the franchise on the basis of sex. However, the XIV Amendment specifically gave civil rights to males, and
the XV did not mention sex, so it could still be used as a basis of discrimination. Although the women’s
movement would complain, they would not give up, and would work until they did get the right to vote in
national elections fifty years later.
*The conflict between the Northern plans for Reconstruction and the society that Southerners were used to
would result in violence against those Southerners saw as a threat, making Reconstruction one of the most
unpleasant chapters in the history of the United States. The debate between Johnson and Congress would
lead to the first presidential impeachment in American history.