Download reconsturction

The period following the Civil War is most
commonly referred to as, “Reconstruction”
because is was during this time that
American’s attempted to reunite
(reconstruct) their shattered nation.
PROBLEMS OF PEACEKEEPING
To rebuild a nation that has been fighting
a major civil war for four years was no
easy task, to say the least!!!
? - What kinds of problems would arise
between the two regions as they
attempted to reunite in the years
following the war?
The Aftermath of War and
Emancipation
An extreme sense of bitterness existed
between both sides!
? – How were Southerners feeling about
the outcome of the war?
Still believed that their view of
secession was correct*
Were angry about the destruction
that had taken place to their land,
cities, and people
Didn’t know how they could go on
with 260,000 of their men dead How would their families go on?
How could they survive without
the men to rebuild their farms and
plantations?
The future seemed bleak and many
still held on to the idea of the
“glorious cause”
? – What was the fate of the defeated
Confederate leaders?
After brief jail terms all were
pardoned in 1868
? – What type of toll did the war have on
the economy of the South?
The economy was utterly defeated
? – How has the war impacted the life of
freed African Americans in the South?
Freedom came haltingly and uneven
in different parts
Furthermore, although the institution
is eventually destroyed African
Americans are not enjoying a sweet
sense of freedom – Why?
They have nowhere to go, nothing to
start with, and little to no political
means.
If southern whites thought the war
caused them peril, freedmen had it
ten times worse.
Competing Notions of Freedom
For African Americans the notion of
“freedom” meant many things:
Reparations – some blacks felt
that they should be in some way
compensated for their years of
forced labor and service. They
felt that the South and slave
owners owed them – monetarily,
physically, psychologically, etc.
Freedom and Participation - some
freedmen simply wanted the
right to vote and actively
participate in government
Regardless of their position about their
new found freedom one thing all freed
slaves agreed upon was their desire
for independence from white control
Almost immediately upon their release
from slavery, African Americans began
to gather in groups, creating their own
autonomous communities throughout
the South
Black neighborhoods, churches, aid
societies, and where possible black
schools took form
AME, Southern Baptist Church*
In 1865 freedmen began traveling to
test their freedom, search for family
members, and seek economic
opportunity
Many “Exodusters” fled to Kansas* to
escape the confines of southern rule,
however this faltered when
steamboat captains refused to
transport any more former slaves
across the Mississippi
? – How did white southerners react to
this “loss of control?”
Many whites were not willing to give
up their “authority” and status of
supremacy in the South…so they
derived alternative means to keep
African American in their antebellum,
subservient positions. (Black codes,
sharecropping)
After the war, the north continued to
keep Union troops throughout the
South in order to restore and keep the
peace
In March of 1865, Congress
established the Freedmen’s Bureau.
What was this agency and why was it
created?
An agency directed by General
Oliver Howard
Was intended to be a postwar
welfare agency for former slaves
Distributed food to millions of
freedmen
Most notably it established schools
staffed by missionaries and
teachers
How effective was this organization?*
- President Johnson, much like
many southerners, viewed the
agency as a meddlesome federal
agency that should be killed
Issues of Reconstruction
Keep in mind that the “absence” of the
South from in Congress during the past
four years left the Republican Party
basically unchallenged.
Created many programs that might not
have been passed with an opposition
party
The reunification of the North and South
jeopardized those programs along with
the dominance of the Republicans….this
made them very careful
Republicans did not want to lose support,
yet many wanted Southerners to pay for
what they had done what the Union
The party’s disagreement amongst its
members on what approach to use
caused tension amongst many
Republicans
Different Approaches, Different Programs:
Radicals-----------Moderates--------Conservatives
? – What might each group ask for/demand of
the Southern states before they would be
readmitted to the Union?
Radicals
Make them pay!! Don’t go
too easy on the Rebs. That
have cost us human lives,
millions of dollars,
etc…they should be dealt
with harshly.
Moderates
Yes, southerners should be
made aware of their
mistakes; however, we
should not punish them too
harshly. Let’s take the
middle of the road
approach.
Conservatives We should make the
transition as smooth as
possible. We must aim to
create a country, united,
once again.
Plans for Reconstruction
? How did Lincoln feel about Reconstruction?
Outline his plan.
Lincoln’s __10__% Plan
Lincoln took a moderate to
conservative approach
Offered a general amnesty to white
southerners – other than high officials
in the Confederacy – who would
pledge loyalty to the government and
accept the elimination of slavery
Whenever 10% of the # of voters in
1860 took an oath to be loyal, then
those voters could begin to set up a
new state government in their state
Lincoln also looked to extend suffrage
to those blacks who were educated,
owned property, or had served in the
Union army
Understand that according to the congressional
Republicans the Southern states were
“conquered provinces” that had completely
left the Union and therefore were at the mercy
of Congress.
? - How did Congress first attempt to deal
with Reconstruction?
___Wade____-__Davis_____Bill
It authorized the president to
appoint a provisional governor for
each conquered state.
When a majority of the white
males of the state pledged their
allegiance to the Union, the
governor could summon a state
constitutional convention, whose
delegates were to be elected by
those who would swear that they
had never borne arms against the
U.S.
The new state constitutions would
have to abolish slavery,
disenfranchise Confederate civil
and military leaders, and repudiate
debts accumulated by the state
governments during the war.
After a state had met these
conditions, Congress would
readmit it to the Union.
The Wade-Davis Bill (like the
President’s proposal) left up to the
state the questions of political
rights for blacks
? - Was this bill a success?
 No, Lincoln disposed of it with a
pocket veto
 Furthermore, the controversy
surrounding the Wade-Davis
Bill and the readmission of the
Confederate states
demonstrated the deep
difference between President
Lincoln and Congress
The Death of Lincoln
No one knows for sure what type of
Reconstruction plan might have passed
had Lincoln lived out his second term
in office
Immediately after the assassination of
Lincoln on April 14th, 1865, Vice
President, ___Andrew
Johnson__________ took the oath of
office along with a different take on
Reconstruction or as he called it
Restoration
Johnson and “Restoration”
? - Why was it considered that Johnson
was not well suited, either by
circumstance or personality for the task of
leading the nation through
Reconstruction?
He was not a “true Republican” in
terms of reconstructing a country
based on freedom for both blacks and
whites. Johnson was openly hostile
to the freed slaves and unwilling to
support any plans that guaranteed
them civil equality or
enfranchisement.
“White men alone must manage the
South” – Andrew Johnson*
Presidential Reconstruction (How the
president intended to reconstruct the
country)
President Johnson quickly put his
Reconstruction plan into action while
Congress was on vacation in the summer
of 1865. He aim was to quickly restore the
southern states under a few conditions
that he felt were most important.
? – What were the major components of
Johnson’s plan? How was it similar and
different than that which Lincoln had
designed?
Johnson’s Restoration
Like Lincoln, he offered amnesty to
those Southerners who would take an
oath of allegiance; however, Johnson
wanted high ranking Confederate
officials and white Southerners with
land worth $20,000 or more to apply
the President for an individual pardon!
(Other than that the rest of his plan
resembled, very closely that of the
Wade-Davis Bill rejected by Lincoln).
For each state the president appointed
a provisional governor, who was to
invite qualified voters to elect
delegates to a constitutional
convention.
In order to win readmission to
Congress, a state had to revoke it
ordinance of secession, abolish
slavery, ratify the 13th amendment and
pay back the Confederate and state
war debts.
The final procedure before restoration
was for a state to elect a state
government and send representatives
to Congress.
Radical Reconstruction
Members of Congress were FURIOUS at
Johnson! (They even refused to seat the
representatives of states that complied and
were admitted under Johnson’s plan)
Republicans were not willing to sit back and
allow Johnson to decide the future of the
Unites States; therefore they set up a Joint
Committee on Reconstruction to investigate
conditions in the South and to help Congress
create a Reconstruction policy of its own.
All the while the south decided not to wait for
Congress to get their act together, instead at
the state and local level they began to pull
some hi-jinks of their own.
The Black Codes
? – What were “black codes”?*
Laws designed to reestablish planter
control over black workers in the
South
Varied from state to state –
Examples: Codes authorized local
officials to apprehend unemployed
blacks, fine them for vagrancy, and
hire them out to private employers
to satisfy the fine
Some of the codes prohibited blacks
serving on juries, renting land,
punishment for idleness, and fines
for jumping labor contracts
The main purpose was to ensure a
stable and subservient labor force
? – How did Congress/Northerners react to the
Black Codes?
 Many felt that the arrogant South
was acting as if the North had
not really won the Civil War
 Extended the life of Freedmen’s
Bureau and widened its powers
 Passed the First Civil Rights Act
(1866)
? – What did the Civil Rights Act of 1866 do?
It declared African Americans to be
citizens of the United States and
empowered the federal government
to intervene in the state affairs when
necessary to protect the rights of
citizens.
The Fourteenth Amendment*
1866 – Radical Republican Governments
created the 14th Amendment
? – So what did it protect?
It protected the rights of American
citizens
? – How did the Constitution define and protect
“American citizens”?
 “Everyone born in the United
States, and everyone naturalized,
was automatically a citizen and
entitled to equal protection of the
laws by both states and national
governments”
 The 14th amendment imposed
penalties on states that denied
suffrage to any adult male
inhabitants
 Feminist leaders put up a fuss
because now for the first time did
the Constitution reference
gender….and it was exclusive to
males
? – How did the 14th Amendment punish
former Confederates who wanted to return to
work in the Federal Government?
 It also prohibited those who had
taken an oath to support the
Constitution and later has aided
the Confederacy from holding
any federal office unless 2/3 of
Congress voted to pardon them
The 14th Amendment did NOT meet the
necessary requirements for ratification (3/4 of
the states approval), and therefore was put on
hold for some time……
……in the meantime, the Radical Republicans
were getting stronger
The Congressional Remedy
For almost two years after the war had ended,
the Republican party was unable to create and
pass a Reconstruction plan. This delay actually
made it more difficult for the South to swallow
once a plan was finally put into action.
? What was the Congressional Reconstruction
Plan?
A not so simple plan!
 Under this plan, the state of
TENNESSEE, which had ratified the
14th Amendment and had been
admitted under the Johnson plan
would be readmitted to the Union
 All of the other former Confederate
states readmitted under the Johnson
and Lincoln plans were rejected and
would have to reapply – meeting
new criteria
 The 10 remaining Southern states
would be combined in the five
military districts
 Each district would be overseen
by military commander in charge
of registering qualified voters
Note: A “qualified voter” would be
adult black males and those
white males who had not
participated in the rebellion
 These voters would elect
members to a convention to
prepare a new state
constitution, which had to
include provisions for black male
suffrage
 Once voters ratified the new
state constitutions, states could
hold elections for a new state
government
Congress approved of
the state’s new
 If
constitution, if the state
legislature ratified the
14th Amendment, and if
enough states ratified it
to make the amendment
a part of Constitution,
then the state was to be
restored to the Union
By 1870, all 10 of the Former Confederate
states had met the requirements and been
readmitted to the Union
The Fifteenth Amendment
? – What did the 15th Amendment
protect?
It forbade the states and the
federal government to deny
suffrage to any (Male)
citizens on account of “race,
color, or previous condition
of servitude”
? – What kind of an impact did the
15th Amendment have on African
American voters?
On paper, it seemed like
an honorable pursuit of
justice, however in
reality, it did very little to
truly guarantee African
Americans their right to
vote
Whites found ways to
prevent African
Americans, and poor
white Americans, from
voting for years to come
(poll tax, literacy tests)
Impeaching the President*
Radical Republicans went to great
lengths to stop Andrew Johnson from
interfering with their programs.
In 1867, they created the Tenure of
Office Act.
? – What did this state?
 The president would not be
allowed to remove civil
officials, including members of
the cabinet, without the
consent of the Senate (an
obvious attempt to protect
Edwin Stanton’s job as
Secretary of War, because he
was cooperating with the
Radicals)
They also created the Command of
the Army Act in 1867.
 this law prohibited the
President from issuing military
orders except through the
commanding general of the
army (Grant) whose
headquarters were to be in
D.C. and who could not be
relieved or assigned elsewhere
without the consent of the
Senate
So what in the world was Congress
hoping to accomplish?
 They wanted to get rid of
Johnson! He was “in their
way.” However the only
Constitutional ground for
impeachment to find him
guilty of high crimes and
misdemeanors
? – How did Johnson react to the
newly created laws of Congress?
 He was outraged and reacted
exactly the way Congress had
hoped that he would. He
purposely violated the
Tenure of Office Act by
dismissing Secretary
Stanton, for he felt the law
was unconstitutional
? – What happened next?
 Radicals in the House
impeached the President on
11 charges and sent them to
the Senate for trial
? – What happened at the trial?
 The trial took place during
April and May of 1868
 The final count was 35 to 19,
one vote short of the
required 2/3 majority
necessary
 Some Senators finally realized
they should not abuse the
system of Checks and
Balances
 The Senate was also
concerned with who would
follow Johnson in office and
feared a destabilizing period
 Johnson also promised to stop
obstructing all Republican
policies
The Radical Republican Congress also
threatened the power of the Supreme
Court during the Reconstruction
Period. How? What did they do?
 Radicals were unhappy with
the Court’s ruling in Ex parte
Mulligan. Why?
 The justices declared that
the military tribunals set
up in places were civil courts
already existed were
unconstitutional – this
decision threatened
Congress’ system of military
rule in the South
 Congress immediately
proposed legislation that
would make the ordinary
functioning and decision
making process of the
Supreme Court difficult…the
justices felt the pressure and
backed off
 Over the next two years, the
Supreme Court refused to
accept any cases involving
Reconstruction
Supporters of the Republican
Party
Following Johnson, northern favorite
Ulysses S. Grant would serve two
terms as president. Although he
served as one of the Union’s most
capable generals, his time in office
was less than mediocre. Regardless,
the Republican Party continued to
dominate national politics until 1877
due to several groups that lent their
support.
? Who were scalawags and why did
they support the Republicans?*
 Southern white
Republicans, given the name
by other Southerners that felt
these people were traitors
(Longstreet would have been
considered a scalawag of the
worst kind)
 They shared a belief that the
Republican Party would serve
their economic interests better
than the Democrats
? Who were carpetbaggers and why
were they given this title?*
 Northern Republican men
who moved to the South after
the war
 They were stereotyped as
penniless lower class men
taking advantage of the
political opportunity in the
south
? What group contained the largest
number of Republican supporters in
the South after the Civil War?
 Black Freedmen
? How did they try to take advantage
of their new found freedom?
 Created “color conventions”,
African American churches,
ran for office
Example – Senators Hiram
Revels and Blanche Bruce
Ending Reconstruction
As the years went by the Southern
state governments slowly drifted back
into the hands of the Democrats.
During this time several legal and
illegal activities began to emerge to
influence the way the local
governments kept their power.
Fear and Intimidation - The Southern
States “Redeemed”
 White majority aimed to
overthrow the Republican
control imposed on them
 By 1872 most Southern
whites had regained suffrage
–now they aimed to vote
together
 Ku Klux Klan and the White
Camellia were groups that
used fear and terrorism to
prevent blacks from voting
or exercise citizenship
 Redshirts and White Leagues
armed themselves to
“police” elections and force
white males to join
Democratic party
 The Klan*
 formed in 1866 by former
Confederate Gen. Nathan
Bedford Forrest, became
the most successful
organization for white power
 devised rituals, costumes,
secret languages, and
participated in hooded
“midnight rides”
 the main goal was to
recreate white supremacy of
plantation class and
southern Democratic power
Black political power discouraged
even more by the economic
pressure placed on Republican
Blacks by planters who refused to
rent land, extend credit, or give
work
ADD TO NOTES
Congress was in fact outraged over
the night-riding lawlessness in the
South
They passed the harsh Force
Acts of 1870 and 1871
Federal troops were granted
permission to stamp out much of
the “lash law”
However, the Invisible Empire
had done its work of intimidation
already
Many groups disguised
themselves as dancing clubs,
missionary societies, and rifle
clubs
Compromise of 1877
Grant sought Reelection in 1876
but shaken Republican leaders
were looking for a leader away
from the bad stigma that Grant’s
administration carried
Republicans looked to unite party
(and bring back Liberals) by
throwing support behind
Rutherford B. Hayes, a former
Union officer and champion of civil
service reform
Democrats picked Samuel J. Tilden
both were similar in the fact that
they were conservatives who
supported moderate reform
Tilden looked to be the winner with
a popular margin over Hayes of
about 300,000
disputed returns in LA, SC, ORG,
and of course FLA, caused the
Reps. to dispute
if Hayes won all 20 electoral
votes who could squeeze out a win
In Jan. 1877, Congress created an
electoral commission, and they
voted right down party lines with
an independent (Republican
sympathizer) tipping the scale in
the Republicans favor
Hayes would go on to win;
however Republicans compromised
with Democrats by pledging that
Hayes would withdrawal the
last of federal troops from the
South ( a deal which Hayes was
already thinking of before the
meeting at the Wormley Hotel
in Washington)
The real deal included much more
– appoint. of southerner to
cabinet, internal
improvements, and federal aid
to the Texas and Pacific
Railroad
This marked the end of the
national government trying to
control Southern politics and
improve life for blacks in Southern
Society for the next 90 years
The Verdict on Reconstruction
The Legacy of Reconstruction
Largely a failure – did not solve
racial problems in our country
Conservative obstacles embedded
in our society were still not willing
to give way
The 14th and 15th Amendments
were added to the Constitution
and things would rest on those
two achievements for several
decade
The Birth of Jim Crow
Civil Rights and the Supreme
Court
In 1883 the court stripped the
14th and 15th Amendments of
much of their significance
ruled that the 14th amendment
prohibited state governments
from discriminating against race
but did not restrict private
organizations from doing so
(i.e. railroads, hotels, theaters)
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) –
case that allowed states to
segregate facilities as long
as they were “equal”
Voting Rights
Franchise restrictions occurred
from the beginning of
Reconstruction and only got
worse
poll tax - some sort of
property qualification
needed to vote
literacy test – required voters
to demonstrate an ability to
interpret the Constitution (often
impossible even for literate
blacks)
 by the late 1890s black voting
decreased by 62 %and white
vote by 26 %
 grandfather laws passed in
order to allow illiterate whites
to vote ( if ancestors had
voted before Reconstruction
you can too)
Williams v. Mississippi 1898 –
voided grandfather clause, but
supported the literacy test
Supreme Court would allow
disenfranchisement as long as it
wasn’t so obvious that it was
ripping up the 15th Amendment
Jim Crow Laws*
restricting franchise and
segregating laws fell under the
title of Jim Crow laws
customs in the rural south
would become law in the urban
south
lynchings still occurred at an
alarming rate in order to silence
black objection
 187 lynchings a year in the
nation in the 1890s
Lynching
Occurred in cities and townsusually with cooperation of
local authorities
seized black prisoners and hung
them in public rituals
 large ones rarely occurred but
were more often performed by
local vigilante groups
 controlled blacks through
terror and intimidation
In conclusion Reconstruction might
have been more successful had the
ambitions of those like Thad Stevens
been seriously considered. The
economic and political reforms of the
day only seemed to be temporary. A
stronger commitment was needed by
our Congress to ensure the tranquility
and progress of all in our country.