Download Reconstruction of the South

Reconstruction of the South
Important People and Terms
The Civil War Amendments
• 13th Amendment
• Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and
ratified on December 6, 1865
• Abolished slavery in the United States
• "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."
Civil War Amendments Cont.
• 14th Amendment
• Ratified on July 9, 1868
• Granted citizenship to “all persons born or
naturalized in the United States,” which
included former slaves recently freed
• Forbids states from denying any person "life,
liberty or property, without due process of law"
or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction
the equal protection of the laws.
Civil War Amendments Cont.
• 15th Amendment ratified Feb. 3, 1870
• Granted African American men the right to vote
• Declared that 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.
• Not fully realized for almost a century
• Poll taxes, literacy tests skirted 15th Amend.
• Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed poll taxes
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Susan B. Anthony
“40 Acres and a Mule”
• As Union soldiers advanced through the South,
thousands of freed slaves left their plantations to
follow Union general W.T. Sherman
• To solve problems caused by the mass of
refugees Sherman issues:
• Special Field Orders, No. 15
• Granted each freed family forty acres of tillable
land on islands and the coast of Georgia
• Unneeded mules were also granted to settlers.
Cont.
• After the assassination of President Lincoln:
• His successor, Andrew Johnson, revoked
Sherman's Orders and returned the land to its
previous white owners
• The phrase "40 acres and a mule" has come to
represent the failure of Reconstruction policies
Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan
• December 1863
• Model for reinstatement of Southern states
• A state could be reintegrated into the Union
when 10% of the 1860 vote count from that state
had taken an oath of allegiance to the U.S. and
pledged to abide by emancipation.
• Next step in the process would be for the states
to formally elect a state government
• State legislature could write a new constitution,
but it also had to abolish slavery
Wade-Davis Bill of 1864
• Written by Radical Republicans who felt that
Lincoln was being too lenient
• Made re-admittance to the Union for former
Confederate states contingent on a majority in
each Southern state to take the Ironclad oath
• Lincoln used a pocket veto to kill the bill
Radical Republicans
• Loose faction of American politicians within the
Republican Party from about 1854 (before the
American Civil War) until the end of
Reconstruction in 1877.
• Strongly opposed slavery during the war and
after the war distrusted ex-Confederates,
demanding harsh policies for Reconstruction
• Opposed by the Democratic Party and usually by
moderate and Liberal Republicans
Thaddeus Stephens
Leader of the Radical
Republicans
Most outspoken in
condemnation of the
Confederacy and slavery
Largely responsible for
using the military to
control Reconstruction
Died in 1868
Ironclad Oath
• A person had to swear he had never borne arms
against the Union or supported the Confederacy
• Unpopularity among ex-Confederates led them
to nickname the oath "The Damnesty Oath."
Freedman’s Bureau
• March 3, 1865 becomes the law
• Purpose was to aid freedmen and white refugees
• Provide food, clothing, fuel, and advice on
negotiating labor contracts
• Attempt to oversee new relations between
freedmen and their former masters in a free
labor market.
Andrew Johnson
• 17th President
• Known primarily for the non enforcement and
defiance of Reconstruction laws passed by the
U.S. Congress
• Ordered that confiscated or abandoned lands
administered by the Freedman's Bureau would
not be redistributed to the freedmen but be
returned to pardoned owners.
Andrew Johnson
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
• President Johnson notified Congress on
February 21, 1868, that he had removed Edwin
Stanton as Secretary of War and replaced him
with Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas
• Takes the House of Representatives only three
days to impeach him for "high crimes and
misdemeanors” (Tenure of Office Act)
• Stanton refused to abandon his office and had
Thomas arrested for attempting to exercise the
duties of the Secretary of War.
The Trial
• Senate trial, which he did not attend, began on
March 23
• Presided over by Chief Justice Salmon B. Chase
• There were eleven articles of impeachment.
• On May 16, the Senate voted on the eleventh
article, which included many of the charges
contained in the preceding articles
• Johnson was acquitted by one vote; the 35-19
count was just short of the necessary two-thirds
majority.
First Reconstruction Act/Mar 2, 1867
• AKA Military Reconstruction Act
• South was divided into five military districts,
each under a major general.
• Act included an amendment that offered
readmission to the Southern states after they
had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment and
guaranteed adult male suffrage
• President Johnson immediately vetoed the bill
but Congress re-passed the bill the same day.
2nd Reconstruction Act/Mar 23, 1867
• First Reconstruction Act left the Southern States in
confusion to whose role it was to reinforce the
legislation
• Second Act established and clarified that the
military commanders held responsibility to register
voters and hold elections in their territories
• Required that every voter recite the registration oath
promising their support to the constitution and their
obedience to the law
• Johnson vetoed and Congress overturns
3rd Reconstruction Act/Jul 19 1867
• Gave supreme power to the five Union generals
overseeing Reconstruction in the five districts of
the South
• Generals held the power to remove any official,
elected or otherwise, from office if they believed
the official to impede rather than expedite the
process of Reconstruction
• Widely resented by Southerners who felt that the
North was, yet again, attempting to impose their
will on the former Confederacy.
Carpetbaggers
• It became the term to refer to a Yankee who
moved to the south and usually meant a “damn
Yankee and not to be trusted, a scoundrel”.
• Took advantage of poor conditions to make
money
• The worst Carpetbaggers were the politicians
who used their positions in the corrupt
Reconstruction Government to enrich
themselves through bribes and graft at the
expense of native Southerners.
Scalawags AKA Southern Unionists
• Native white Southern politicians who joined the
Republican party after the war
• Advocated the acceptance and compliance with
congressional Reconstruction
• To most white Southerners, scalawags were an
unprincipled group of traitorous opportunists
• Many scalawags were sincere in their belief that
conformance with the measures of the
Reconstruction Acts was the best and fastest way to
end Reconstruction and return the South to home
rule.
Ku Klux Klan
• Formed in 1866 by Confederate veterans
• “Tennessee social club”
• Most prominent of vigilante groups that used
terrorist methods against recently freed slaves
Election of 1868
• Republicans nominate U.S. Grant
• Democrats nominate Horatio Seymour who had
been governor of New York but was also against
emancipation and for states rights
• Grant receives 500,000 African American votes
• Republicans also keep majorities in both houses
of Congress
• Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia had
not yet ratified the 14th Amendment and were
unable to cast votes in this election
Ulysses S. Grant
18th President of
the U.S.
Grant Administration Scandals
• “Salary Grab”
• Raised presidential and congressional salaries
• Signed in secret with a clause that back paid
congressmen for previous two years
• Eventually, law was repealed and bonuses were
repaid to the Treasury
• “Black Friday”
• Attempt by two financiers to corner the gold
market using Grant’s brother-in-law to get to the
president
Scandals cont
• Credit Mobilier Scandal
• Began during Lincoln’s administration,
continued during Johnson’s, but became news
during Grant’s terms
• Involved the selling of stock and bribes to
congressman in the Union Pacific Railroad
company during construction of
Transcontinental Railroad
Enforcement Acts/1870-71
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Designed to counter racial terrorism
1. Interference with voting a federal offense
2. Federal supervision of voting
3. President could send troops and suspend writ
of habeas corpus (declare martial law)
Ku Klux Klan Act:
Made violence against civil and political rights a
federal crime
Hundreds of Klan members prosecuted
Election of 1872, Grant easily re-elected
Civil Rights Act of 1875
• Outlawed racial discrimination in theaters,
hotels, railroads (Other places as well)
• On the surface, appeared to be an attempt by the
federal government to intervene in southern
affairs
• In substance, it was difficult to enforce
• Required African Americans to sue in federal
courts:
• Expensive and took a lot of time
Redemption of South
• Control of southern states back to Democrats
• By 1874, Democrats regain a majority in the
House of Representatives
• Blamed republicans for financial crisis in the
South
• Between 1869 and 1877, Democrats regained
control (Redeemed) of southern state
governments
Supreme Court Rulings
• U.S. v Reese and U.S. v Cruikshank both
1876
• Restrict congressional power to enforce
Ku Klux Klan Act
• Put power to prosecute in the hands of the
state instead of federal authorities
Supreme Court cont
• Ruled that 15th Amendment did not
guarantee a citizen’s right to vote
• Only barred “race, color, or previous
condition of servitude”
• Allowed interpretation of Southern states
to pass laws restricting voter eligibility:
• Poll taxes, literacy tests, property
requirements, Jim Crow laws
Supreme Court cont
• 1883, Supreme Court declares the Civil Rights
Act of 1875 unconstitutional
• 14th Amendment gave Congress power to outlaw
discrimination by states, not private institutions
or individuals
• Majority opinion stated that “black people must
no longer be the special favorite of the law”
• Decisions mark the end of federal attempts to
protect rights of African Americans for decades
Election of 1876
• Republicans run Rutherford B. Hayes, Governor of
Ohio
• Democrats run Samuel J. Tilden, Governor of New
York
• Electoral crisis with accusations of voter fraud
• Tilden received 250,000 more popular votes & 184
E.C. votes (1 short of 185 needed)
• 20 disputed E.C. votes from Florida, Louisiana,
South Carolina, and Oregon
• Southern states had turned in two sets of E.C. votes
January 1877
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Congress establishes an Electoral Commission
5 Senators, 5 House of Reps, and 5 S.C. justices
8 Republicans, 7 Democrats
All E.C. votes went to Hayes
Compromise of 1877
More money for southern improvements
Appoint a southerner to Hayes cabinet
Noninterference in southern affairs (Home rule)
End of Reconstruction
• After Hayes takes office, he orders removal of
last remaining federal troops in the South
• “Home rule” ended Republican help to freed
people
• Effectively nullified 14th and 15th Amendments
• African Americans denied most rights until what
is known as the 2nd Reconstruction:
• Civil Rights movement