Download Isha Gulati

Isha Gulati
US History
Chapter 16 Midterm Review Sheet




Reconstruction: An Unfinished Revolution 1865-1877 Introduction
o Civil war and its aftermath wrought unprecedented changes in
American society, law, politics
o Underlying realities of economic power, racism, and judicial
conservatism limited Reconstruction’s revolutionary potential
o Andrew Johnson was Lincoln’s successor fought with Congress over
shaping of Reconstruction policies
o Johnson was a foe of South’s wealthy planters and he was tough on
them, his policies changed direction however by pardoning rebel
leaders and allowing them to occupy high offices and returning the
plantations to their original owners
o Johnston imagined a rapid restoration of the South to the Union rather
than the fundamental reconstruction that Republican congressmen
wanted
o Struggle between republican congressmen and president in Congress
o Adopted 14 and 15 amendments
o 1869 Ku Klux Klan employed extensive terror to thwart
Reconstruction and undermine black freedom
o Industrial growth accelerated
o Political corruption became a nationwide scandal, bribery was a way
of doing business
Wartime Reconstruction
o Idea of reconstruction raised questions such as how the nation would
be restored and southern states and leaders treated
o Issues
 Who would rule in the south once it was defeated?
 How to repay debt?
 Who would rule in the fed government- Congress or president?
 What were the dimensions of black freedom and what rights
under law would freedmen have?
 Would Reconstruction be a preservation of the old republic or a
second revolution, a reinvention of a new republic?
Lincoln’s 10 Percent Plan
o Lincoln never had been anti southern
o Planned for a swift and moderate reconstruction, wanted to assure
those governments are on his side
o proposed to replace majority rule with loyal rule as a way of
reconstructing southern state governments
o Proposed pardoning of all ex Confederates except highest ranking
military and civilian officers
o As soon as 10 percent of the voting population in the 1860 election in
a state had taken an oath and established a government, the new state
would be recognized
o Did not consult congress with this plan
Congress and the Wade Davis Bill- named for it is sponsors Senator
Benjamin Wade of Ohio and Congressmen Henry W. Davis



o Congress did not like Lincoln’s actions b/c hadn’t been consulted
o Radical republicans thought it was a mockery of democracy because it
was just 10% of population and not majority, called them Lincoln
governments
o Thaddeus Stevens of PA and Charles Sumner believed that secession
had destroyed the status of southern states as states and therefore they
must be treated as conquered foreign lands
o Wade Davis Bill emerged with 3 specific conditions for southern
readmission
 Demanded a majority of white male citizens participating in
the creation of a new gov’t
 To vote or be a delegate to constitutional conventions, men had
to take an iron clad oath and declare they had never aided the
Confederate war effort
 All officers above the rank of lieutenant and all civil officials
in the Confederacy would be disfranchised and deemed not
citizens of the US
 There was very little southerners could do to qualify for this
 Lincoln pocket vetoed the bill
o Two different views
 Lincoln saw reconstruction as a means of weakening the
confederacy and winning the war
 radicals saw it as a transformation of the political and racial
order of the country
Thirteenth Amendment
o Two provisions
 Abolished involuntary servitude everywhere in the US
 Declared that Congress shall have power to enforce this
outcome by appropriate legislation
o Elizabeth Stanton, Susan B Anthony, and women’s loyal nation league
submitted a petition for a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery
o Logic of winning the war by crushing slavery and securing a new
beginning for the nation
Freedmen’s Bureau
o Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned
Lands-the Freedmen’s Bureau
o Agency of social uplift necessitated by the devastation of war
o Supplied good and medical services, built over 4000 Freedmen’s
Bureau Schools and some colleges, negotiated many employment
contracts between freedmen and their former masters and tried to
manage confiscated land
o War forced into the open the question: what are the social welfare
obligations of the state toward its people and what do people owe their
governments in return
o First social agency that US had ever gotten involved in, before it was
more private institutions
The Feel of Freedom
o For former slaves reconstruction mean a chance to explore freedom
o Many chose to react more cautiously and shrewdly, many of them
know do not know what to do so end up staying on plantations




o Slaves had learned to expect hostility from white people and did not
believe it would instantly disappear
o Majority of blacks settled as agricultural workers back on their former
farms or plantations
o To avoid contact with overbearing whites who were used to
supervising them, blacks left the slave quarters and went to distant
corners of land they worked
o Others founded small all black settlements along the back roads of the
South
Reunion of African American Families
o Former slaves devoted themselves to reunited their families which
were separation during slavery and war
o Thousands embarked on odysseys in search of a husband, wife, child,
or parent, some succeeded some failed
o Husbands and wives established homes together for the first time and
asserted the right to raise their own children and not listen to old
masters
Freedpeople’s Desire for Land
o Freed men and women most wanted land
o This was going to be hard because no money, nor credit from bank
o Land was a sign of self sufficiency and a chance to gain compensation
for generations of bondage
o 1865 General Sherman ordered 400,000 acres in the Sea Islands region
set aside for the exclusive settlement of freedpeople
o president Johnson ordered them removed in October and returned the
land to the original owners
o most members of both political parties opposed land redistribution to
freedmen
The Black Embrace of Education
o Blacks were eager for education as a way to better themselves
o Started schools and filled classrooms with log seats and dirt floors
o Studied old almanacs and discarded dictionaries
o Government and northern reformers helped these Freedmen’s Bureau
Schools
o 600,000 African Americans enrolled in elementary school by 1877
o American missionary association Founding of Afro-American
Colleges including Fisk and Atlanta Universities, Howard University
o During reconstruction, African American leaders were highly
educated, many were prewar elite of free people of color and blood
relatives of wealthy whites, some planters gave their mulatto children
with good education
 Francis Cardozo- held various offices in South Carolina,
attended universities in Scotland and England
 Blanche K Bruce and Hiram Revels- two black senators from
Mississippi, had privileged educations, self educated former
slaves
Growth of Black Churches
o Secret churches of slavery came into the open now that slaves were
free





o Independent branches of Methodist and Baptist denominations
attracted majority of black Christians in South
Rise of the Sharecropping System
o Freed blacks preferred renting the land they worked because they
lacked money to buy land
o But south had cash poor economy with few sources of credit so instead
black farmers and white landowners turned to sharecropping,
Paternalistic approach
o farmers kept part of their crop and gave the rest to the landowner
while living on his property
o Blacks accepted it because it gave them more freedom from daily
supervision, they were allowed to farm their own plot of land in family
groups
o Problems
 Landowners tried to set the laborers share at a low level
 Sharecropping system eased landowners problems with cash
and credit, furthered dependence blacks had on whites
 owners and merchants developed a monopoly of control over
agricultural economy and sharecroppers developed an ever
increasing debt
Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan
o Many believed Johnson would deal harshly with the South because he
had always criticized wealthy planters and championed small farmers
Andrew Johnson
o No formal education, became a tailor’s apprentice
o He held nearly every office in Tennessee politics
o Two terms as governor
o Was a U.S. Senator by 1857
o Only senator from a seceded state who refused to follow his state out
of the Union
o Lincoln appointed him war governor of Tennessee in 1862, hence his
symbolic place on the ticket in the president’s bid for reelection in
1864
o Staunch Unionist, also ardent states’ rightist, advocated limited
government
o More of a Jacksonian Democrat
o Johnson put into operation his own plan, forming new state
governments in the South by using his power to grant pardons
o Johnson declared Reconstruction complete 8 months after Appomattox
Johnson’s Racial Views
o Accepted emancipation as a result of war
o Did not favor black civil and political rights
o White supremacist
o Believed black suffrage could never be imposed on southern state by
the federal government-tension with radicals
o Declared in his annual message of 1867 that blacks possessed less
capacity for government than any other race of people-most racist
comment
Johnson’s Pardon Policy



o White southerners were required to swear an oath of loyalty as a
condition of gaining amnesty or pardon
o Johnson barred several categories of people from taking the oaththose who had truly inflicted damage on North:
 former federal officials, high ranking Confederate officers,
political leaders or graduates of West Point or Annapolis who
had aided the Confederacy, also ex-Confederates whose
taxable property was more than 20,000 dollars
o Johnson called constitutional conventions and appointed provisional
governors who began Reconstruction
o Hold elections to send representatives to Congress
o Delegates chosen for conventions had to draft new constitutions that
eliminated slavery and invalidated secession
o After these were ratified, new gov’ts could be elected, and states
would be restored to the Union with full congressional representation
o Only those southerners who had taken the oath of amnesty and been
eligible to vote on the day the state seceded could participate
Presidential Reconstruction
o Johnson surprisingly pardoned aristocrats and leading rebels
o Rapid return of planters abandoned lands restored the old elite to
power
o Why did Johnson allow the planters to regain power?
 Deny radicals the opportunity for a more thorough racial and
political changes they wanted in the South
 Needed southern support in the 1866 election, south will be
more likely to support congressional candidates
 In favor of whites, wanted to return south to what it was before
Black Codes
o Some legislatures merely revised large sections of slave codes by
substituting the word freedmen for slaves
o New codes compelled the former slaves to carry passes, observe a
curfew, live in housing provided by a landowner, give up hope of
entering many desirable occupations
o Stiff vagrancy laws and restrictive labor contracts bound freedpeople
to plantations
o Seemed to northerners that south was intent on returning African
Americans to servility
The Congressional Reconstruction Plan
o republican majority of congress decided to halt Johnson’s plan
o congress not in session so president has done most of reconstruction
o Challenged president’s authority and established a new direction for
Reconstruction
o Congress refused to accept new representatives who had been elected
by Johnson
o Constitution gave Congress the role in the admission of states
 Congressmen who wanted vigorous Reconstruction argued that
the war had broken the Union and that the South was subject to
victor’s will
 Moderate congressmen believed states had forfeited their rights
through rebellion




 Congress felt that only they had right to readmit states to Union
Radical Republicanism
o Radical Republicans wanted to transform the South, they had clearly
defined goals of democratizing the South, establishing public
education, ensuring rights of freed people, favored black suffrage,
supported land redistribution, willing to exclude the South from the
Union if necessary
Congress vs. Johnson
o 1866 compromise
o Two terms
 Extension of the life of Freedmen’s Bureau for another year
 Passage of a civil rights bill to counteract the black codes
 Civil rights bill of 1866 was the first statutory definition of the
rights of American citizens
 Bill forced southern courts to practice equality before
the law by allowing federal judges to remove from state
courts cases in which blacks were treated unfairly
 Provisions applied to public acts of discriminations
o Johnson vetoed both bills which later became law when Congress
overrode the president’s veto
Fourteenth Amendment-trying to give blacks the vote without coming out
and saying it
o Four parts
 (1) Gave citizenship to the freedmen and prohibited states from
abridging their constitutional privileges and immunities
 (1) Barred any state from taking a person’s life, liberty, or
property without due process of law and from denying equal
protection of the laws powerful guarantees of African
Americans and all other citizens civil rights
 (2) Confederate debt null and void, all southern war debt gone
 (3) Barred Confederate leaders from holding state and federal
office.
 (4) Because emancipation made every former slave a full
person rather than 3/5 of a person, this increased southern
representation, so republicans determined that former slaves
counted as a whole person only if states allowed them to vote
o Specified that voters were male
o Provoked strong reaction from the women’s rights movement
The South and Johnson’s Defiance, 1866
o Johnson did his best to block the 14th amendment in North and South,
urged state legislatures in the South to vote against ratification
o In the north, Johnson boarded at rain that the carried his message into
the Northeast, Midwest, and Washington, he criticized Republicans in
a ranting undignified style, audiences jeered at him, his campaigning
was unsuccessful
o Congressional Elections of 1866
 victory for Republicans in Congress, radicals and moderates
won reelection, Republican majority grew to 2/3 in both houses
of Congress




Republican congressional leaders won a mandate to pursue
their Reconstruction plan
Reconstruction Acts of 1867-1868
o First Reconstruction Act
 Southern states readmitted to the Union
 Union generals commanding small garrisons of troops and
charged with supervising all elections, assumed control in five
military districts in the South
 Breaking south up into 5 military districts, this angers the
South
Confederate leaders designated in 14th amendment were barred
from voting until state constitutions were ratified
 Guaranteed freedmen the right to vote in elections for state
constitutional conventions
 Also, each southern state required to ratify the 14th amendment,
ratify its new constitution by majority vote, and submit it to
Congress for approval
 2nd, 3rd 4th Reconstruction Acts
 provided the details of operation for voter registration
boards, the adoption of constitutions, and the
administration of good faith oaths
Failure of Land Redistribution
o Thaddeus Stevens argued that economic opportunity was essential to
freedmen
 Drew up an extensive confiscation and redistribution of land,
take big plantations and break them apart
 1/10 of land affect by his plan was allocated for freedmen, rest
to be sold to generate money for Union veterans pensions,
compensation to loyal southerners for damaged property, and
payment of federal debt
 all plans failed, didn’t seem right to take land away without
compensation
 northerners opposed any interference with private property
rights by government
Constitutional Crisis
o Congress and Johnson are not able to cooperate at all b/c Johnson is so
stubborn
o To restrict Johnson’s influence, congress passed some controversial
laws
 Limited Johnson’s power over the army by requiring the
president to issue military orders through the General of the
Army, Ulysses S, Grant, who could not be dismissed without
the Senate’s consent
 Tenure of Office Act
 gave the Senate power to approve changes in the
presidential cabinet, violating tradition that president
controlled appointments to his own cabinet
 designed to protect Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton
o did not want president to dismiss him
o he was the central person in the battle



o he was in favor with the Radicals
 These measures passed by a 2/3 override of presidential vetoes
o Johnson’s Response
 Issued orders to military commanders in the South limiting
their powers and increasing the powers of the civil
governments he had created in 1865
 Removed military officers who were enforcing Congress’s new
plan
 Tried to remove Secretary of War Stanton, Congress hoping he
would do this so it would give them grounds to impeach him
Johnson’s Impeachment Trial
o Twice in 1867 House Judiciary Committee had considered
impeachment of Johnson
o Third attempt to impeach him concentrated on his violation of the
Tenure of Office Act
 House and Judiciary Committee first group that deals with
impeachment, you take a vote then it goes to the House
 The house did impeach him, but then it goes to the Senate, who
did not vote to convict him
 This is a good thing because this was a political move, not
really constitutional
 Would have set a bad precedent that anytime party had a 2/3
majority in the House or Senate and disagreed with the
president they could impeach him
o Prosecution attempted to prove that Johnson was guilty of high crime
and misdemeanors
o Majority of senators voted to convict Johnson, prosecution fell one
vote short of the necessary 2/3 majority
Presidential Election of 1868
o Ulysses S. Grant running as Republican, defeated Horatio Seymour, a
New York Democrat
o Grant supported congressional Reconstruction and endorsed black
suffrage in the South
o Democrats denounced Reconstruction
o Blacks voted for Grant
o Grant was an administrator but not as enthusiastic advocate, he
vacillated, sometimes defining Republican regimes and sometimes
favoring Democrats
o Sometimes called out federal troops to stop violence or enforce acts of
Congress
o Never imposed a true military occupation on the South
Fifteenth Amendment
o Radicals passed this
o Forbade states to deny the right to vote on account of race, color, or
previous conditions of servitude
o Second part is that Congress will enforce these rules, asserting
themselves in terms of black suffrage
o Did not guarantee right to vote, vague wording






o Deliberately left states free to restrict suffrage on other grounds so
northern states could continue to deny suffrage to women and certain
groups of men such as Chinese immigrants, illiterates, and poor
The Southern Republican Party
o Consisted of blacks, northerners who had moved south, and native
southern whites who favored change
o New constitutions were more democratic and eliminated property
qualifications for voting and holding office
o Provided for public schools and institutions
o Conventions broadened women’s rights in property holding and divorce
Southern Conservatives
o Whites generally held power
o Blacks made deals with whites saying that if whites held power blacks
would be granted education
o Blacks needed white support
o Whites who controlled southern republican party were reluctant to allow
blacks a share of offices proportional to their electoral strength
Charge of Negro Rule
o Myth that conservative south pushed that blacks will take over and whites
will no longer have power, feared black domination
o Blacks never held that much power
o an effort to try and get people to vote against blacks
Carpetbagger
o Conservative propaganda denounced whites from North as carpetbaggers
who were greedy crooks planning to pour stolen tax revenues into their
sturdy luggage made of carpet material
o Fact was that most northerners sought business opportunities in the south
o Those who entered politics wanted to introduce northern ideas of industry,
public education, the spirit of enterprise
o Most engaged in fraud
o Democrats binned the blame for corruption on carpetbaggers
Scalawag
o Any white southerner who cooperated with the Republicans
o Many of them yeomen farmers who could benefit from opportunities
provided by Republicans, pursued common class interests
o Did not support racial equality
Ku Klux Klan
o Began in Tennessee in 1816
o Terrorist organization
o Wanted to frustrate reconstruction and not grant freedmen rights
o Went after blacks and whites who were supportive of black suffrage
o Advocates of white supremacy, very racist
o Nighttime harassment, whippings, beatings, rapes, murder
o Targeted republicans, killed them
o Attacked union league clubs
o The sites of the worst Klan violence were Alamance and Caswell
Counties
 Slim republican majorities rested on cooperation between black
voters and white yeomen








Wealthy and powerful men who had lost their accustomed political
control organized a campaign of terror
o Successful b/c they weakened republican majority and restored democrat
majority
o In Alabama, 4 blacks dead, 54 wounded
Enforcement Acts (2)
o Congress passed laws that made actions against the civil and political
rights of others a federal criminal offense for the first time
o Provided for election supervisors and permitted martial law and suspended
writ of habeas corpus to combat threats by the Klan
o Federal prosecutors used laws selectively
o Some conservative influential Republicans opposed anti Klan laws, saying
that Congress was infringing on states rights
Liberal Republican Revolt
o Liberal republicans left Republican party and nominated Horace Greeley,
editor of New York Tribune
o Consisted of civil service reformers, foes of corruption, and advocates of
lower tariff
o United view that opposed federal intervention in the south and the elitist
desire to let market forces and best men determine events
o Democrats gave nomination to Greeley
o Grant won reelection, was politically naïve, made corrupt appointments
Amnesty Act of 1872
o Adopted by Congress
o Pardoned most of the remaining rebels, lifted political disabilities of 14
amendment, left 500 barred from political office
Civil Rights Act of 1875
o Purported to guarantee black people equal accommodations in public
places but bill not enforced
o Looks good on paper
o Supposed to accommodate
Panic of 1873
o Five years of economic contraction, 3 million lost jobs, clash between
labor and capital
o Huge economic depression
o For the first time ever there are more industrial workers
o Started with a company in Philadelphia
o Clash between workers and companies
o Tension between businessmen and workers, farmers and workers
o Divisions grew wider, greater extremes of wealth
Ex Parte Milligan
o Lambdin P Milligan of Indiana plotted to free Confederate prisoners of
war and overthrow state governments
o Military court sentenced Milligan to death
o Milligan claimed right to civil trial
o Supreme Court declared that military trials were illegal when civil courts
open
o
o
Slaughter House Cases





o Louisiana legislature granted one company a monopoly on the
slaughtering of livestock in New Orleans
o Rival butchers sued, attorney argued that 14th amendment brought
individual rights under federal protection
o Argument articulated goal of Repub party: nationalize civil rights and
guard them from state interference
o Court declared state citizenship and national citizenship separate
o
o
o
Bradwell vs. Illinois
o Maya Bradwell, female attorney, had been denied the right to practice law
in Illinois because of her gender
o Her attorney stated the state had unconstitutionally abridged her privileges
and immunities as a citizen
o Supreme Court rejected this claim, alluding to women’s traditional role at
home
o Court weakened Reconstruction amendments
o
o
o
U.S. vs. Cruikshank
o Court overruled the conviction under 1870 Enforcement Act of Louisiana
whites who had attacked a meeting of blacks and conspired to deprive
them of their rights
o Justices ruled that 14 amendment did not give the federal government
power to act against these whites
Presidential Election of 1876
o Nation more focused on economics
o Samuel J Tilden, a democratic governor of NY ran strongly in the South
and needed one electoral vote to win over Rutherford b Hayes who was
the Repub nominee
o Both Dems and Repubs claimed to have won in those states
Compromise of 1877
o Congress established a 15 member electoral commission with membership
to be balanced between Democrats and Republicans
o Repubs prevailed 8 to 7
o Democrats acquiesced to Hayes election based on deal made in
Washington hotel between Hayes’ supporters and southerners who wanted
federal aid to railroads and removal of troops from southern states
o Democrats did not contest the election of a Republican who would not
continue Reconstruction
Exodusters
o Disappointed people still searching for their share in the American dream
o Thousands of African Americans moved to Kansas, still don’t get that
much equality there