Reconstruction
1863-1877
UNIT 5
CH.15
Lincoln’s Policies
 Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
 Full presidential pardons to southerners who took an oath of allegiance
and accepted emancipation of slaves.
 State government could be reestablished as soon as 10% of voters took
the oath
 Wade-Davis Bill
 50% of voters had to take oath and only non-Confederates could vote for
a new state Constitution
 Lincoln pocket vetoed the bill
 Freedmen’s Bureau
 Provided food, shelter, and medical care for those made destitute by the
war (black and white)
 Established nearly 3,000 schools for freed blacks
 Lincoln's Last Speech
 Alluded to support for voting rights for blacks
Johnson and Reconstruction
 Johnson’s policy
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Maintain Lincoln’s plan plus disenfranchisement of former
Confederate leaders and confederates with over $20,000 in taxable
property
 Southern governments of 1865
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Ratified the Thirteenth Amendment
Did not extend voting rights to blacks
Former Confederate leaders were elected to Congress
 Black Codes
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Adopted by southern legislatures
Prohibited blacks from renting land or borrowing money to buy land
Forced to sign work contracts
Could not testify against whites in court
Johnson and Reconstruction
 Johnson's vetoes
 Vetoed a bill to increase the services and protection offered by
the Freedmen's Bureau
 Vetoed a civil rights bill that nullified Black Codes and
guaranteed full citizenship and equal rights
 Election of 1866
 Johnson’s campaign speeches appealed to racial prejudices by
suggesting that equal rights for black would mean an
“Africanized” society
 Republicans reminded voters of the hardships of the war and
branded Democrats as rebels and traitors
 Republicans won over 2/3 of the seats in both houses of
Congress
Congressional Reconstruction
 Radical Republicans
 Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, Benjamin Wade
 Supported extended military occupation of the South so blacks
could exercise their rights
 Civil Rights Act of 1866
 Pronounced all black Americans to be U.S. citizens
 Fourteenth Amendment
 All persons born or naturalized in the U.S. were citizens
 States had to respect rights and provided equal protection
under the law and due process
Congressional Reconstruction
 Report of the joint committee
 Congressional report recommending former states of the
confederacy not be allowed representation in Congress.
 Congress possessed the authority of determining when states
could be readmitted
 Reconstruction Acts of 1867
 Placed the south under military occupation
 Increased requirements for readmission into the Union
Ratify 14th Amendment
 Enfranchise all adult males
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Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
 Tenure of Office Act
 Prohibited the president from removing a federal or military
commander without the approval of the Senate
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Radical Republicans didn’t want Edwin Stanton removed form
office
Johnson removes Stanton and is charged with 11 “high crimes
and misdemeanors”
Johnson was impeached but not removed from office
 Election of 1868
 Republicans- Ulysses Grant
 Democrats- Horatio Seymour
Grant Elected
 Fifteenth Amendment
 Prohibited any state from denying or hindering a citizen’s right
to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude”
 Civil rights Act of 1875
 Guaranteed equal accommodations in public places
 Prohibited courts from excluding blacks from juries
 Poorly enforced
Frustrated with trying to reform the South
 Afraid of losing white votes in the North
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Reconstruction Governments
 State Legislatures
 Dominated by Republicans that included native-born white
southerners , freemen, and recently arrived Northerners
 Scalawags and Carpetbaggers
 Nicknames for southern whites who supported Republicans
and the recently arrived Northerners respectively
 Black legislators
 Most were educated property owners
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Hiram Revels took over the Mississippi Senate seat that once
belonged to Jefferson Davis
Disenfranchised ex-Confederates were bitter
Republican Record in the South
 Accomplishments
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Universal male suffrage
Property rights for women
Debt relief
Modernized penal codes
Infrastructure
improvements
State-supported public
school system
hospitals
 Failures
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Graft
Wasteful spending
Kickbacks
bribes
Adjusting to Freedom
 Building black communities
 Black churches and schools were established quickly after the
war
 Black ministers became leading members in the black
community
 Howard, Atlanta, Fisk, and Morehouse Universities were
established
 Sharecropping
 Landlord provided seed and farm supplies in return for a share
of the harvest
 Sharecroppers usually remained dependent on the landowner
Greed and Corruption
 Rise of spoilsmen
 Political manipulators that used the patronage system to gain
wealth and power
 Corruption in business and Government
 Grant’s presidency was notoriously corrupt
 Grant himself was not involved, though he was loyal to people
who were
 Numerous schemes involving cities and companies included
kickbacks, bribes, and the general assumption of wealth at the
taxpayers expense
Election of 1872
 Liberal Republicans and Democrats- nominated
Horace Greeley
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Supported civil service reform, end of railroad subsidies,
withdrawal of troops from the south, reduced tariffs, and free
trade
 Republicans- Ulysses Grant
 Used a technique called “waving the bloody shirt” in which
they reminded the country of the war’s hardships
 Panic of 1873
 Over speculation and overbuilding by railroads led to failed
businesses and a five year depression
End of Reconstruction
 White Supremacy
 Ku Klux Klan- destroy Republican party, aid planters, and
prevent the black community from exercising their political
rights
 Force Acts of 1870 & 1871
 Passed to curb KKK activities and protect the civil rights of
citizens in the South
 Amnesty Act of 1872
 Removed the last of the restrictions on ex-Confederates except
for top leaders
 Allowed Democrats to retake control of Southern legislatures
End of Reconstruction
 Election of 1876
 Republicans- Rutherford B. Hayes
 Democrats- Samuel J. Tilden
 Democrats won the popular vote; votes were contested in 3
southern states and Tilden only need one of those votes to win
in the electoral college
 Compromise of 1877
 Southern Democrats in Congress agreed to accept Rutherford
B. Hayes as president if federal troops were withdrawn and if
the new government would build a southern transcontinental
railroad