Chapter 16 Reconstruction Presidential Reconstruction • How should the Southern states be re-admitted into the Union? • Lincoln’s “10 Percent Plan” Southerners could be reinstated as citizens by taking a oath of loyalty When a number equal to 10 percent of those who had voted in 1860 had done so they could set up a state government That government must be a republican form, must recognize freedom of slaves, and provide for education of freed slaves Presidential Reconstruction • Radicals against 10 percent plan – too moderate and gave Lincoln too much power to determine policy in South • Radicals passed Wade-Davis Bill Constitutional conventions in states had to have a majority Those who bore arms against Union were barred from voting States had to repudiate Confederate debt Bill vetoed by Lincoln (just prior to assassination) Lincoln Dead! • After Lee’s surrender, John Wilkes Booth’s plot to kidnap Lincoln changed to assassination • Lincoln was not the only one targetedGeneral Grant, Vice-President Johnson, and Secretary of State Seward were also to be killed Lincoln Dead! Lincoln Dead! Lincoln Dead! Lincoln Dead! Lincoln Dead! Lincoln Dead! Lincoln Dead! Lincoln Dead! Lincoln Johnson John Wilkes Booth George Atzerodt Seward Lewis Powell Grant Lincoln Dead! Mary Surratt was the first woman to be executed by the US government Lincoln Dead! • Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860 and JFK was elected in 1960 • Both were elected to Congress in ’46 (1846 and 1946) • Both had children die in the White House (Willie and Patrick) • Lincoln was shot in Ford’s Theater and JFK was shot in a Ford limousine Lincoln Dead! • Lincoln was killed in a theater and his assassin was caught in a warehouse • JFK was shot from a warehouse and his killer was caught in a theater • Both assassins went by three names: John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald Lincoln Dead! • Both presidents were succeeded by Southern Democrats named Johnson • Both Andrew and Lyndon Johnson were born in ‘08 (1808 and 1908) • Both presidents were shot in the head from behind while seated • Both presidents were shot in the company of their wives Lincoln Dead! • Both presidents were shot on a Friday • Both presidents were shot in the presence of another couple in which the male was also wounded (Rathbone and Connally) • Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy who told him not to go to the theater* • Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln who warned him not to go to Dallas Lincoln Dead! • Both assassins were killed before being brought to trial • A week before his assassination, Lincoln was in Monroe, Maryland* • A week before his assassination, JFK was in Marilyn Monroe* Lincoln Dead! • • • • • Major Rathbone, who, with his fiance Clara Harris, had accompanied the Lincolns to Fords theater, was appointed counsel to Hannover, Germany in 1882 While there, he killed his wife, almost killed his three children, and attempted suicide Rathbone spent the rest of his life in a German insane asylum It is said that Rathbone’s insanity was caused by his sense of failure in stopping Booth In the 1950’s, the bodies of Rathbone and his wife were disposed of by the German cemetery Lincoln Dead! • Robert Lincoln Only Lincoln son to reach adulthood (Edward, Willie, and Tad all died in childhood) Had his mother committed to an insane asylum (she escaped) Was present at the assassination of President Garfield Was present at the McKinley assassination Robert Lincoln Lincoln Dead! Some weeks before his father’s assassination, Robert Lincoln was at the train station A large crowd jostled him and he fell from the platform onto the tracks into the path of an oncoming train Just before he would have been hit and probably killed, a hand reached down and grabbed him, pulling him to safety The man that saved Robert Lincoln was Edwin Booth, older brother of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth Edwin Booth Presidential Reconstruction • Lincoln succeeded by Andrew Johnson Tennessee Unionist Democrat Champion of the small farmer Hated Southern aristocrats which endeared him to Republican radicals thinking he was anti-South Johnson shared South’s views on states’ rights and contempt for blacks Enacted an amnesty program only slightly more rigorous than Lincoln’s By 1865, all Southern states had governments, had ratified the 13th Amendment, and were ready to re-join the Union Republican Radicals • Ultra-radicals wanted complete civil and political equality for blacks • Other Republicans wanted to protect blacks from exploitation and guarantee basic rights but little else • Republicans wary of seating Southern delegates as 3/5 Compromise gone and South could hold majority Republican Radicals • Southern states provoked North by electing representatives from former Confederacy • South provoked North by enacting Black Codes • Johnsonian Reconstruction therefore rejected Congress versus Johnson • Johnson vetoed legislation expanding the Freedmen’s Bureau • Congress passed Civil Rights Act putting teeth in 13th Amendment • Johnson’s veto was overridden – Congress was now in control • Johnson’s behavior alienated many • Radicals demanded extra rights to protect blacks – faced increasing opposition Fourteenth Amendment • Supplied a broad definition of American citizenship • Struck at discriminatory state laws such as Black Codes • If states refused the vote to any adult male, its representation was to be reduced • Former federal officials who had served in the Confederacy were barred from holding state or federal office • The Confederate debt was repudiated The Reconstruction Acts • South unwilling to ratify 14th Amendment • Furious North enacted coercive measures known as the Reconstruction Acts • Divided South into military districts each controlled by a general with neardictatorial powers • Military rule would end only with ratification of the 14th Amendment The Reconstruction Acts • First Reconstruction Act too vague to be workable – South made no effort to follow laws • A Second Reconstruction Act required military to register voters and supervise election of delegates to constitutional conventions • Southerners refused to go to the polls • Georgia last to ratify in 1870 Congress Supreme • Southern resistance to even the mildest forms of reconstruction goaded the North to apply increasingly harsher measures • Johnson’s stubbornness also influenced Republicans • Congress exerted more authority over army, cabinet members, and even Supreme Court (size reduced and jurisdiction limited) Congress Supreme • Johnson refused to submit to Congress reducing executive powers • Johnson violated “Tenure of Office Act of 1867” by removing Sec. War Stanton • Johnson was impeached but escaped conviction by 1 vote • Kept Congress from permanently damaging the power of the executive The Fifteenth Amendment • Grant elected president in 1868 • Radicals wanted to give right of vote to all blacks in all states • Republicans saw black vote as advantageous – 15th Amendment sent to states in 1869 and ratified in 1870 • Amendment to give suffrage to all men regardless of color – women outraged • Suffrage restricted through literacy tests and other measures “Black Republican” Reconstruction • Within five years of emancipation, blacks were exerting real political influence • Real winners were “scalawags” – white Southerners willing to cooperate with Republicans • “Carpetbaggers” – Northerners who went to South to help blacks, serve in federal system, or grab a piece of the pie “Black Republican” Reconstruction • Blacks failed to dominate Southern politics • Most of those who held office were house servants or artisans • Mulattos also fared better politically and socially • Black officials were usually competent and conscientious though there were examples of corruption “Black Republican” Reconstruction • Biggest thieves were white • Despite wasted money, Southern infrastructure was rebuilt • Major contribution made by the Freedmen’s Bureau • Programs enacted under Black Republicans as well as corruption continued under white rule that came later The Ravaged Land • South was never as wealthy as the North – now it was desperately poor due to the destruction of war • Radical Republicans wanted to confiscate plantations and divide land between freed slaves • Land without seed and tools useless • Blacks had to either strike out on their own or work for former masters The Ravaged Land • Black productivity dropped after emancipation • Whites assumed blacks “lazy” • Black family dynamics changed- male authority increased and women moved to child-rearing roles Sharecropping and Crop-Liens • After the war, Southern planters tried farming through gang-labor – failed due to scarce money and black dislike of working under whites • Sharecropping system emerged- planter supplied land, seed, equipment in return for half the crop • Sharecropping gave blacks more control over their lives Sharecropping and Crop-Liens • Poor whites also utilized sharecropping system • Lack of capital forced development of crop-lien system Both landowner and sharecropper depended on local bankers, merchants, storekeepers for everything from seed to coffee and salt Crossroads stores proliferated- prices of goods on credit high Store owners also lacked capital and paid high interest on credit purchases Sharecropping and Crop-Liens • South, drained of resources, had to compete with the West and North for capital • Southern reconstruction achieved at the expense of the standard of living of the producing classes • Progress in South slow: 7,000 miles of track laid in South between 1865-1879, in rest of US 45,000 miles laid • Late 1800’s Southern production revived in cotton, tobacco, textiles White Backlash • Radical Southern governments needed support of whites to maintain power • Support came from wealthy merchants and planters (former Whigs) • Southern white Republicans used the Union League of America to control the black vote White Backlash • Dissident Southerners powerless to oppose the League openly • Secret terrorist societies established such as KKK, White Camelia, and Pale Faces KKK began as social club in 1866 but by 1868 it was taken over by vigilantes trying to drive blacks out of politics Claimed to be ghosts of dead Confederate soldiers When intimidation failed they used violence Congress struck back at the KKK – severely diminishing their influence White Backlash • KKK eroded will of white Republicans and Black voters • Open intimidation and violence erupted with the Red Shirts in Mississippi beginning 1874 • Terrorism against blacks increased white fears of black retaliation • Blacks learned to stay home on election day White Backlash • Northern anger at South diminished over time and “conservative” white governments took over in South • North had little interest in racial equality • Southern idea of the need for the workforce to be disciplined gained ground in the North Grant as President • Stock market crash of 1873 created economic problems for a decade • Controversies over “greenbacks” versus “sound” money • Grant administration and corruption • 1872 election split Republicans between Grant and Greeleyended Republican dominance Election of 1876 • Republican: Rutherford B. Hayes / Democrat: Samuel J. Tilden • Tilden carried enough states to win – Republicans controlling Southern states threw out Democratic ballots so that Hayes “won” • BUT many blacks kept from voting • A commission organized to judge the election was corrupted by both sides • Commission voted for Hayes 8 to 7 Compromise of 1877 • Southern Democrats ready to accept Hayes if he ended military occupation of South • Hayes elected and troops removed • Efforts made by Republicans to find niche in South but South remained solidly Democratic • Compromise ended Reconstruction and began new political order in the South • Blacks would bear the brunt of these changes as the North forgot them and the courts rebuffed them