Following Lincoln’s Assassination (April 14th, 1865),
Andrew Johnson, a Southern Democrat, became president
We must continue
Lincoln’s policy of
“malice towards none”
Loyalty
Oaths
10% Plan
Presidential pardons for
high ranking
Confederates and wealthy
southerners
Allow former
Confederates to keep
their personal property
Johnson would appoint
provisional governors
after goals were met:
What were
these goals,
you ask?
- 10% Plan was met
- State Constitution
guaranteed respect of
the 13th Amendment
- Plans to continue Lincoln’s policy of “malice towards none”
- Respected Loyalty Oaths and 10% Plan
- Presidential Pardon required for high ranking Confederate officials
and wealthy southerners
- Former Confederates could keep property
- Executive (Johnson) would appoint provisional governor after goals
were met
- 10% Plan met
- Establish State Constitution respecting 13th Amendment (end
of slavery)
- Union troops stationed in the south to guarantee smooth transition
Established in Southern state constitutions
to severely restrict the rights of freed blacks
Known as
“Jim Crow Laws”
after
Reconstruction
Prohibits slavery
in the United States
The Freedmen’s Bureau was
established to provide:
And…
Forty acres and a mule.
This part never really happened.
Hooray Freedmen’s Bureau! We
should pass some legislation to
continue the program
indefinitely!
Veto!
Suckers!
2/3 majority
override fool!

- Black Codes established in Southern state constitutions
- Severely restricted rights of blacks
- Known as Jim Crow….
- 13th Amendment ratified: ends slavery
- Freedmen’s Bureau
- Distributed land and supplied food, teachers, legal aid, and
horses to freed slaves
- Congress passes legislation to extend the organization’s
existence indefinitely
- Johnson vetoes
- Congress overrides veto
We don’t want you running
Reconstruction anymore!
We are establishing a Joint
Committee to control
Reconstruction!

Guess what else! We
are going to pass this
CRAZY law called the
Civil Rights Act!
?
Except Native Americans
2/3 majority
override fool!
Veto!
Suckers!
No ex-Confederate
may hold office without
Congressional Pardon
(2/3 majority) and no
compensation for
lost property (slaves)
Andrew Johnson
decided that Congress
was basically a bunch of
meanies so he decided
to go on a speaking tour
promoting a kinder,
gentler Lincolnesque
Reconstruction.
This made Congress
hate him even more than
they already did!
- Congressional Joint Committee established to take over Reconstruction from the
executive
- Civil Rights Act passed over presidential veto
- Full citizenship to all persons born in the U.S. except Native
Americans
- Supposed to guarantee blacks the same rights as whites
- 14th Amendment ratified
- Citizenship for blacks; overturned Dred Scott decision
- Permanent constitutional protection of civil rights for all citizens
Some groups in the South worked hard to
limit the rights of Freedmen
Ex-Confederate soldiers led by former
General Nathan Bedford Forest unite and
begin brutal attacks on Freedmen
Voting became a privilege for the rich again
Dividing districts to decrease black representation
Wealthy landowners give supplies to
Freedmen in exchange for a % of the crop
Freedmen were forever indebted to
the landowner - Defacto Slavery
1867
- No compensation to former slave holders…
- Southern resistance to Reconstruction increased
- Ku Klux Klan
- Established by former Confederate General
Nathan Bedford Forest
- Joined by many southerners, especially former
Confederates
- Goal was to terrorize blacks and ensure white
supremacy
- Poll Taxes
- Kept free blacks and poor farmers from voting
- Voting became a privilege for the wealthy
- Gerrymandering
- Organizing voting districts to limit representation of
blacks and Republicans
- Sharecropping
- Wealthy landowners gave supplies to Freedmen in
exchange for a percentage of crop
- Freedmen indebted to landowner
- Impossible to break out of the cycle: defacto slavery
We can override any
presidential veto!
HUZZAH!
Senate
42 Republicans
11 Democrats
House
143 Republicans
49 Democrats
- Veto-Proof Congress
- Republicans held advantage in Congress
- Senate: 42 Republicans, 11 Democrats
- House: 143 Republicans, 49 Democrats
- Could override any presidential veto (requires
a 2/3 majority of Congress)
Note that TN is excluded
because it has already
approved the 14th Amendment
and been readmitted as a state
The south was divided
into military zones of control
- New Constitutional Convention had to be
called; no ex-Confederates allowed
- Had to approve the 14th Amendment
- No ex-Confederates could vote without a
Congressional pardon
- First Reconstruction Act
- South divided into military zones (except TN
which had ratified the 14th and was readmitted)
- New qualifications for reentry of states
established
- New Constitutional Convention had to be
called; no ex-Confederates allowed
- Had to approve the 14th Amendment
- No ex-Confederates could vote without a
Congressional pardon
How about instead of
bickering with him we
just impeach the jerk!
But he hasn’t really
violated any laws…
Who cares?
We still don’t like him!
Well…maybe we can
find another way to
screw him over!
Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act
The president could not remove his own Cabinet
appointments without Congressional approval
That doesn’t make
any sense!
I think I will test
their mettle…
maybe I will fire a
Lincoln appointee:
Secretary of War
Edwin Stanton
- Johnson Impeachment (1st Attempt)
- Fall 1867 - House Judiciary Committee brought a bill
of impeachment against Johnson
- Charges were not legal arguments so much as they
were a list of complaints
- Vote for trial failed: 108-57
- Tenure of Office Act
- prohibited the President from dismissing any Cabinet
member without Congressional approval
- Johnson decided to test the act by firing
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was a pretty important guy
So…when Andrew
Johnson fired him he
refused to leave
office...knowing
Congress and the
Radical Republicans
would support him!
Let’s try to
impeach that
jerk…again!
For violating
the Tenure
of Office
Act?
Can you
even do
that?
- Stanton refused to leave after being dismissed by Johnson
- Congress claimed Johnson violated the Tenure of Office Act
- Johnson Impeachment (2nd Attempt)
- House brought charges of impeachment for violation of
Tenure of Office Act
- Questionable whether it was an impeachable offence and if
the law was Constitutional
- Johnson may not have technically violated the act
as Stanton was a Lincoln appointment
- Wording of the law was unclear on that point
- 1926 the Supreme Court ruled the Tenure of Office
Act was not Constitutional
Guilty
35
35
35
Not Guilty
19
19
19
PHEW!
Darn!
Radical Republican
Senator Benjamin Wade
I wanted to be
president!
- Three separate votes held in Senate
- Each time, vote was the same
- 35 voted Guilty
- 19 voted Not Guilty
- 2/3 majority required; 1 vote short each time
- Guilty verdict would have set a dangerous precedent:
removal of president for political differences not “high crimes
or misdemeanors”
General Grant rode his
status as a military hero
to the presidency in the
election of 1868.
As a symbol of the Union
victory, and a staunch
opponent of Andrew
Johnson, Americans
hoped he would lead
Reconstruction with the
same strength and vigor
with which he led the
Union Army.
He did neither…
in fact, he did
just about
nothing!
Grant’s administration was filled
with corruption…and rather than
fight that corruption he pretty
much let it happen…
- General Ulysses S. Grant (Republican)
elected president (1869-1877)
- Administration filled with corruption,
especially among his appointees
- Grant never took a firm stand against
the corrupt official, even after their guilt
was firmly established
-Grant apparently never profited from the
corruption
The 15th Amendment – Voting rights for all citizens
But…what if
the South will
not follow the
newly passed
laws?
Aha!!
The
Enforcement
Act!
The Federal government
could use troops to protect
citizens from terror.
This began the downfall of
the Ku Klux Klan.
- 15th Amendment ratified
- Right to vote guaranteed to all citizens
- Enforcement Act
- Violators of 14th and 15th Amendments could be prosecuted
- Force Acts
- Federal government could use troops to protect citizens from terror
- Began the downfall of the KKK
Despite the Force Act, in the South lynchings were rarely prosecuted.
When they were, they often failed in the face of all white juries in racist towns.
The KKK Act
made it illegal to
dress up and
terrorize citizens.
It also gave
control of lynching
trials to the
federal
government
which eliminated
the problems of
state enforcement
and allowed for
multi-racial juries.
The KKK disappeared until around 1915
when a strong resurgence occurred
- Ku Klux Klan Act
- Lynchers were rarely prosecuted
- Prosecutions often failed: all white juries
- Made it illegal to dress up and terrorize citizens
- Gave control of lynching trials to the federal government
- Eliminated problems with state enforcement
- Allowed for multi-racial juries within federal courts
- KKK disappeared until around 1915
Northern politicians who went
south to fill political jobs
Southern Republicans who
supported Reconstruction
- Democrats visited Republican political rallies and incited riots
- During riots, “Rifle Clubs” gunned down innocents and political leaders
WOW!
This is
getting bad!
- The Mississippi Plan
- Widespread terror against
- Blacks
- Carpetbaggers (Northern Republicans who went South to work)
- Scalawags (Southern Republicans who supported Reconstruction)
- Democrats visited Republican political rallies and incited riots
- During riots, “Rifle Clubs” gunned down innocents and political
leaders
- Turned an 1874 election Republican majority of 30,000 to a Democratic
majority of about the same number in 1875
- President Grant refused to send in federal troops; feared being accused of “bayonet
rule”
- Plan mirrored by other Southern states
Samuel J. Tilden (D) v. Rutherford B. Hayes (R)
Hayes, a northerner, lost the popular election to Tilden
With 20 electoral votes still to count, Tilden needed only one to win
Sorry Mr. Tilden, I have promised this dance to Mr. Hayes
There were accusations of
impropriety in the South (mostly
as a result of the Mississippi
Plan) and all of the votes were
initially given to Hayes.
Later, those votes were all
tossed out and a special
committee composed of 8
Republicans and 7 Democrats
was formed to decide the
elections.
Clearly, Hayes had an advantage.
- Hayes elected president on the guarantee
that he would not run for reelection
- Union troops removed from the South
- Southerners allowed to handle race
relations as they saw fit
The Irish, Southerner,
and northern Big Business
coming together to keep
down the black population
- Election of 1876 - Samuel J. Tilden (D) v. Rutherford B. Hayes (R)
- Conflict:
- Hayes (Northerner) lost the popular election to Tilden (Southerner)
- With 20 electoral votes still to count, Tilden needed only one to win
- Accusations of impropriety in the Southern states (Mississippi Plan)
- All votes given to Hayes
- Later, votes were tossed out
- Special committee was formed to decide:
8 Republicans, 7 Democrats
- Compromise of 1876:
- Hayes elected President but would not run for reelection
- Union troops removed from the South
- Lack of troops meant little protection for
African-Americans in South
- Southerners could handle race relations as they saw fit
- Ended Reconstruction - North was tired of Reconstruction anyway; not
working out very well