RECONSTRUCTION
1865-1877
PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION
1. Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan
 Lincoln suggested a basis for Reconstruction in a
Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction issued on
December 8, 1863.
 His Ten Percent Plan proposed a generous settlement.
Lincoln offered a full pardon (except for high ranking
Confederate leaders) to Southerners who pledged loyalty
to the Union and to the Constitution. Southern states in
which 10 percent of the 1860 electorate took such an
oath and accepted emancipation would be restored to
the Union.
PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION
 Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan
 Lincoln concluded his Second Inaugural Address by
promising “malice toward none, with charity for all.”
He pledged “to bind up the nation’s wounds” and
strive for “a just and lasting peace among ourselves
and with all nations.” We will never know if Lincoln
could have fulfilled his inspiring pledge. Just over a
month later, John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln
while he was watching a play at Ford’s Theater in
Washington.
PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION
2. Johnson’s Plan
 Lincoln’s tragic death placed the burden of
reconstructing the South on the untested
shoulders of his former Vice-President,
Andrew Johnson.
 Johnson issued his own Reconstruction Plan
in May, 1865. Like Lincoln, Johnson offered
amnesty to most Confederates who took an
oath of loyalty to the Union. High officials
and wealthy planters had to apply for a
presidential pardon. Whites in each
Southern state could then elect delegates to
a state convention. The convention had to
repeal all secession laws, repudiate (take
back) Confederate war debts, and ratify the
Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery.
PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION
3. Southern resistance
 All of the Southern states soon complied with Johnson’s plan. Moderate
Republicans hoped the restored governments would act responsibly and treat
their former slaves fairly. That did not happen. Resentful and intransigent
(unyielding) white Southerners called for a renewal of laws to control the freed
black population.
 Newly elected state legislatures promptly enacted laws known as Black Codes
designed to limit the rights of the newly freedmen. The codes circumscribed
(limited) the socioeconomic opportunities open to black people. For example,
the codes barred blacks from owning land, marrying whites, and carrying
weapons. They were forced to return to farm labor under conditions
reminiscent of slavery.
PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION
 Southern resistance
 Racial tensions soon erupted into violent riots in Memphis and New Orleans. Mob
violence in these cities claimed the lives of 80 African Americans and 5 whites.
Rioter looted and burned hundreds of black homes, churches, and schools.
 The new Johnson state governments provided further evidence that the South
remained unrepentant. When Congress reconvened in December 1865, a large
number of former Confederate politicians and military officers were waiting to take
seats in the House and Senate.
RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION
1. Congress versus President Johnson
 The Republican-dominated Congress refused to admit the senators and representatives elected
by the Southern states., Congress formed a Joint Committee on Reconstruction.
 The Committee recommended a Civil Rights Act to clarify the rights of freed slaves. The act
states that blacks were citizens who had the same civil rights as those enjoyed by whites.
Congress passed the bill in March 1866.
 Johnson vetoing the bill. He claimed it was an unwarranted extension of federal power that
would “foment discord among the races.”
 Johnson’s veto galvanized (energized) the Republicans. They successfully overrode the
presidential veto. This marked the first time Congress had prevailed over a veto of a major
piece of legislation. It also marked the beginning of a two-year struggle between Congress and
President Johnson that ended with an impeachment
trial.
RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION
2. The Fourteenth Amendment
 The Republican majority in Congress feared that Johnson would not
enforce the Civil Rights Act. They also worried that the courts would
declare the law unconstitutional. These concerns prompted Congress to
pass the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution in June 1866.
 The Fourteenth Amendment overturned the Dred Scott decision by
declaring that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States…are
citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION
 The Fourteenth Amendment
 The amendment also gave the federal government responsibility for
guaranteeing equal rights under the law to all Americans. The
amendment prohibited the states from depriving “any person of life,
liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any
person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws.”
 The Fourteenth Amendment intensified the struggle for power
between President Johnson and Congress. Saying that blacks were
unfit to receive “the coveted prize” of citizenship, Johnson urged
state legislatures in the South to reject the amendment. He also
vigorously campaigned Congressional candidates who supported his
policies. Johnson’s strategy backfired. Outraged voters repudiated
the President’s policies by giving the Republicans a solid two-thirds
majority in both houses of Congress.
RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION
3. The Radical Republicans
 The victorious Republicans returned to Congress in
an angry and determined mood. Led by
Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and
Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, the Radicals now
controlled Congress. They were resolved to punish
the former Confederate states and protect the rights
of black citizens.
 The Reconstruction Act of 1867 eliminated the state
governments created by Johnson’s plan. It divided the
South into five military districts, each under the
command of a Union general. In order to be
readmitted into the Union, a state had to approve the
Fourteenth Amendment and guarantee black suffrage.
 The growing rift between the Radical Republicans and
the President deepened when Johnson vetoed the
Reconstruction Act. Congress immediately overrode
his veto.
RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION
4. The impeachment crisis
 Although he had been rejected by the electorate and humiliated by Congress, Johnson remained
defiant. He undermined the Radical program by appointing generals who obstructed the
implementation of the Reconstruction Act.
 Congress escalated the crisis by passing the Tenure of Office Act. It required Senate consent for the
removal of any official whose appointment had required Senate confirmation. Convinced that the law
was unconstitutional, Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, a leading Radical Republican ally.
 To no one’s surprise, Johnson’s provocative action prompted the Radicals to pass a resolution
declaring that the President should be impeached. On February 24, 1868 the Republican-dominated
House of Representatives impeached Johnson for “high crimes and misdemeanors in office,” that
included violating the Tenure of Office Act. After a tense trial, the Senate failed to convict Johnson by
one vote.
 Although Johnson escaped conviction, the trial crippled his presidency. Ten months later, voters sent
the Union war hero Ulysses S. Grant to the White House. The Republicans completed their
overwhelming victory by retaining two-thirds majorities in both houses of Congress.
THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT
 The Fifteenth Amendment marked the last of
the three Reconstruction Amendments.
Ratified on February 3, 1870, it forbade either
the federal government or the states from
denying citizens the right to vote on the basis
of “race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.”
 The Fifteenth Amendment enabled African
Americans to exercise political influence for
the first time. Freedmen provided about 80
percent of Republican votes in the South.
Over 600 blacks served as state legislators in
the new state governments. In addition, voters
elected 14 blacks to the House of
Representatives and 2 to the Senate. Black
voters supported the Republican Party loyally
casting votes that helped elect Grant in 1868
and 1872.
FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT
 While African Americans celebrated the passage
of the Fifteenth Amendment, leading women’s
rights activists felt outraged and abandoned. They
angrily demanded to know why the suffrage was
granted to ex-slaves but not to women. Julia
Ward Howe and other leaders of the women’s
suffrage movement finally accepted that this was
“the Negro’s hour.” However, both Susan B.
Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton actively
opposed passage of the Fifteenth Amendment.
 It is important to note that the South would soon
find ways to circumvent (evade, get around) the
amendment. For example, property qualifications,
poll taxes, and literacy tests all denied blacks the
vote without legally making skin color a
determining factor.
FROM SLAVE TO SHARECROPPER
 The Civil War brought freedom to the slaves.
However, Reconstruction brought few freedmen the
“4o acres and a mule” promised by zealous reformers.
Many former slaves stayed on their old plantations
because they could not afford to leave.
 During the late 1860s, cotton planters and black
freedmen entered a new labor system called
sharecropping. Under this system, black (and
sometimes white) families exchanged their labor for
the use of land, tools, and seed. The sharecropper
typically gave the landowner half of the crop as
payment for using his property.
 In addition to being in debt to the landlord,
sharecroppers had to borrow supplies from local
storekeepers to feed and clothe their families. These
merchants then took a lien or mortgage on the crops.
 Sharecropping did not lead to economic independence.
Unscrupulous (unprincipled) merchants often charged
sharecroppers exorbitant (excessively high) prices and
unfair interest rates. As a result, the freedmen became
trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of debt and
poverty.
THE COLLAPSE OF RECONSTRUCTION
1. The Ku Klux Klan
 Southerners bitterly resented governments imposed by Radical Republicans that repealed
Black Codes and guaranteed voting and other civil rights to African Americans.
 The years immediately following the Civil War witnessed the proliferation of white
supremacist organizations. The Ku Klux Klan began in Tennessee in 1866 and then quickly
spread across the South. Anonymous Klansmen dressed in white robes and pointed cowls
used whippings, house-burnings, kidnappings, and lynchings to keep blacks “in their place.”
 The Klan’s reign of terror worked. Without the support of black voters, Republican
governments fell across the South. By 1876, Democrats replaced Republicans in eight of
the eleven former Confederate states. Only South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida
remained under Republican control.
THE COLLAPSE OF RECONSTRUCTION
2. The erosion of Northern interest
 Radical Republicans had long been the driving force behind the
program to restructure Southern society. Sympathy for the
freedmen began to wane (fade) as these leaders died or left office.
A new generation of “politicos” began to focus their attention on a
series of issues that included Western expansion, Indian wars, tariffs,
and railroad construction.
 President Grant showed little enthusiasm for Reconstruction. His
administration soon became distracted by scandals and charges of
corruption. In addition, a business panic followed by a crippling
economic depression further undermined public support for
Reconstruction.
THE COLLAPSE OF RECONSTRUCTION
3. The Compromise of 1877
 Disillusioned voters looked to the 1876 presidential election for a return to honest
government. The Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes, an Ohio governor
untarnished by the scandals of the Grant administration. The Democrats countered
by nominated Samuel Tilden, a New York governor who earned a reputation as a
reformed by battling Boss Tweed.
 Tilden won a convincing victory in the popular vote and 184 of the 185 votes needed
for the election. However, both parties claimed 19 disputed electoral votes in
Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and one in Oregon.
THE COLLAPSE OF RECONSTRUCTION
 The Compromise of 1877
 Congress created an electoral commission to determine which
candidate would receive the disputed electoral votes. As tensions
mounted, Democratic and Republican leaders reached an agreement
known as the Compromise of 1877. The Democrats agreed to
support Hayes. In return, Hayes and the Republicans agreed to
withdraw all federal troops from the South, appoint at least one
Southerner to a cabinet post, and support internal improvements in
the South.
 The Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction. The Republican
governments in Louisiana and South Carolina quickly collapsed as
Southern Democrats proclaimed a return to “home rule” and white
supremacy.