The Agony of Reconstruction

 Political process by which the 11 rebel states were restored to a normal constitutional relationship with the 25 loyal states and their national government
 It was the UNION that was to be reconstructed during the 12 years following the Civil War

 There was also a physical reconstruction that needed to take place
 Cities had been burned
 Bridges were gone
 Railroad tracks were missing
 River-borne commerce had dwindled
 Commercial ties with Europe and the North had been snapped
 Fields lay fallow

 On 8 December 1863, Abraham
Lincoln submitted his Proclamation of
Amnesty and Reconstruction or his
10% Solution
 As soon as 10% of voters in any
Confederate state took an oath of allegiance to the Union, the people of that state could organize a government & elect representatives

 The plan excluded
 Confederate government officials
 Military or civil officials who had resigned from Congress or U.S.
Commissions in 1861
Efforts to do this took place in states occupied by Union soldiers
By 1864 Louisiana and Arkansas had complied

 After the war, Tennessee and parts of
Virginia quickly tried to set up Unionist governments
 Congress, however, would not recognize these governments, and the military remained in these states


Congress didn’t like the expansion of presidential powers during the war
 Congress felt there should be a
Congressional Reconstruction Plan

Radical Republicans said Lincoln’s plan made no provisions for freed men

 Radical Republicans came up with a plan of their own called the Wade-
Davis Bill in July of 1864
 Said 50% of all white male citizens had to swear an oath of loyalty to the
Union before reconstruction could begin

 Radical Republicans said
Reconstruction would be designed by
Congress, not by the President
 Lincoln said he had no objections to a
Congressional Plan or to giving blacks who fought in the Civil War the right to vote
 But Lincoln was assassinated in April
1865

 Succeeded Lincoln as president

Had been Lincoln’s Vice President
 Was from Tennessee and an anti-
Confederate
 Because Johnson had not been elected President, he felt that he had to prove himself

 Johnson took over in May, 1865 when
Congress was not in session and would not re-convene until December,
1865
 He wanted to have Reconstruction completed by the time Congress got back

 So Johnson came up with his own plan
 Wanted to re-unite the country as soon as possible
 Formed new governments in the
South by using his power to pardon
 Began pardoning in May, 1865

 Johnson eventually pardoned 13,000
Confederate leaders making it possible for them to hold office and to get their confiscated property back, minus slaves
 This was a switch for Johnson because he had always thought the
South should be punished and have their land confiscated

 Some think Johnson gave in to his vanity; he liked being sought after by former leaders
 When Congress re-convened in
December, 1865, the members were told that reconstruction was completed after only a few months
 13,000 had sworn allegiance and governments had been set up

 The North was dissatisfied with
Johnson’s program
 Felt the election of prominent
Confederates to political office was an act of Defiance by the South
 Practices in the South had not changed
• Newly created Black Codes were identical to Slave Codes

 See handout
 Black Codes convinced northerners that the South was intent upon keeping blacks in a subservient position
 Congress was so outraged by
Johnson that it refused to seat newlyelected Southern Representatives

 At this time Congress was diverse but basically conservative
 Made up of:
 Democrats
 Conservative Republicans
 Moderate Republicans
 Radical Republicans – a minority within their own party

 However, the Radical Republicans were the only ones with a plan
 Wanted to democratize the South
 Establish public education for all
 Ensure the rights of the freed men
• Favored black suffrage
• Supported land confiscation and redistribution

 Radical Republicans were also willing to exclude the South from the Union for several years, if necessary, to achieve their goals
 There was a problem
 Congressional elections were coming up in 1866
 Congress knew it needed to come up with its own Reconstruction Plan fast

 So Republicans formed a coalition to come up with an alternative to
Johnson’s plan
 Ironically, Johnson and the Democrats pushed Congress towards the Radical
Republicans’ ideas by refusing to cooperate with conservative or moderate Republicans

 Conservatives joined with the
Radicals and the result was the 14 th
Amendment

It was to protect blacks’ rights
 See p. 462 for 3 Civil Rights
Amendments
 The 13 th Amendment freed the slaves

 14 th Amendment
 Section 1: declared Confederate debt null and void and guaranteed the war debt of the
U.S.
 Section 2: prohibited political power for prominent Confederates
 Section 3: gave citizenship to freed men and all the rights of a citizen; made sure blacks had due process of law

 Section 4: dealt with representation; the 14 th Amendment did not require states to give blacks the right to vote, but said that states which barred blacks from voting would have their
Congressional representation reduced proportionally



The 14 th Amendment ignored female citizens
This led women’s rights activists to begin fighting for their own right to vote
 Johnson urged states to reject this amendment
 All southern states except Tennessee did so

 The Congressional elections of 1866 was a decisive victory for Republicans
 This showed that the people liked their 14 th Amendment

 Created by Congress before there was a
Reconstruction plan
 Administered by the army
 Provided relief for freed men and some whites in the form of:
 Food, clothing shelter
 Attempted to find jobs
 Set up hospitals & schools
 Eased transition from slavery to free

 Education
 They hungered for education and filled schools

Freedmen’s Bureau founded over
4,000 schools
 Also founded black colleges
For many blacks, education led to election to public office

 Many black families were reunited
 Blacks frequently tried to minimize all contact with whites
 Black neighborhoods and black churches were founded by their choice


In return for the use of another’s land and “furnishings”, the farmer paid the landowner a share of his crops
 Resulted in blacks being cheated and kept in debt
 South continued to grow cotton even though the soil was poor and the market had shrunk

 14 th Amendment passed in June of
1866
 Reconstruction Act passed in 1867
 Governments formed under Andrew
Johnson’s plan dissolved
 The South was partitioned into 5 military provinces
 Map, p. 463

 Constitutional conventions were held
 Had to abolish slavery
 Give the vote to adult black males
 Ratify the 13 th &14 th Amendments
If Congress approved of their work, they would be re-admitted to the Union and to Congress

 Tennessee was immediately readmitted
 1868 – 6 more states were readmitted: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida,
Louisiana, North Carolina, and South
Carolina
 Their delegations to Congress included black representatives

 Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and
Virginia did not wish to give blacks the right to vote, so the military remained there until 1870
 Next, Congress wanted to remove some power from the Executive
Branch because the President’s power had grown during the Civil War

 Congress took partial control of the army away from Andrew Johnson
 Congress tried to enforce the Tenure of Office Act of 1867
 It forbade the President from removing any appointed official who had been confirmed by the Senate without first getting Senate approval

 This was done to keep Johnson from dismissing Secretary of War, Edwin
Stanton, a Radical Republican ally

Stanton’s support would help enforce the Congressional Reconstruction
Acts -- the ones Johnson opposed

 Johnson tried to defy the Tenure of
Office Act when Congress was out of session
 August of 1867, Johnson suspended
Stanton from office
 February of 1868, Johnson dismissed
Edwin Stanton, the only Radical
Republican in his cabinet

 He did this without Senate approval
 Many said that the Tenure of Office
Act did not apply to Johnson because he had inherited Lincoln’s Cabinet
 But the House of Representatives drew up articles of impeachment
(Charges)
 They were passed and a prosecutor was appointed (House Managers)

 The Senate would act as jury
 The Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court presided
 There were 9 articles of impeachment that dealt with the dismissal of
Stanton
 There were 2 articles which dealt with
Johnson’s disrespect of Congress

 Removal of Johnson would need a 2/3 majority vote of the Senate
 That meant
 36 Senators had to vote for conviction
 18 votes were needed for acquittal
The vote was 35 – 19
Johnson remained in office by 1 vote.

 Johnson was impeached but not removed
 1868 was an election year, so they let
Johnson serve out the rest of his time
 He then returned to Tennessee and was elected to the Senate 5 years later
 Andrew Johnson was exonerated in
1920s

 A precedent had been set

You couldn’t impeach someone just on political grounds (you disagree or don’t like him)
 A law must have been broken

 Ulysses S. Grant was elected president first in 1868 and then again in 1872
 Charts, pp. 470 & 474

Grant’s election was followed by the passage of the 3 rd Civil Rights
Amendment, the 15 th Amendment

 15 th Amendment
 forbade states from denying the vote to any person on the basis of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”

 Black voters
 Blacks represented districts and states like Blanche K. Bruce of
Mississippi and Hiram Revels also of
Mississippi -- both were U.S.
Senators; p. 469, picture
 A less savory result was the rise of Ku
Klux Klan – KKK; p. 472

 KKK was founded by a former slave trader and Confederate general,
Nathan Bedford Forrest
 Members would intimidate blacks trying to keep them from voting
 Blacks were at first threatened, then beaten, and too often murdered
(lynched)

 Congress outlawed and suppressed the KKK, but it has never totally gone away
 President Grant would use force to support Reconstruction and the 13 th ,
14 th , & 15 th Amendments but only when absolutely needed

 As the 1870s proceeded, there was less and less support for
Reconstruction
 Other issues were more interesting
 Example: the scandals and corruption in the Grant Administration


During Grant’s first term in office there was scandal surrounding the White
House but none connected with Grant himself
 Grant had appointed relatives and inlaws to offices who used their offices to make money for themselves
 Later grant accepted money from those who expected favors

 Republican: Rutherford B. Hayes
 3 time governor of Ohio
 Moderate on Southern policies
 Favored home rule in the South
 For civil and political rights for all

 Democrat: Samuel J. Tilden
 Governor of New York
 A millionaire
 A lawyer
 A reformer
 Against fraud and waste
 Fiscal conservative

 Tilden won the popular vote by a small margin and the returns from Florida and Louisiana were challenged
 P. 475
 It was a contested election, and in a contested election the House of
Representatives decides the outcome, as per the Constitution

 In the Compromise of 1877, Congress decided the outcome and gave it to
Hayes after a deal was struck between Republican leaders and southern Democrats
 Troops would be withdrawn from the
South
 Some talk of support for southern railroads & internal improvements



Help for blacks was not discussed
Lynchings of blacks increased 1889 –
1899
 An average of 187 blacks were lynched each year for alleged offenses against whites
Segregation laws were passed around the turn of the century ( Jim Crow
Laws)

 1890 – 1910 -- Disenfranchisement of blacks began with literacy tests and other legalized obstacles to voting

Example: “How many bubbles are in a bar of Ivory soap?”
 Poll taxes
 The North and the Federal government did little to help
 Cases, p. 480