CHAPTER 15
The Crises of Reconstruction
1865-1877
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INTRODUCTION
The ending of the Civil War and the
Reconstruction period that followed
constituted a “crucial turning point” in
American history
• Between 1865 and 1877
Vital problems had to be solved
• How and under what conditions the South
should be readmitted to the Union
• What the rights and status of the 3.5 million
freedmen should be
INTRODUCTION (CONT.)
1.
How did the Radical Republicans gain control
over reconstructing the South, and what was the
impact of their program on the ex-Confederates,
other white southerners, and black southerners?
2. How did freed blacks remake their lives after
emancipation?
3. What political and economic developments
occurred in the North during the Reconstruction
Era?
4. What brought about the end of
Reconstruction?
RECONSTRUCTION POLITICS,
1865-1868
Lincoln’s Plan
• Differences between President Lincoln and Congress
on reconstruction of the Confederate states began as
early as 1863
• Would allow the formation of a new state govt. when
as few as 10% of the state’s voters took an oath of
loyalty to the Union
• Also had to recognize the end of slavery
• This plan said nothing about votes for freedmen
• Lincoln hoped to win over southern Unionists and
draw them into the Rep. Party
Lincoln’s Plan (cont.)
Wade-Davis Bill
• Passed by Congress
• Republicans who disagreed with Lincoln’s plan
• Required at least 50% of the voters take an oath
of allegiance
• It excluded from participation in govt. all those
who had cooperated with the Confederacy
Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill
At the time of his death, he and Congress
were at an impasse
PRES. RECONSTRUCTION
UNDER JOHNSON
President Andrew Johnson announced his
Reconstruction Plan in May 1865
• Unconcerned about the freedmen but wished
to promote the interests of the poorer whites in
the South
Johnson required whites to take an oath of
allegiance to the Union
• After which they could set up new state govts.
• These had to proclaim secession illegal, repudiate
Confederate debts, and ratify the 13th Amendment
(abolished slavery)
PRES. RECONSTRUCTION
UNDER JOHNSON (CONT.)
Whites who had held high office under the
Confederacy and all those with taxable
property of $20,000 or more could NOT vote
or hold office
• They had to apply for and receive a special
pardon from the Pres.
During the summer of 1865
• Johnson undermined his own policy of
excluding planters from leadership by handing
out pardons to them
PRES. RECONSTRUCTION
UNDER JOHNSON (CONT.)
The new govts. created under Johnson’s
plan were soon dominated by former
Confederate leaders and large landowners
Some of the Johnson govts. refused to
ratify the 13th Amend.
And all showed their intention of making
black freedom only nominal by enacting
“black codes”
PRES. RECONSTRUCTION
UNDER JOHNSON (CONT.)
Horrified by such evidence of continued
southern defiance in Dec. 1865:
• Republican-dominated Congress refused to
recognize these govts. or to seat the men
they sent to the House and the Senate
CONGRESS VS. JOHNSON
Radical Republicans were in a minority in
1866
• They wished to give black men the vote
• Transform the South into a biracial democracy
Moderate Republicans were in the majority
• Wanted to get rid of the black codes
• And protect the basic civil rights of blacks
CONGRESS VS. JOHNSON
(CONT.)
The moderates attempted to accomplish these
limited goals by continuing the Freedmen’s
Bureau and passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866
Johnson vetoed both of these measures
This drove the moderates into an alliance with
the Radicals
• Together they overrode his vetoes
This alliance would create the 14th Amendment
14TH AMENDMENT, 1866
For the 1st time, the federal govt.
defined citizenship and intervened to
protect person from state govts.
It stated that all persons born in the
U.S.A. or naturalized were citizens
No state could deny any person’s rights
without due process of law or deny equal
protection of the law
14TH AMENDMENT, 1866
(CONT.)
States that refused black men the vote could
have their representation in Congress reduced
Former Confederate officials were excluded
from voting and office-holding until pardoned by
2/3’s vote of Congress
14TH AMENDMENT, 1866
(CONT.)
The southern states (except for TN), refused
to ratify the amendment
Pres. Johnson denounced it
• In the Congressional elections of 1866, the
Republicans won huge majorities
• This gave them a mandate to force ratification of
the 14th Amendment
• Also it allowed to proceed with congressional
Reconstruction of the South
14th Amendment
CONGRESSIONAL
RECONSTRUCTION, 1866 -1868
Congress enacted its Reconstruction program over
Johnson’s vetoes
The earlier Johnson govts., black codes, and all
other laws the southern states had passed were
invalidated
TN had been readmitted
All other former Confederate states were divided
into districts under the temporary rule of the military
CONGRESSIONAL
RECONSTRUCTION, 1866 -1868
(CONT.)
Each state was required to write a new
constitution enfranchising black men
And they had to ratify the 14th
Amendment
When these things were done, Congress
could readmit the state to the Union
CONGRESSIONAL
RECONSTRUCTION, 1866 -1868
(CONT.)
Congressional Reconstruction was more
radical than Lincoln’s or Johnson’s
• It enfranchised blacks and temporarily
disfranchised many whites
It did not go as far as the Radicals
wanted
• It failed to confiscate southern land and
redistribute it to blacks and poor whites
THE IMPEACHMENT CRISIS,
1867-1868
Tenure of Office Act
•
•
•
•
•
Passed by Congress
March 1867
Aimed at reducing the president’s power
Tenure of Office Act
Johnson violated it by firing Sec. of War Edwin Stanton
Republicans in Congress began impeachment
proceedings
THE IMPEACHMENT CRISIS,
1867-1868 (CONT.)
Some Republicans wavered
• Feared that removal of Johnson would upset the
constitutional balance of power
The vote to convict and remove President Johnson
fell 1 vote short of the necessary 2/3’s of the Senate
Impeachment Trial
THE 15TH AMENDMENT AND
THE QUESTION OF WOMAN
SUFFRAGE
Congress passed a final amend. To complete
its Reconstruction program
15th Amendment stated that the right to
vote could not be denied because of race,
color, or previous condition of servitude
15th Amendment
THE 15TH AMENDMENT AND THE QUESTION
O F W O M A N S U F F R A G E ( C O N T. )
The Republicans hoped with this amendment to:
• protect southern blacks
• extend suffrage to northern blacks
• gain many new voters for their party
When Congress refused to include woman suffrage,
some feminists denounced the amendment and its
Republicans sponsors
THE 15TH AMENDMENT AND THE QUESTION
O F W O M A N S U F F R A G E ( C O N T. )
The 3 new amendments
Ending slavery
Guaranteeing the rights of citizens
Enfranchising black men
By 1870:
• these new amendments were a part of the Constitution
• Congress had readmitted all the former Confederate
states
Thereafter congressional efforts at Reconstruction
weakened
RECONSTRUCTION
GOVERNMENTS
The Reconstruction laws of 1867-1868 created a
new electorate in the South by enfranchising blacks
• Also they temporarily disfranchised 10-15% of the
whites
This new electorate put in power Republican govts.
what were made up of a coalition of carpetbaggers,
scalawags, and blacks
RECONSTRUCTION
GOVERNMENTS (CONT.)
Carpetbaggers=northerners who had
come south for a variety of reasons
Scalawags=cooperating southern whites
REPUBLICAN RULE
The Republican Reconstruction govts.
democratized southern politics by:
• abolishing property and racial qualifications for
voting and office-holding
• redistricting state legislatures
• making formerly appointive offices elective
They undertook extensive public works,
offered increased public services, and
established the South’s first public schools
REPUBLICAN RULE (CONT.)
All of this cost money=taxes rose
Southern landowners bitterly resented the
increased taxes
• accused the state govts. of corruption and
waste
• Some of their charges were true
• But many were exaggerated
In no state was the land of ex-Confederate
planters confiscated and redistributed to
freedmen
COUNTERATTACKS
White southern Democrats refused to
accept black voting and office-holding
• Launched a counterattack to drive
Republican govts. from power
White vigilante groups began a
campaign of violence and intimidation
against blacks, Freedmen’s Bureau
officials, and white Republicans
COUNTERATTACKS (CONT.)
Congress investigated this reign of terror
• Congress attempted to suppress it with the
Enforcement Acts
But only a “large military presence in the
South could have protected black rights” and
preserve the black electorate
COUNTERATTACKS (CONT.)
By the 1870’s, Congress and President
Grant were no longer willing to use
military force to remake the South
THE IMPACT OF
EMANCIPATION
Confronting Freedom
• Freedmen left the plantations where they had
been enslaved
• Usually lacked property, tools, capital, and literacy
• Often searched for family members from whom
they had been separated
• Once reunited, many took the 1st opportunity
to legalize their marriages
• Raise their children and live as an independent
family
AFRICAN-AMERICAN
INSTITUTIONS
The desire to be free of white control led
blacks to establish their own institutions
Most important were the black churches
• Played major religious, social, and political roles
Many black schools were started with the
help of the Freedmen’s Bureau and northern
philanthropists
• Howard, Fisk, Grambling, Southern
AFRICAN-AMERICAN
INSTITUTIONS (CONT.)
Segregation of all facilities in the South became a
way of life
Charles Sumner’s Civil Rights Act of 1875
• It promised that all persons, regardless of race,
color, or previous condition, was entitled to full and
equal employment of accommodation in "inns,
public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and
other places of public amusement."
• In 1883 the Supreme Court declared it
unconstitutional
• Congress did not have the power to regulate the
conduct and transactions of individuals
LAND, LABOR, AND
SHARECROPPING
Above all, freedmen wanted to become
landowning, independent farmers
• Few did because the Republicans believed
that property rights were too sacred to be
violated by confiscation and redistribution
of the white planters’ lands
• Also, blacks did not have the capital to buy
land and agricultural tools
LAND, LABOR, AND
SHARECROPPING (CONT.)
Landless laborers and landholding planters
developed sharecropping
• A tenant farmer who farms land for the owner
and is paid a share of the value of the yielded
crop
Many white small farmers also lost their
land and became sharecropping tenants
By 1880, 80% of the land in the cotton
states was worked by landless tenants
TOWARD A CROP -LIEN
ECONOMY
Rural merchants often sold supplies to
sharecroppers on credit
• A lien on the tenants’ share of the crop as collateral
Sharecroppers fell deeper and deeper into debt
• Interest rates were exorbitant, cotton prices low, and
merchants often dishonest
TOWARD A CROP -LIEN
ECONOMY (CONT.)
 Southern law prohibited their leaving the land until they had
fully repaid their debt
• Sharecroppers were locked into poverty and indebtedness
NEW CONCERNS IN THE NORTH, 1868 -1876
Grantism
• Ulysses S. Grant won
the presidency in 1868
• Republican
• Popular war hero
GRANTISM (CONT.)
His administration was marred by rampant
corruption
• Many state and local govts. of the time also had
corruption
In 1872, some Republicans broke from Grant
and formed the Liberal Republican Party
• Disgusted with the scandals
The Liberals’ Revolt
In 1872, the Liberal Republicans nominated
Horace Greely for president
• The Democrats endorsed him as well
The regular Republicans renominated Grant
Grant won the election
The split in the Republican ranks seriously
weakened Republican efforts to remake the
South
THE PANIC OF 1873
During Grant’s 2nd term, the nation
suffered a financial panic and a severe
economic depression:
•
•
•
•
business failures
mass unemployment
heightened labor-management conflict
disputes over the country’s currency system
All these issues further divided Republican
attention from Reconstruction
RECONSTRUCTION AND THE
CONSTITUTION
The Supreme Court in the last quarter of
the 1800’s also undermined Republican
Reconstruction
In a series of decisions, the Supreme Court
interpreted the 14th and 15th Amendments in
a way that made them all but useless for
protecting black citizens
It declared the Civil Rights and Enforcement
Acts unconstitutional and upheld state
segregation laws
REPUBLICANS IN RETREAT
By the 1870’s, the Republicans were
abandoning their Reconstruction policy
Most of them were more interested in
economic growth than in protecting black
rights
The Radicals who were committed to
biracial democracy in the South were dead
or had been defeated in elections
REPUBLICANS IN RETREAT
 Many northerners wanted to normalize relations with the white
South
• They shared the racial belief that blacks were inferior to whites,
and the federal govt. could not force equality
RECONSTRUCTION
ABANDONED, 1876 -1877
Redeeming the South
• After 1872, congressional pardons restored
voting and office-holding rights to all exConfederates
• The Democratic Party attempted to redeem the
South from Republican rule
• These men pardoned and the South’s rising class
of business entrepreneurs
REDEEMING THE SOUTH
(CONT.)
By 1876, the Democrats had regained
control of all the southern states but SC,
FL, and LA
• Used economic pressure, intimidation, and
violence
Once in power the Democrats:
• Cut taxes and public works and services
• passed laws favoring landlords over tenants
REDEEMING THE SOUTH
(CONT.)
Some blacks responded to the deteriorating
situation by migrating from the South
• Most were trapped where they were
• Debt and poverty
THE ELECTION OF 1876
Republicans=Rutherford
Hayes
Democrats=Samuel Tilden
Tilden won the popular
vote
• But because of fraud and
intimidation at the polls,
the electoral votes in 4
states were disputed
THE ELECTION OF 1876
(CONT.)
A special congressional electoral
commission awarded all the disputed votes to
Hayes
• Commission was stacked in favor of the
Republicans
The Democrats refused to accept the
finding until a compromise deal was worked
out by Southern Democrats and Republican
supporters of Hayes
THE ELECTION OF 1876
(CONT.)
In exchange for southern acceptance of Hayes
as president, the Republicans promised:
• 1.) to let Democrats take over the last Republican
Reconstruction govts. in LA and SC
• 2.) to remove the remaining troops from the South
• 3.) to give more federal patronage to southern
Democrats
• 4.) to provide federal aid for building railroads and
for other internal improvements in the South
THE ELECTION OF 1876
(CONT.)
This so-called Compromise of 1877 struck the
final blow to Radical Reconstruction
• Also it ended all federal protection for the freedmen
Compromise of 1877--summary and map
CONCLUSION
By the end of the Reconstruction era the
Republicans had firm support in the Northeast
and Midwest
The Democrats were solidly entrenched in the
South
• Would remain so for nearly a century
CONCLUSION (CONT.)
 Many historians today look back on Reconstruction as a
democratic experiment that failed
• Partly because Congress did not redistribute land to
freedmen
• without any property freedmen were too economically
vulnerable to hold on to their political rights
CONCLUSION (CONT.)
Also, it failed because the Republicans were
unwilling to continue using military force to
protect blacks and remake southern society
Reconstruction did leave as a lasting legacy of
the 14th and 15th Amendments
CONCLUSION (CONT.)
During the brief Reconstruction Era, southern
blacks:
• reunited their families
• created their own institutions
• for the first time participated in govt.