Reconstruction

1
Reconstruction

• Re-unifying the USA

2
What was reconstruction?

• Rebuilding the South after the Civil War
• Reconstruction would determine
• How defeated the south was
• How free African Americans really were

3
Presidential Reconstruction

• Lincolns Plan
• Amnesty Loyalty oath
• 10 Plan
• Johnsons Plan
• Disqualify former Confederate leaders from
  holding office
• Allowed states to rejoin freely
• Pardoned thousands of southerners
• Allowed south to handle freedmen as they saw fit

4
TEN PERCENT PLAN

• Since Lincoln had always believed the prime
  purpose of the war had been to preserve the
  Union, he thought that, now that it was over, all
  effort should be made to restoring the Union and
  ending the bitterness and hatred of war years
• Wanted to be lenient on the defeated South
• Favored letting them reconstitute their state
  governments and pardoning all former Confederates
  except the highest leaders
• Embodied his lenient position in the so-called
  Ten Percent Plan

5
PROBLEM

• Many Northerners (especially Radical Republicans)
  did not like the Ten Percent Plan
• Every Southern state contained thousands of
  people who opposed the Confederacy--Unionists
• Northerners wanted to reward Unionists and punish
  Rebels
• Were afraid ex-Rebels would take revenge on
  Unionists as soon as they had the chance
• Would also try to re-establish slavery and might
  even start a new civil war once they had regained
  strength

6
NORTHERN OPINION

• Many Northerners did not want the South admitted
  as a full member of the Union as quickly or
  easily as Lincoln did
• Wanted the South to go through a period of
  reconstruction first
• A trial period in which the North would
  essentially control the South in order to make
  sure Southerners were sincere about
  re-establishing their loyalty to the Union before
  allowing Southern states to become free and equal
  members of the U.S.

7
WADE-DAVIS BILL

• Congress thought Ten Percent plan was too lenient
  and passed its own alternative, the Wade-Davis
  Bill
• Made it difficult for southern states to organize
  new state governments
• Majority of adult white makes had to swear oath
  of allegiance to Union first
• Full citizenship denied to any man who had
  willingly served the Confederacy
• Lincoln vetoed the bill and, in response,
  Congress refused to implement Ten Percent Plan
• Result was stalemate

8
Wade-Davis Bill

• Harsh conditions to rejoin
• States must re-write constitutions
• Outlaw Slavery
• Confederate supporters could not hold office/vote
• Pledge loyalty to USA (majority of people)
• Vetoed by Lincoln (1864)
• Lincoln favored his 10 Plan

9
CATASTROPHE

• Congress and Lincoln still locked in stalemate
  when the war ended (4-9-65) and Lincoln was
  murdered five days later
• If Lincoln had lived, he probably would have
  found a solution
• A master politician who would have found some
  sort of compromise
• Too smart and too ambitious to continue a fight
  if he knew he was going to lose
• But now he is no more

10
ANDREW JOHNSON

• New president, Andrew Johnson, was
  well-intentioned but less intelligent, flexible,
  and willing to compromise than Lincoln
• Started off on wrong foot when he announced his
  own policy while Congress was in recess
• As lenient as Ten Percent Plan
• Pardoned all ex-Confederates as soon as they
  swore oath to support the Union
• Created procedures to set up new Southern state
  governments and allow Southern states to re-enter
  Union
• Hoped lenient measures would heal wounds of the
  Civil War

11
TROUBLE

• When pardoned southerners went to polls in late
  1865 to elect their new state governments, they
  often selected men who had been high Confederate
  officials
• This upset Northerners
• Wanted some assurance that the South would not
  try to leave Union again, but these actions did
  not give them any high hopes

12
BLACK CODES

• Johnson did not make any provisions for freed
  slaves
• Left their future up to new southern state
  governments
• New southern state governments had no desire to
  help ex-slaves become equal citizens
• All passed laws that discriminated against
  ex-slaves
• Called the Black Codes

13
Black Codes

• Vagrancy Laws Considered a vagrant if unemployed
  and could be arrested if so. You could then be
  worked through convict labor. In other words,
  you must have home and means of supporting that
  home.
• In Mississippi, African Americans forbidden to
  rent or own land outside towns
• In SC, black children could be apprenticed to
  whites if parents did not educate them.
• Goal Keep African Americans in slavery
  insure cheap labor supply restore pre-Civil War
  conditions
• http//chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/recon/code.html

14
Black Codes

• Prohibited blacks from testifying against whites
  in court
• Prohibited blacks from serving on juries
• Prohibited marriage between whites and blacks
• Banned blacks from mixing with whites in public
  facilities
• If a black person was arrested for vagrancy, they
  were hired out to whites and forced to work until
  their fines and court costs were paid off
• Their labor was auctioned off to the highest
  bidder

15
NORTHERN RESPONSE

• Northern Congressmen interpreted Black Codes as
  an effort to restore slavery in the South
• Realized that Emancipation Proclamation and 13th
  Amendment were not enough
• Blacks had to given the right to vote and hold
  public office so that laws like the Black Codes
  could not be passed in the future
• Most Republicans were moderates and did not want
  to fight Johnson and split the party over this
  issue
• Hoped that they would be able to reason and
  compromise with him and thus modify his
  reconstruction program with his cooperation

16
RADICAL REPUBLICANS

• Johnson refused to compromise
• Thereby strengthening the radical wing of
  Congressional Republicans and gave them the
  ammunition they needed to try to dump Johnson and
  impose their own Reconstruction program
• Radical Republicans were a minority in Congress
  but they included some very able men
• Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of PA
• Hated the South, blamed the entire Civil War on
  southern slave-owners, and were devoted to
  establishing Negro equality
• Dedicated to restructuring southern society by
  confiscating the property of southern
  slave-owners and redistributing it to ex-slaves

17
Congressional Reconstruction

• The Radical Republicans
• Led by Thaddeus Stevens
• 40 acres and a mule
• Destroy souths power
• Harsh requirements for south to rejoin union

18
Freedmans Bureau

• Created to help ex-slaves adjust to freedom
• Build Schools
• Provided clothes and food
• Vetoed by Johnson
• Overridden

19
Shermans Special Order 15 (forty acres a mule)

• Created in Savannah, GA while war continued on
  January 16, 1865.
• They provided for the confiscation of 400,000
  acres of land along the Atlantic coast of South
  Carolina, Georgia, and Florida on which were to
  be settled approximately 40,000 freed slave
  families and other freed African-Americans then
  living in the area.
• The orders were intended to address the immediate
  problem of dealing with the tens of thousands of
  black refugees who had joined Sherman's march in
  search of protection and sustenance, and "to
  assure the harmony of action in the area of
  operations".
• General Sherman issued his orders after meeting
  in Savannah, Georgia with twenty ministers of the
  black community and with U.S. Secretary of War
  Edwin M. Stanton. Brig. Gen. Rufus Saxton, an
  abolitionist from Massachusetts who had
  previously organized the recruitment of black
  soldiers for the Union Army, was put in charge of
  implementing the orders. In the Fall of 1865, it
  will be overturned. However, many slaves were
  working the land as early as 1861 with the
  authorization of the U.S. Army(Ossabaw Skidaway
  Island, GA).

20
Amendments

• 14th Amendment grants full citizenship to all
  born in the USA (including freedmen)
• Ended 3/5 Compromise
• South gained seats in House of Reps
• Southern states had to ratify before being
  readmitted
• 15th Amendment Freedmen Suffrage (guaranteed
  right to vote regardless of race)
• 90 of males register quickly

21
14TH AMENDMENT

• Congress passed 2 bills to protect Negro rights
  in the South
• Johnson vetoed both bills
• Not because he was a racist but because he
  believed Reconstruction policy should be a
  presidential, not a Congressional, power
• Congress over-rode both
• Johnsons stubbornness gave Radical control of
  Congress
• Passed 14th Amendment
• Gave blacks equal rights and pressured southern
  states to give blacks full voting rights
• Northern states ratified amendment but only one
  southern state did

22
RECONSTRUCTION ACT OF MARCH 2, 1867

• Since 14th amendment was the foundation for all
  future Reconstruction policies, Radicals realized
  that southern states had to be convinced to
  ratify it
• Passed Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867 to do
  this
• Dissolved all state governments in South and
  divided region into 5 military districts
• Each under the control of military commander
  charged with preserving order and protecting the
  rights of ALL persons
• To remove itself from this situation, a southern
  state had to ratify the 14th Amendment and set up
  a state government that granted full equality
  and voting rights to blacks

23
Disenfranchisement

• the taking away of someones (in this case,
  former slaves) ability or right to vote
• In the South, there were many tactics created to
  insure that former slaves were not allowed to
  vote, or make it extremely difficult for them
• Poll Taxes
• Literacy Test
• Violence
• Intimidation

24
Andrew Johnsons Impeachment

• Johnson attempted to block Congressional
  Reconstruction
• Vetoed 29 laws, overridden 15 times
• Johnsons appointed governments ratify Black
  Codes
• "This is a country for white men, and by God, as
  long as I am President, it shall be a government
  for white men.
• Republicans unite to impeach Johnson

25
DECISION TO DUMP JOHNSON

• Congress also passed laws to reduce Johnsons
  ability to hinder enforcement of its
  Reconstruction policy
• Such as prohibiting him from firing an federal
  official with prior Congressional approval
• Johnson still had enough power to get in the way
  and he did so as much as possible
• It was at this point that Radicals made up their
  mind to impeach him and get rid of him once and
  for all

26
JOHNSON IN TROUBLE

• Johnson had not committed a high crime or
  misdemeanor
• But he had displayed an incredible lack of
  political judgment
• He then began to fire federal officials friendly
  to the Radicals
• In direct violation of the law Congress had just
  passed
• Gave Radicals real charge to use to impeach him
• This and 10 other trumped up charges were
  presented to and approved by the House

27
Johnsons Impeachment

• Impeached for violation of the Tenure of Office
  Act
• stated that a President could not dismiss
  appointed officials without the consent of
  Congress
• Johnson viewed the act as unconstitutional
• Attempted to fire Secretary of War Edwin Stanton

28
IMPEACHMENT

• Impeachment trial held in Senate from March
  13-May 16, 1868
• Vote very close in the end
• 35 guilty/19 not guilty
• One vote short of necessary 2/3s majority to
  impeach
• Johnson hung on to his job but it didnt matter
  any more
• U.S. Grant got Republican presidential nomination
  
• Making Johnson a lame-duck for the remaining 9
  months of his term
• Grant and Republicans swept the country in
  November 1868