Unit V Part 5

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Unit VPart 5

• The Reconstruction

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The Reconstruction1865-1877

• Was seen as the only way to prevent the South
  from restoring their pre-war society
• Was an important first step toward Civil Rights
• The Constitution v Social Changes
• It will fail
• But it was less of a failure than first thought
• (there WAS an improvement in education for black
  children in the South)

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Views on Reconstruction

• Lincoln The 10 Plan
• Johnson The Restoration
• Congress The Wade Davis Bill
• Lincoln (Conservative Republican) had plans for
  Reconstruction before his death but battled with
  Congress (Radical Republicans) and THEY came to
  blows with Andrew Johnson (War Democrat)

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The President(s) v Congress

• While they bickered over who was in charge,
  Southerners had the opportunity to tie the freed
  Black man to the land legally.
• Locally, the old order was briefly restored to
  the South

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The South

• The Southern economy was devastated
• 258,000 white males died in the war
• Many more were wounded
• Many lost their land (had not been paid as
  soldiers)
• 4,000,000 former slaves were freed
• After the war they had nowhere to go

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The new Freedmen

• Often gathered around Northern occupational
  forces (the South will be occupied by Northern
  troops until the Southern States reenter the
  Union)
• Most Blacks tended to pull out of white
  organizations and begin their own (Churches, etc)

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The Freedmens Bureau

• Established by Congress in March of 1865 to see
  to the needs of the Freedmen
• Was the only federal agency established to aid
  both Blacks and poor whites after the war
• When it failed (1874), there was nothing to take
  its place.

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The Freedmens Bureau

• Was run by the Army (General Howard)
• To distribute food
• Establish schools (4,000 in the end)
• Give medical care
• Redistribute land
• Settled labor disputes
• Freedmans Bureau Bank

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The Freedmans Bureau

• Had a budget of 17,000,000
• Divide by 4,000,000 Blacks
• 4.25 eachThe equivalent of a Happy Meal!

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So Why Will Reconstruction Fail?

• The Failure of the Freedmans Bureau
• Black Codes (Vagrancy laws, etc)
• The KKK and other terrorist organizations
• The Crop Lien System

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Issues of Reconstruction

• The North thought the South should diversify its
  economy
• Many in the North thought the South should be
  punished
• When the Southern states were re-admittedthey
  would come into the Union as a united Democratic
  front
• Meant the end of Republican nationalist
  legislation.

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So did the Republicans really want Southern
states back in the Union?

• Nope.
• Could this be the real reason for Amendments 14
  and 15? Maybe
• Thinkif the freed Black man could vote, which
  party would he vote for? The party that fought
  to free him or the party that enslaved him?

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The Radical Republicans

• Many WERE committed to the welfare of the Blacks
  in the South
• Their leaders
• Charles Sumner
• Thaddeus Stephens
• Benjamin Wade

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Lincoln

• A Conservative Republican
• Was willing to put the issue of the Freedman on
  the back burner for the sake of bringing the
  South back into the Union as easily as possible
• He knew that Southern whites would resist social
  equality for Blacks
• While alive, he was the President who led the
  North to victory so he was a big obstacle to the
  Radicals and had he lived, the Constitution may
  have been different

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After Lincolns Death

• Andrew Johnson was undermined by the Radicals in
  Congress
• He was just as ineffective before his impeachment
  as after.
• The Radicals took firm control

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Lincolns 10 Plan

• Lincoln wanted to make it easy for the Southern
  states to reenter the Union
• His Plan was in place by 1864 (before the wars
  end)
• When 10 of the of the voters in the election
  of 1860 took an oath of loyalty to the U.S., then
  that state could enter the Union
• General amnesty for most Southern Whites

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As early as 1864

• Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee tried to reenter
  te Union under Lincolns 10 Plan
• When the above states sent representatives to
  Congress, The Radicals in Congress refused to
  seat them
• Radicals will form their own plan

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The Wade-Davis Bill

• The President to appoint a provisional government
  for each succeeded state
• When a MAJORITY of the of voters in the
  election of 1860 took an oath of loyalty to the
  U.S. the state could call for elections to a
  constitutional convention
• Those who voted in that election had to take the
  Iron Clad Oath Swear that they had never born
  arms against the United States

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THEN

• The new state constitutions had to
• Abolish Slavery
• Disenfranchise Confederate military and
  civilian leaders
• Repudiate debts accumulated by the state
  during the war

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Lincoln

• Gave the Wade-Davis Bill a Pocket Veto
• (in the meantime, the old order began to
  reestablish itself in the South Black codes,
  etc)

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Johnsons Restoration

• Johnson was a War Democrat
• His plan for reconstruction was called the
  Restoration
• Was similar to the Wade-Davis Bill
• Exception The President could personally grant
  pardons to former Confederate leaders who
  petitioned (groveled before him) for it
• Johnson never had an issue with slavery but he
  DID resent wealthy White guys (he was VERY poor
  and always felt left out while growing up)

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Johnson v Congress

• The conflict between Johnson and Congress over
  reconstruction was not about HOW the
  reconstruction would occur (because Johnsons
  Restoration was so similar to the Wade-Davis
  Bill)
• The conflict was over who would be in charge

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When States tried to enter under Johnsons plan

• Again, the Radicals in Congress would not seat
  the representatives from the Southern States

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December 1865

• Congress reconvened
• The official beginning of Reconstruction
• Congress established a Joint Committee on
  Reconstruction
• To investigate conditions in the South
• To create a Reconstruction policy

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Congressional Elections 1866

• The North disgusted with the South
• Black Codes
• KKK
• Race riots in the South
• Radical Republicans made great gains in the
  election

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The Radicals in Congress

• Passed an extension of the Freedmens Bureau
• Widened powers
• More Money
• Special courts for labor disputes
• Thaddeas Stephens 40 Acres and a mule
• Was vetoed by Johnson

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The Civil Rights Act of 1866

• Was passed by Radicals in Congress
• Declared Blacks to be citizens of the U.S. and
  empowered the Federal Government to intervene to
  protect individual rights
• Johnson vetoed this one too

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Congress overrode the vetoes

• On both the Extension of the Freedmens Bureau
  AND the Civil Rights Act of 1866
• The FIRST time in American History that a major
  piece of legislation became law after a
  presidential veto
• It was so easy! They did it again and again
• It was like there WAS no President

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The 14th Amendment

• April 1866
• Second of the National Supremacy Amendments
• First constitutional definition of U.S.
  Citizenship If you are born in the U.S. or are
  a naturalized citizen, you are entitled to equal
  protection under the law
• States who denied citizens equal rights would be
  punished (federal funds or electors in elections

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The 14th Amendment

• Did not apply to women (race and condition of
  previous servitude mentionednot gender)
• Prohibited state or federal office to anyone who
  supported the Confederacy after taking the oath
  to support the Constitution (2/3 vote of Congress
  could pardon individuals)
• Southern states could only be admitted now if
  they approved the 14th amendment

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NOTE

• The 14th Amendment reduced the power of ALL of
  the states
• Tennessee DID ratify itno other states
• Amendments needed ¾ states approval for passage.
  Most Southerners preferred occupation by the
  North rather than give Blacks equal rights

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So Congress had to change the rules

• To ratify an amendment each state had to come up
  with a vote that represented a majority of the
  voters of that state
• Was changed only a majority of the actual
  voters was necessaryso 14th Amendment was passed

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1867 3 Reconstruction Bills

• Johnson vetoed all 3 and Congress overrode all
  vetoes
• The South to be divided up into 5 military
  districts, each headed by a U.S. General
• 20,000 northern soldiers to occupy the South,
  register Black voters, remove the old guard from
  office supervise elections for state
  constitutional conventions
• Clarified procedures for above

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1870 The 15th Amendment

• Gave the Freedmen the right to vote
• Note many states in the North had not done this
  yet!
• Blacks in the South DID voteas long as Northern
  troops occupied the South and supported Black and
  Tan Governments there
• But when the South was redeemedmost Blacks were
  kept from the polls

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Black and Tan Governments

• State governments while the North occupied the
  South
• Were made up of Scalawags and Carpetbaggers
• Were seen as traitors by most Southern whites
• Scalawags Southerners who had never owned
  slaves and who believed the South should
  industrialize
• Carpetbaggers Northerners who saw the South as
  the new frontier (some had come with the
  Freedmens Bureau)

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The 15th Amendment

• How did the Southern states get around it?
• Literacy Tests
• Grandfather laws
• Poll Taxes
• Threats by white employers
• Threats by the KKK

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Also

• The 15th Amendment guaranteed the right to
  votenot to hold office
• If Blacks were illiterate, how did they know how
  to vote? How did they work in State
  Constitutional Conventions?
• The B Ts told them how to vote and wrote the
  constitutions

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When occupational troops left

• The B Ts were voted out of office and the
  Redeemers were voted in
• AKA the Bourbons
• And the South looked just like it did before the
  warThe Black man was still tied to the land but
  NOW, he had to feed, cloth, house himself and his
  family with token wages

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The 15th Amendment

• Split the Womens Movement
• NWSA (Anthony, Stanton, Stone) worked AGAINST the
  15th Amendmentwanted a new amendment that
  included women
• AWSA (Stone) supported the 15th Amendment and
  continued to work for women

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Later

• The AWSA and the NWSA will reunite to work for
  the 19th Amendment in 1920
• Will be called the National American Womans
  Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
• 1866 Equal Rights Association worked for
  womens suffrage on the state level
• 1868 Working Womens Association Feminist and
  labor causes

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The Freedmans Bureau Bank

• Helped Blacks and poor whites buy land, homes
• Freedmans Bureau put its federal in its own
  bank as a investment
• Panic of 1873 (Grant) Bank failed in 1874
• Freedmens Bureau folded too
• No other agency to take its place

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40 Acres and a Mule

• Thaddeas Stephens
• 800,000 acres of land taken from Southern Whites
  who had held high positions (government and
  military) in the Confederacy
• It was distributed to about 10,000 Black families
  who ended up losing the land after the
  Reconstructionland was taken illegally

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Education

• Failed to integrate and bring education to all
  black BUT
• It was the least of the failures of
  Reconstruction
• Freedmens Bureau established 4,000 schools
• Were open to black and white children but whites
  would not integrate in spite of the 1875 Civil
  Rights Act