Reconstruction 1865 to 1877

Thomas Hovenden artist

April 14 1865, five days after Lee Surrenders to Grant, John Wilkes Booth Shoots

Abraham Lincoln in the Head at Ford’s Theatre , Lincoln never regains

consciousness and dies April 15 1865.

Most historians speculate that this has a negative effect of the South, Because Lincoln had greater political sense than his Vice President Andrew Johnson and would have been more forgiving and more successful in negotiating with the Radical Republicans,

Lincoln desired that once Southerners agreed to ending slavery, and took an oath of loyalty, they would be restored to the union. This was known as the10%ten

percent plan. Congress had different Plans, and passed the Wade Davis Act which required a majority of the States voters to sign an oath of loyalty, That no Southern White man could vote for delegates to his State’s Constitutional

convention or be a delegate if he had fought against the Union or aided the Confederacy and it gave permanent disenfranchisement for all Leaders of the

Confederacy. • Lincoln quietly Pocket

vetoed the bill and followed up by privately talking to members of congress to see if he could change some votes and work out a compromise. When Johnson became president, he lacked the subtlety of Lincoln and was constantly butting heads with Congress.

Andrew Johnson produced his own reconstruction plan one month after Lincoln’s Death: he offered Amnesty (a pardon) to all Southerners who

took an oath of Allegiance to the Constitution. High Ranking Confederate officials and Wealthy Planters Whom Johnson held

responsible for secession could only receive a pardon if they made a personal plea to the President. Johnson appointed provisional

Governors to the Southern States, and as a condition of Restoration to the Union, required that the States repudiate the secession ordinances,

repudiate confederate debts, and ratify the 13th amendment.

• Within Months all of the former confederate states had met Johnson’s requirements and had functioning elected governments. For a Short while Republicans accepted his policies, hoping the South would be fair in their treatment of the Freed Blacks, but they were not.

• Near the end of the war General Sherman was plagued with “contraband” slaves tagging along with the troops, so as a way of getting rid of them, he gave them confiscated tracts of land along the coast in South Carolina and Georgia.

• But under Johnson’s amnesty plan Ex-Confederates were allowed to reclaim their land, and the Freedmen were compelled to leave the land or forced to work for the landowner.

Southerners held fast to the old order. To Keep Slaves tied to the land in virtual slavery they created “BLACK CODES” Exampled by Laws against

vagrancy Punishable by forced labor. Orphans could be placed into forced labor, Laws that restricted the rights of slaves to move out of the

area without permission from their “employers and laws that prohibited them from leaving if they had an unpaid debt.

In addition to all this Former confederate officeholders, Including Vice President Alexander Stephens, tried to Retake seats in Congress and the Senate, but Republicans refused to allow them to come back to Congress and instead began passing their own Reconstruction acts.

In March of 1865, before the death of Lincoln Congress established the Freedman’s Bureau to provide aid to ex- slaves during the

transition stage. In 1866, Congress voted to extend the Freedman’s bureau , give it funding, and extend its authority to investigate

mistreatment of former slaves. Johnson vetoed the bill. Johnson stated his reasons for vetoing the Freedman’s Bureau Bill;

• That the Federal government should not provide a welfare system for the indigent. The Southern states were not represented in Congress to act on an issue concerning their states, and He thought the bill was unconstitutional.

In May of 1866 a Race Riot breaks out in

Memphis Tennessee.

• White Irish Police are continually harassing Black Soldiers, and while the soldiers show great restraint, Whites are stirred up to expect retaliation and march upon and attack a Freedman Community. The Result of this riot was an increased support of Radical Republicans who were swept into office in 1866 and passed the 14th Amendment.

Senator Lyman Trumbull & the Civil Rights Act of 1866

Moderate Republicans who originally backed Johnson, came to see his policies as way too lenient on the South, and The Moderates joined in with the Republicans in taking control of Reconstruction. Moderate Republican Senator Lyman Trumbull proposed the Civil Rights act of 1866, declaring all persons born in the United States were Citizens, and granting them equal rights of contract, access to the courts and protection of person and property. This bill would nullify all state laws that deprived citizens of their rights. (all of these would be seen again in the 14th amendment) The Bill also authorized the federal government to bring violators to suit in Federal courts.

Andrew Johnson Vetoes the Civil Rights act of 1866.

• Congress had almost , but not quite been able to override the President’s veto on The FREEDMEN’s Bill, but with support for Johnson quickly dwindling, Congress attempted to override the veto on The Civil Rights act of 1866. For the first time in U.S. History Congress was able to Override a Presidential veto on a major piece of legislation. The Civil Rights act became law. Soon After the 14th Amendment is passed.

• June of 1866 Congress passed the 14th Amendment (Ratified by 3/4s of States July 1868)

• parts of the 14th Punished the South, and repudiated Debt, but Section 1 contained the parts which still have topical applications today.

• All Person’s Born or Naturalized in the United States are Citizens

• No State shall make any law which shall abridge the rights of citizens

• No state shall deprive any person of life liberty or property without due process of law.

• States cannot deny to any citizen Equal protection under the law.

• Since Southern states did not concern themselves with reduced representation and still denied Former slaves the right to vote. Congress passed the 15th amendment which forbade States from denying citizens the right to vote . It did not give the right for White Women to vote, which Angered the Women’s Suffrage movement, Many of them participated in the abolition movement. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was one of them, but here she was so angry she was compelled to go down in history making a Racist remark. The Amendment still allowed states to use poll taxes and literacy tests.

• The Republicans gained a 3 to 1 margin in congress in the 1866,election, a humiliating defeat for President Johnson. in 1867 they were able to pass the Reconstruction act of 1867 which:

• divided up the South into 5 military districts, each under the command of a Union General.

• Included a plan for registering all adult black men in the South to vote.

• Readmitted states to the Union if their constitutions met Congress’s approval, and they ratified the 14th amendment.

The Johnson Impeachment• Following up on the Reconstruction act, Congress created the Tenure

of Office Act • Was designed to protect the job of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton

a Radical Republican who was frustrating Johnson. The act took the position that Since the Constitution required The Senate to approve the appointment of cabinet officials it should also require the Senate to approve dismissals. The law which was passed over Johnson’s objections, also required Johnson to Issue all orders to the army through its commanding General. All of this was done to limit the power of the presidency and push Johnson to challenge congress. Johnson took the bait and fired Stanton in defiance of the law. Stanton barricaded himself into his office and congress took steps to impeach Johnson on 11 counts of made up charges, including 9 which dealt with his violation of the Tenure of Office Act.

• The impeachment trial went to the Senate, where 35 Republicans voted for conviction, 12 democrats voted against it, and 7 moderates voted against it because they felt that it was a politically motivate move that would cause injury to the balance of power built into the constitution. Johnson missed being removed from office by 1 vote, but the remainder of his term he was a lame duck president. Johnson was so politically damaged after impeachment that reconstruction proceeded under Congress’s direction.

Seward’s Folly• Secretary Of State William Seward, Who had recovered from the assassination

attempt on his life the same night as Lincoln’s, had returned to office. Seward Still dreamed of a United States that stretched from one end of North America to the other, and in a treaty with Russia, purchased Alaska for $7million in 1867, hoping that in an American migration to Alaska, many American’s would settle in Canada and eventually cause the annexation of Canada. Most Americans thought he just foolishly bought a giant Ice float, and nicknamed Alaska “Seward’s Folly”. It wasn’t until 1898 that gold Was discovered in Alaska and a gold rush began.

• In the election of 1868, The Republicans nominated U.S. Grant for president. Grant won the Presidency and the republicans retained their 2/3s majority in both Houses. Blacks made up a clear majority of voters in five Southern States, and nearly half the voters in 3 other states, and were very important in the Republican victories. During Reconstruction, only the state legislature of Mississippi elected black senators. On February 25, 1870, Hiram Rhodes Revels was seated as the first black member of the Senate, while Blanche Bruce, also of Mississippi, seated in 1875,

• In 1870, Joseph Rainey of S. Carolina was elected to the House, Freedmen were elected to national office also from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia. Most of these new black leaders had been free preachers or artisans.

• Former Union Officers Moved to the South because they thought it would be a nice place to retire from the Army. Many of them were searching for Appointments to Southern government positions under military rule. Because Many Northerners came South to take up jobs as provisional mayors, governors etc, and they came with everything they owned in Carpet Bags… they were derisively called “CARPETBAGGERS”

• Southern white Republicans called “scalawags” helped to reconstruct the South by Repealing Black codes which enforced labor “discipline”. Introduced new taxation programs to force planters to pay their fair share of taxes. They supervised the building of the region’s railroads (many of them were turned into Sherman’s

bowties during the war) and they placed uncultivated land on the market.

• Plantation owners recognized the position they were in , having land and no workers to work the land, and some resolved their problem by offering their former slaves the opportunity to work a piece of their land, supply them with seed and tools and in return they would get a share of the crop… some times as much as 50%. This arrangement was known as “sharecropping” . It offered a small amount of independence to freedmen. At the same time Country stores were willing to extend credit to freedmen, farmers and sharecroppers, but the prices were set high, interest rates were also set high, and sometimes they added expenses to the accounts that were created just to insure the freedmen stayed in a vicious cycle of debt.

The Klan Murdered and whipped

Republicans, burned black schools & churches, and

intimidated Blacks.

• Nathan Bedford Forrest, the most decorated cavalry general, organized a Tennessee Social club into a paramilitary force to resist Reconstruction by force, By 1870 the Ku Klux Klan was operating all over the south, serving the democratic party.

Liberal Republicans challenge Grant

• A revolt takes place in the Republican Party in response to corruption and cronyism in the party. The Liberal Republicans nominated Horace Greeley and the Democrats also nominated Greeley, but Greeley still attacks Democrats so viciously that there is no enthusiasm for him and Grant is re-elected.

• Perhaps the biggest reason for the failure of Reconstruction to take hold and enforce laws was the waning popular opinion due to the growing Republican corruption. President Grant had Much to do with this, not because he was directly involved with it, but because he was so willing to turn a blind eye to it. The Whiskey Ring was perhaps the most glaring example of this. When it was first revealed that Whiskey dealers were bribing government agents and avoiding the excise tax on whiskey, Grant swore that he would root out corruption where ever it was and the guilty would see justice. However when it became apparent that Grant’s friend and personal secretary, Orville Babcock was the ring leader, Grant stood by him.

everyone except Babcock went to prison

• In the 1876 election Grant would have loved to serve a third term, but the Republican party had enough corruption and chose Rutherford B. Hayes to run for President, because of his reputation for honesty & his being free of corruption . Samuel Tilden was the Democratic choice. Southern Democrats had regained control of most of the South, except Florida, Louisiana, & S. Carolina, In the election, Tilden won the Popular votes except in those 3 states the Democrats and Republicans had both sent in two different electoral results and Congress appointed a 15 member electoral commission to decide which set of votes was valid. The commission crafted the compromise of 1877, which gave Hayes the Presidency, and the last of the troops were removed from the South, Ending Reconstruction.

• The commission crafted the compromise of 1877, which gave Hayes the Presidency, and the last of the troops were removed from the South, Ending Reconstruction.

Reconstruction END