Chapter Fifteen: Reconstructionand the New South

Harper’s Weekly, October 24, 1874, by Thomas Nast

Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New SouthPOLITICAL OVERVIEWLincoln’s Presidential Reconstruction, 1863 - 1865• Jan. 1, 1863: Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation.• May 22, 1863: Creation of what became the United States Colored Troops

(USCT).• Dec. 8, 1863: Lincoln announces his “Ten Percent” Plan for Reconstruction.• Early 1864: Union-occupied Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee are re-

admitted through Lincoln’s plan, but Congress rejects their admission since the Radicals think Lincoln’s plan is too lenient.

• July 2, 1864: Wade-Davis Bill passes (fifty percent), but is killed by Lincoln’s “pocket veto.”

• Nov. 8, 1864: Lincoln is re-elected, beating Democrat Gen. George McClellan.• Feb. 3, 1865: Peace Conference in Hampton Roads, Virginia, leads to no

agreement.• Mar. 3, 1865: Bill creating the Freedman’s Bureau is passed.

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New SouthPOLITICAL OVERVIEW• April 9, 1865: Surrender of the Confederate Army of Virginia at Appomattox.• April 14, 1865: Lincoln shot during a performance of Our American Cousin and

dies the following morning; other cabinet members wounded. Tennessean Vice President Andrew Johnson becomes president.

Johnson’s Presidential Reconstruction, 1865-1867• May 1865: Johnson announces his “Restoration” plan, which offered

amnesty to Southerners who would take an oath of loyalty; plan otherwise resembles the Wade-Davis bill.

• August-September 1865: President Johnson becomes more lenient toward the South, demanding the restoration of lands confiscated from white Southerners.

• Fall 1865: Many southern states begin electing former Confederates to office and state legislatures begin drafting black codes. The Clerk of Congress refuses to allow former Confederates to take their seats in January.

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New SouthPOLITICAL OVERVIEW• Dec. 4, 1865: Congress, displeased with Johnson’s policies, creates its own

body to develop Reconstruction policy, the Joint Committee on Reconstruction.

• Dec. 6, 1865: Thirteenth Amendment adopted. With this milestone, Johnson declares Reconstruction complete, but Radical Republicans refuse to recognize new Southern state governments.

• April 1866: Congress passes the Civil Rights Act and Johnson vetoes it; Congress then overrides his veto.

• June 14, 1866: Congress sends the Fourteenth Amendment to the states for ratification.

• July 30, 1866: Race riot in New Orleans that leaves 40 dead.• Fall 1866: Johnson’s lenient policies toward the South are widely unpopular in

the North and lead to big Republican majorities in the midterm elections, allowing Congress to override any presidential veto. Only 38,000 Union troops left in the South by the fall.

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New SouthPOLITICAL OVERVIEWCongressional Reconstruction, 1867-1877• Mar. 2, 1867: New Congress commences with much harsher outlook on the

South; begins what historians call “Radical Reconstruction,” overriding Johnson’s many vetoes. Congress divides the South into military districts and requires the states to adopt new constitutions, introduce black suffrage, and ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.

• March 3, 1867: Tenure of Office Act enacted over a presidential veto; passed to protect the job of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who cooperated with the Radical Republicans.

• Aug. 11, 1867: Johnson, believing the Tenure of Office Act unconstitutional and removes Stanton, replaces him with Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

• Jan. 14, 1868: Grant resigns his position, and Johnson feels betrayed.• May 16, 1868: Johnson becomes the first standing president to be

impeached; at the end of the trial, he retains his office by a one-vote margin. Violation of the Tenure of Office Act is offered as the reason.

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New SouthPOLITICAL OVERVIEWCongressional Reconstruction, 1867-1877• May 21, 1868: Grant is nominated as Republican presidential candidate.• June-July 1868: Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, and South

Carolina are readmitted to the Union.• July 28, 1868: Fourteenth Amendment ratified.• Nov. 3, 1868: General Grant is elected president against Democratic opponent

Horatio Seymour; Grant has a solid Electoral College majority of 412-80, but wins the popular vote only by 306,000 in a total vote of 5,715,000.

• February 26, 1869: Congress passes the Fifteenth Amendment, stating that the right to vote can not be denied on the basis of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." It is sent to the states for ratification.

• Fall 1869: Violence against blacks intensifies in the South.• Jan. – July 1870: Virginia, Mississippi, Texas, and finally Georgia are

readmitted to the Union; Georgia is the last.• February 3: The 15th Amendment is ratified.

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New SouthPOLITICAL OVERVIEWCongressional Reconstruction, 1867-1877• October 1871: Congress hears testimony about Klan violence.• May 1872: “Liberal Republican” convention nominates newspaper editor

Horace Greeley for its candidate for president. Democrats also nominate him. Opposition against “Grantism”: allowing large-scale corruption.

• June 1872: Grant is re-nominated by the Republicans.• September 1872: Crédit Mobilier scandal involving Grant administration

officials is revealed.• Nov. 5, 1872: Grant is reelected with a 286-66 Electoral College majority and

a popular vote majority of 763,000. • April 13, 1873: White paramilitary group massacres roughly 100 black men in

Colfax, Louisiana.• September 18, 1873: The Panic of 1873 sends Wall Street stocks crashing,

triggering an economic downturn with high unemployment.

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New SouthPOLITICAL OVERVIEWCongressional Reconstruction, 1867-1877• Fall 1874:Political tide finally turns against the Republicans in the midterm

elections, the Democrats gain a majority in Congress for the first time since 1861.

• March 1, 1875: As one of its last acts, the Republican-led Congress passes the Civil Rights Bill of 1875, prohibiting segregation in public facilities. The law will stand only until 1883, when the U.S. Supreme Court will strike it down.

• November 1876: The presidential election leaves no clear winner because of contested Electoral College votes from

• March 4, 1877: Following a bitterly disputed presidential contest between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, in which both candidates claim victory, Hayes is declared president. In a back-room political deal, the Republicans agree to abandon Reconstruction policies in exchange for the presidency.

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South The Problems of Peacemaking

• How could Lincoln sign a treaty with a power that he believed had no legal right to exist? How could sworn enemies be reintegrated into the nation?

– The Aftermath of War and Emancipation• Wholesale destruction in many parts of the South: burned cities and

plantations, neglected fields, destroyed bridges and railroads.• Major cities destroyed or severely damaged included Atlanta, Georgia;

Charleston, South Carolina; Columbia, South Carolina; and Richmond, Virginia.

• General Sherman’s “March to Sea” (Nov.-Dec. 1864): Cut a huge swath of destruction between Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia.

• White planters had lost their slaves and investments in Confederate bonds.

• Roughly 258,000 Confederate soldiers killed, and thousands wounded.

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

Charleston,

South Carolina

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The Problems of Peacemaking– Competing Notions of

Freedom Black Desire for

Independence The Freedmen’s Bureau:

Created in March 1865.A Freedman’s Bureau School (U.S. Military Institute, Carlisle, PA)

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The Problems of Peacemaking– Plans for Reconstruction

Lincoln’s “Ten-Percent” Plan Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of Penn. and Sen. Charles

Sumner of Mass.: Radicals who wanted more punitive measures toward those who had been loyal to the Confederacy, including land confiscations.

Wade-Davis Bill: How did it differ from Lincoln’s plan?

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The Problems of Peacemaking– The Death of

Lincoln John Wilkes

Booth conspires to “decapitate” the Union and to gain one last chance for Southern independence Lincoln’s Funeral Procession

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The Problems of Peacemaking– Johnson and “Restoration”

Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan: Essentially the Wade-Davis plan, but with more amnesty for former Confederates in the political process.

Hardening Northern Attitudes

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

Radical Reconstruction– The Black Codes

Johnson’s Vetoes

– The Fourteenth Amendment Citizenship for African Americans Radicals Ascendant

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South– The Fourteenth Amendment

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South– The Fourteenth Amendment

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

Radical Reconstruction– The Congressional Plan

Fifteenth Amendment Tenure of Office Act

– The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson The President Acquitted

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

Fifteenth Amendment– Section 1. The right of citizens of the United

States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

– Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

Reconstruction, 1866-187720

Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The South in Reconstruction– The Reconstruction

Governments “Scalawags” and

“Carpetbaggers” Freedmen

The Louisiana Constitutional Convention, 1868

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The South in Reconstruction– Education

Establishment of Black Schools

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The South in Reconstruction– Landownership and Tenancy

Land Reform Thwarted Rapid Growth of Sharecropping

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The South in Reconstruction– Incomes and Credit

Persistent Black Poverty The “Crop-lien System”

– The African American Family in Freedom Families Reunited

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The Grant Administration– The Soldier President

Grant Elected in 1868 Liberal Republicans

challenge him in 1872, but he is reelected.

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Ulysses S. Grant (Royalty-Free/CORBIS)

Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The Grant Administration– The Grant Scandals

Crédit Mobilier The “Whiskey Ring” The “Indian Ring” Accusations of “Grantism”

Grant the Trapeze Artist, Joseph Keppler, 1880 (Library of Congress

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The Grant Administration– Panic of 1873 creates a financial crisis– The Greenback Question

Specie Resumption Act National Greenback Party

– Republican Diplomacy Purchase of Alaska “Alabama Claims” Resolved

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The Abandonment of Reconstruction– The Southern States “Redeemed”

Ku Klux Klan

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The Abandonment of Reconstruction– Waning Northern Commitment

Flagging Interest in Civil Rights

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The Abandonment of Reconstruction– The Compromise of 1877

Disputed Election Special Electoral

Commission Federal Troops

Withdrawn

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Election of 1876

Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The Abandonment of Reconstruction– The Legacy of Reconstruction

Lasting Contributions Limits of Reconstruction

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The New South– The “Redeemers”

“Home Rule”

– Industrialization and the New South Henry Grady Substantial Railroad Development Worker Exploitation

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The New South– Tenants and Sharecroppers

Impoverished Agriculture

The Crop-Lien System in 1880

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The New South– African Americans and the New South

Booker T. Washington

Atlanta Compromise

Tuskegee Students(Library of Congress)

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

The New South– The Birth of Jim Crow

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Black Disenfranchisement Jim Crow Laws Ida B. Wells

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Chapter Fifteen:

Reconstruction and the New South

A Lynch Mob, 1893(Library of Congress)

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