RECONSTRUCTION1865-1877

PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION1. Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan

Lincoln suggested a basis for Reconstruction in a

Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction issued on

December 8, 1863.

His Ten Percent Plan proposed a generous settlement.

Lincoln offered a full pardon (except for high ranking

Confederate leaders) to Southerners who pledged loyalty

to the Union and to the Constitution. Southern states in

which 10 percent of the 1860 electorate took such an

oath and accepted emancipation would be restored to

the Union.

PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION

Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan

Lincoln concluded his Second Inaugural Address by

promising “malice toward none, with charity for all.”

He pledged “to bind up the nation’s wounds” and

strive for “a just and lasting peace among ourselves

and with all nations.” We will never know if Lincoln

could have fulfilled his inspiring pledge. Just over a

month later, John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln

while he was watching a play at Ford’s Theater in

Washington.

PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION

2. Johnson’s Plan

Lincoln’s tragic death placed the burden of reconstructing the South on the untested shoulders of his former Vice-President, Andrew Johnson.

Johnson issued his own Reconstruction Plan in May, 1865. Like Lincoln, Johnson offered amnesty to most Confederates who took an oath of loyalty to the Union. High officials and wealthy planters had to apply for a presidential pardon. Whites in each Southern state could then elect delegates to a state convention. The convention had to repeal all secession laws, repudiate (take back) Confederate war debts, and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery.

PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION3. Southern resistance

All of the Southern states soon complied with Johnson’s plan. Moderate

Republicans hoped the restored governments would act responsibly and treat

their former slaves fairly. That did not happen. Resentful and intransigent

(unyielding) white Southerners called for a renewal of laws to control the freed

black population.

Newly elected state legislatures promptly enacted laws known as Black Codes

designed to limit the rights of the newly freedmen. The codes circumscribed

(limited) the socioeconomic opportunities open to black people. For example,

the codes barred blacks from owning land, marrying whites, and carrying

weapons. They were forced to return to farm labor under conditions

reminiscent of slavery.

PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION

Southern resistance

Racial tensions soon erupted into violent riots in Memphis and New Orleans. Mob

violence in these cities claimed the lives of 80 African Americans and 5 whites.

Rioter looted and burned hundreds of black homes, churches, and schools.

The new Johnson state governments provided further evidence that the South

remained unrepentant. When Congress reconvened in December 1865, a large

number of former Confederate politicians and military officers were waiting to take

seats in the House and Senate.

RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION

1. Congress versus President Johnson

The Republican-dominated Congress refused to admit the senators and representatives elected

by the Southern states., Congress formed a Joint Committee on Reconstruction.

The Committee recommended a Civil Rights Act to clarify the rights of freed slaves. The act

states that blacks were citizens who had the same civil rights as those enjoyed by whites.

Congress passed the bill in March 1866.

Johnson vetoing the bill. He claimed it was an unwarranted extension of federal power that

would “foment discord among the races.”

Johnson’s veto galvanized (energized) the Republicans. They successfully overrode the

presidential veto. This marked the first time Congress had prevailed over a veto of a major

piece of legislation. It also marked the beginning of a two-year struggle between Congress and

President Johnson that ended with an impeachment

trial.

RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION

2. The Fourteenth Amendment

The Republican majority in Congress feared that Johnson would not

enforce the Civil Rights Act. They also worried that the courts would

declare the law unconstitutional. These concerns prompted Congress to

pass the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution in June 1866.

The Fourteenth Amendment overturned the Dred Scott decision by

declaring that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States…are

citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION

The Fourteenth Amendment

The amendment also gave the federal government responsibility for

guaranteeing equal rights under the law to all Americans. The

amendment prohibited the states from depriving “any person of life,

liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any

person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws.”

The Fourteenth Amendment intensified the struggle for power

between President Johnson and Congress. Saying that blacks were

unfit to receive “the coveted prize” of citizenship, Johnson urged

state legislatures in the South to reject the amendment. He also

vigorously campaigned Congressional candidates who supported his

policies. Johnson’s strategy backfired. Outraged voters repudiated

the President’s policies by giving the Republicans a solid two-thirds

majority in both houses of Congress.

RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION3. The Radical Republicans

The victorious Republicans returned to Congress in

an angry and determined mood. Led by

Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and

Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, the Radicals now

controlled Congress. They were resolved to punish

the former Confederate states and protect the rights

of black citizens.

The Reconstruction Act of 1867 eliminated the state

governments created by Johnson’s plan. It divided the

South into five military districts, each under the

command of a Union general. In order to be

readmitted into the Union, a state had to approve the

Fourteenth Amendment and guarantee black suffrage.

The growing rift between the Radical Republicans and

the President deepened when Johnson vetoed the

Reconstruction Act. Congress immediately overrode

his veto.

RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION4. The impeachment crisis

Although he had been rejected by the electorate and humiliated by Congress, Johnson remained defiant. He undermined the Radical program by appointing generals who obstructed the implementation of the Reconstruction Act.

Congress escalated the crisis by passing the Tenure of Office Act. It required Senate consent for the removal of any official whose appointment had required Senate confirmation. Convinced that the law was unconstitutional, Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, a leading Radical Republican ally.

To no one’s surprise, Johnson’s provocative action prompted the Radicals to pass a resolution declaring that the President should be impeached. On February 24, 1868 the Republican-dominated House of Representatives impeached Johnson for “high crimes and misdemeanors in office,” that included violating the Tenure of Office Act. After a tense trial, the Senate failed to convict Johnson by one vote.

Although Johnson escaped conviction, the trial crippled his presidency. Ten months later, voters sent the Union war hero Ulysses S. Grant to the White House. The Republicans completed their overwhelming victory by retaining two-thirds majorities in both houses of Congress.

THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT

The Fifteenth Amendment marked the last of the three Reconstruction Amendments. Ratified on February 3, 1870, it forbade either the federal government or the states from denying citizens the right to vote on the basis of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

The Fifteenth Amendment enabled African Americans to exercise political influence for the first time. Freedmen provided about 80 percent of Republican votes in the South. Over 600 blacks served as state legislators in the new state governments. In addition, voters elected 14 blacks to the House of Representatives and 2 to the Senate. Black voters supported the Republican Party loyally casting votes that helped elect Grant in 1868 and 1872.

FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT

While African Americans celebrated the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, leading women’s rights activists felt outraged and abandoned. They angrily demanded to know why the suffrage was granted to ex-slaves but not to women. Julia Ward Howe and other leaders of the women’s suffrage movement finally accepted that this was “the Negro’s hour.” However, both Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton actively opposed passage of the Fifteenth Amendment.

It is important to note that the South would soon find ways to circumvent (evade, get around) the amendment. For example, property qualifications, poll taxes, and literacy tests all denied blacks the vote without legally making skin color a determining factor.

FROM SLAVE TO SHARECROPPER

The Civil War brought freedom to the slaves. However, Reconstruction brought few freedmen the “4o acres and a mule” promised by zealous reformers. Many former slaves stayed on their old plantations because they could not afford to leave.

During the late 1860s, cotton planters and black freedmen entered a new labor system called sharecropping. Under this system, black (and sometimes white) families exchanged their labor for the use of land, tools, and seed. The sharecropper typically gave the landowner half of the crop as payment for using his property.

In addition to being in debt to the landlord, sharecroppers had to borrow supplies from local storekeepers to feed and clothe their families. These merchants then took a lien or mortgage on the crops.

Sharecropping did not lead to economic independence. Unscrupulous (unprincipled) merchants often charged sharecroppers exorbitant (excessively high) prices and unfair interest rates. As a result, the freedmen became trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of debt and poverty.

THE COLLAPSE OF RECONSTRUCTION

1. The Ku Klux Klan

Southerners bitterly resented governments imposed by Radical Republicans that repealed

Black Codes and guaranteed voting and other civil rights to African Americans.

The years immediately following the Civil War witnessed the proliferation of white

supremacist organizations. The Ku Klux Klan began in Tennessee in 1866 and then quickly

spread across the South. Anonymous Klansmen dressed in white robes and pointed cowls

used whippings, house-burnings, kidnappings, and lynchings to keep blacks “in their place.”

The Klan’s reign of terror worked. Without the support of black voters, Republican

governments fell across the South. By 1876, Democrats replaced Republicans in eight of

the eleven former Confederate states. Only South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida

remained under Republican control.

THE COLLAPSE OF RECONSTRUCTION

2. The erosion of Northern interest

Radical Republicans had long been the driving force behind the

program to restructure Southern society. Sympathy for the

freedmen began to wane (fade) as these leaders died or left office.

A new generation of “politicos” began to focus their attention on a

series of issues that included Western expansion, Indian wars, tariffs,

and railroad construction.

President Grant showed little enthusiasm for Reconstruction. His

administration soon became distracted by scandals and charges of

corruption. In addition, a business panic followed by a crippling

economic depression further undermined public support for

Reconstruction.

THE COLLAPSE OF RECONSTRUCTION

3. The Compromise of 1877

Disillusioned voters looked to the 1876 presidential election for a return to honest

government. The Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes, an Ohio governor

untarnished by the scandals of the Grant administration. The Democrats countered

by nominated Samuel Tilden, a New York governor who earned a reputation as a

reformed by battling Boss Tweed.

Tilden won a convincing victory in the popular vote and 184 of the 185 votes needed

for the election. However, both parties claimed 19 disputed electoral votes in

Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and one in Oregon.

THE COLLAPSE OF RECONSTRUCTION

The Compromise of 1877

Congress created an electoral commission to determine which

candidate would receive the disputed electoral votes. As tensions

mounted, Democratic and Republican leaders reached an agreement

known as the Compromise of 1877. The Democrats agreed to

support Hayes. In return, Hayes and the Republicans agreed to

withdraw all federal troops from the South, appoint at least one

Southerner to a cabinet post, and support internal improvements in

the South.

The Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction. The Republican

governments in Louisiana and South Carolina quickly collapsed as

Southern Democrats proclaimed a return to “home rule” and white

supremacy.