Reconstruction 1863-1877

Chapter 17

Abraham Lincoln 1861-1865

Lincoln’s plan for reconstruction

• 1862- encouraged freedpeople to leave

- many object

• 12-8-63,Lincoln issues reconstruction plan

- oath / 10% & state readmitted

• Why did this plan angered many republicans?

Lincoln’s plan for reconstruction(continue)

• Wade-Davis reconstruction bill

- Lincoln vetoes bill

- assassinated (4-14-65) before announcing new reconstruction policy

President Andrew Johnson(1865-1869)

• “Treason is a crime…traitors must not only be punished, but their social power must be destroyed.”

Andrew Johnson & Reconstruction• Johnson as Lincoln’s running mate (1864)

- democrat (TN) / supported Union

• Johnson as President

- blanket amnesty

• What did Republicans believed Johnson wanted to restore?

Black Codes (1865)

• Black Codes enacted in state govt’s

- rights plummeted for 4 million freed slaves

- reduced freedmen to a condition close to slavery

The Freedmen’s Bureau

The Freedmen’s Bureau• Created by Congress 03/1865

- overseer in relation between former slaves & owners

- ensure payment / distributed food

- South’s economy & sharecropping

• Bureau helped ensure education for former slaves

- What did this reduce for many freedmen?

Johnson’s heavy hand• Vetoes on Congressional Legislation

- bill to extend life of Freedman’s Bureau

- Civil Rights bill- defined freedpeople as citizens w/ equal rights

Congress in response

- overrides vetoes

- passed 14th Amendment (1868)

- prohibits states from denying any person equal protection of the laws (A8)

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

• Tenure of Office Act (1867)

- required Senate approval before the president could remove a cabinet member

• Johnson removed secretary of war Edwin Stanton (Feb 1868)

Impeachment (continue)

• Congressional response

- House voted for impeachment (126-47)

- long Senate trial favored Johnson• Constitution: “Treason, bribery, & High Crimes”

• Real reason for impeachment

• Was Johnson removed from office?

Completion of Reconstruction

• Constitutional Conventions met in the South (1867-68)

- ¾ of delegates were of Republican party

- 30% were African American

• States must follow 14th & 15th amendment to be reinstated into Union (A12)

- universal male suffrage / schools

Presidential Election of 1868

• Ulysses Grant

• Grant Campaigned as War hero & anti-Johnson

- What was Grant’s slogan?

- denounced KKK in south

- won African American votes

• Grant won electoral college 214-80

Nathan Bedford Forrest

• One of the South’s most highly regarded Confederate general

• founder of the?

Problems with the Klu Klux Klan

• Organized to suppress republican party

- terrorize African Americans

- burning crosses, schools & homes

Grant’s response to KKK

• Congressional response (1870-71)

- 3 laws enforcing 14 & 15th amend

- KKK act

- Grant goes after Klan

1. 3,000 indicted / 600 convicted

• Measures broke Klan’s back for the 1872 election

• Congress passed Civil Rights Act of 1875

The Grant Administration (1869-77)

• Presidency damaged by poor judgment & scandals (unwise appointments)

- no political experience / very trustworthy

- sec of war impeached for selling jobs

• Presidency branded as a failure

Retreat from reconstruction• MS, LA, Fl, & NC remain republican

• Grant’s use of KKK act in La

- “bayonet rule”

- MS plan (p 458)

- supreme court ruling (U.S. v. Reese)

- declared CRA of 1875 unconstitutional

• Elections of 1875 /south goes democratic

Republican Rutherford Hayes elected president in 1877

End of Reconstruction

• Disputed election results• President’s plans to end reconstruction - rebuild south & withdraw federal troops• Compromise of 1877 - leave southern states to deal w/ problems - removal of fed troops / aid / appointment - ended reconstruction• Highlights of reconstruction - restore union / ended slavery