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Reconstruction 1863—1877
During the process of Reconstruction, many Northern politicians, including President Andrew Johnson, wanted to show no mercy toward the South. These men wanted to punish the South for seceding and for supporting slavery, If you were a Northern legislator, would you rule and rebuild the South with an iron fist, or would you show mercy?
Explain
American Communities
In Hale County(Alabama) former slaves showed an increased sense of autonomy, expressing it through politics and through their new work patterns.
One planter described how freed people refused to do “their former accustomed work.”
Former slaveholders had to reorganize their plantations and allow slaves to work the land as sharecroppers, rather than hired hands.
Freed people organized themselves and were elected to the state legislature.
These acts of autonomy led to a white backlash, including nighttime attacks by Ku Klux Klansmen intent on terrorizing freed blacks and maintaining white social and political supremacy.
KKK’s goal was to limit the political & economic gains freedman during Reconstruction
The Civil War confirmed that the federal government took
precedence over individual states
The Politics of
Reconstruction
The South had been thoroughly defeated and its economy lay in ruins.
The presence of Union troops further embittered white Southerners.
The changed status of African Americans freedom seemed like betrayal to white supremacy.
The passion of most white Southerners was re-establishing white supremacy & social order
The major issue of Reconstruction was to regularize relations between former Confederates states and the United States Government
Lincoln promoted a plan to bring states back into the Union as quickly as possible protecting private property and opposing harsh punishments. Amnesty was promised to those swearing
allegiance. State governments could be established if 10
percent of the voters took an oath of allegiance. His plan was known as the 10% plan
Congress proposed the Wade-Davis bill in 1864 in response to Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan This bill required 50% of seceding state’s
white male citizens to take a loyalty oath before elections could be held for a convention to rewrite the state’s constitution
Lincoln used a pocket veto to kill a plan passed by Congressional radicals
Redistribution of land posed another problem.
Congress created the Freedman’s Bureau and passed the Thirteenth Amendment
Andrew Johnson, the new president, was a War Democrat from Tennessee.
He had used harsh language to describe southern “traitors” but blamed individuals rather than the entire South for secession.
Johnson’s goal was to restore the Union as quickly as possible
While Congress was not in session he granted amnesty to most Confederates. Initially, wealthy landholders and members of
the political elite had been excluded, but Johnson pardoned most of them.
Johnson appointed provisional governors who organized new governments.
By December, Johnson claimed that “restoration” was virtually complete.
Radical Republicans wanted to remake the South in the North’s image, advocating land redistribution to make former slaves independent landowners.
Stringent “Black Codes” outraged many Northerners.
Restricted the rights of freedman
In December 1865, Congress excluded the southern representatives.
Congress overrode Johnson’s vetoes of a Civil Rights bill and a bill to enlarge the scope of the Freedman’s Bureau. Fearful that courts might declare the Civil Rights
Act unconstitutional, Congress drafted the Fourteenth Amendment.
Republicans won the Congressional elections of 1866 that had been a showdown between Congress and Johnson over Reconstruction and the amendment.
Republicans reminded the Northern voters of Union casualties was “waving the bloody shirt”
The First Reconstruction Act of 1867 Freed blacks Divided the South into five military districts Overturned the Presidential Reconstruction Process Southern states had to ratify the 14th amendment
A crisis developed over whether Johnson could replace Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.
In violation of the Tenure of Office Act, Johnson fired Stanton.
The House impeached Johnson but the Senate vote fell one vote short of conviction. This set the precedent that criminal actions by a president
—not political disagreements—warranted removal from office.
By 1868, eight of the eleven ex-Confederate states were back in the Union.
Republicans nominated Ulysses Grant for president.
The Republicans attacked Democrats’ loyalties.
Democrats exploited racism to gather votes and used terror in the South to keep Republicans from voting.
Republicans won with less than 53 percent of the vote.
The remaining unreconstructed states (Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia) had to ratify both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to be admitted to the Union. National citizenship included former slaves (“all persons born or naturalized in
the United States”). “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or
abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
The states ratified the amendments and rejoined the Union in 1870.
Women’s rights activists were outraged that the new laws enfranchised African Americans but not women.
The movement split over whether to support a linkage between the rights of women and African Americans. The more radical group fought against the passage
of the Fifteenth Amendment and formed an all-female suffrage group.
A more moderate group supported the amendment while working toward suffrage at a state level and enlisting the support of men.
1. The 13th, 14th & 15th amendments are known as the Civil War Amendments
2. On a separate piece of paper summarize each amendment in YOUR own words.
3. Next draw a picture of the amendment’s meaning.
The Meaning of Freedom
For many freed people, the first impulse to define freedom was to move about.
Many who left soon returned to seek
work in their neighborhoods.
Others sought new lives in predominantly black areas, even cities.
Freedom for African Americans was: Education Church Making their own work schedules
Freedom provided the chance to reunite with lost family members.
The end of slavery allowed African Americans to more closely fulfill appropriate gender roles. Males took on more authority in the family. Women continued to work outside the home.
Emancipation allowed ex-slaves to practice religion without white interference.
African-American communities pooled their resources to establish churches, the first social institution that they fully controlled.
Education was another symbol of freedom. By 1869 over 3,000 Freedman’s Bureau schools taught over
150,000 students. Black colleges were established as well.
African Americans sought economic self-sufficiency through land ownership.
The Freedman’s Bureau was forced to evict tens of thousands of blacks that had been settled on confiscated lands.
At war’s end most planters expected blacks to work for wages in gangs, but this was unacceptable to many ex-slaves.
Sharecropping came to dominate the southern agricultural economy.
Sharecropping represented a compromise between planter and former slave.
They worked a plot of land in return for a portion of the crop
Sharecroppers set their own hours and tasks.
Families labored together on adjoining parcels of land.
Former slaves organized politically to protect their interests and to promote their own participation.
Five states had black electoral majorities.
The Union League became the political voice of former slaves. This was the Republicans Party’s
organizational arm in the South
New leaders, drawn from the ranks of teachers and ministers, emerged to give direction to the black community as it fought for equal rights.
Most Freedmen supported the Republican Party.
Southern Politics and Society
Most northerners were satisfied with a reconstruction that brought the South back into the Union with a viable Republican Party. Achieving this goal required active
Federal support to protect the African-American voters upon which it depended.
Republicans also drew strength from: white, northern, middle-class emigrants called
carpetbaggers native southern white Republicans called scalawags
who were businessmen and Unionists from the mountains with old scores to settle
The result was an uneasy alliance, with each group pushing an agenda that was incompatible with the plans devised by its allies.
ScalawagsNative southern whites who joined the Republican Party & worked with freedman and the Northerners who came to make their fortune
a derogatory term (originally describing worthless livestock)
Carpetbaggers Applied to Northerners who went South during
Reconstruction, motivated by either profit or idealism.
The name referred to the cloth bags many of them used for transporting their possessions.
Throughout the South, state conventions that had a significant African-American presence drafted constitutions and instituted political and humanitarian reforms. The new governments insisted on equal
rights, but accepted separate schools.
The Republican governments did little to assist African Americans in acquiring land though they did help protect the rights of black laborers to bargain freely. Republican leaders envisioned promoting northern-
style prosperity and gave heavy subsidies for railroad development.
These plans frequently opened the doors to corruption and bankrupted the states.
Many white southerners believed that the Republicans were not a legitimate political group.
Paramilitary groups like the Ku Klux Klan used terror to destroy the Reconstruction governments and intimidate their supporters. Congress passed several laws to crack down on
the Klan. Ku Klux Klan Act
Made the violent infringement of civil and political rights a federal crime punishable by the national government
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 outlawed racial discrimination in public places.
As wartime idealism faded and Democrats gained strength in the North, northern Republicans abandoned the freed people and their white allies.
Conservative Democrats (Redeemers) won control of southern states.
Between 1873 and 1883, the Supreme Court weakened enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and overturned convictions of Klan members.
The South grew more heavily dependent on cotton.
The crop lien system provided loans in exchange for a lien on the crop.
As cotton prices spiraled downward, cotton growers fell more deeply into debt.
Merchants became the elite in the South.
The South emerged as an impoverished region.
Reconstructing the North
Republicans like Lincoln believed that their society was bound by a harmony of interests without class conflict that allowed for social mobility.
A violent railroad strike in 1877 suggested that the North had undergone its own reconstruction, shattering that harmony.
Fueled by railroad construction, the postwar years saw a continued industrial boom that concentrated industries into the hands of a few big businesses.
Several Republican politicians maintained close connections with railroad interests resulting in the Crédit Mobilier scandal.
This was the worst scandal in the Grant Administration. It created a dummy construction company to divert funds
intended for the construction of Union Pacific into the hands of large investors
Pacific Railway Act gave huge grants to Union Pacific & Central Pacific to build transcontinental Railroads
The Union Pacific & Central Pacific were also funded with land grants & subsidies from the federal government
The Union Pacific employed mainly African Americans & Irish
The Central Pacific employed immigrants from Japan
Chinese Exclusion Act Prohibited Chinese immigration to the United
States for 10 years
On May 10, 1869 the Union Pacific & the Central Pacific were joined by a golden spike at Promontory Point, Utah
The Republican Party underwent dramatic changes because: the old radicals were dying or losing
influence party leaders concentrated on holding on to
federal patronage a growing number of Republicans were
appalled by the corruption of the party and sought an alternative.
The Liberal Republicans: were suspicious of expanding democracy called for a return to limited government proposed civil service reform to insure elites
would have federal posts opposed continued federal involvement in
Reconstruction
In 1872, Horace Greeley challenged Ulysses Grant for the presidency. Grant easily won but the Liberal Republican agenda continued to gain influence.
In 1873, a financial panic triggered the longest depression in American history.
It was the result of commercial overexpansion and speculative investing in Railroads
Prices fell, unemployment rose, and many people sank deeply in debt.
Government officials rejected appeals for relief.
This depression made Americans more aware of & concerned with class interests.
As the election of 1876 approached, new scandals in the Grant administration hurt the Republicans
Credit Mobilier Whiskey Ring Bribes for the sale of Indian trading posts
. The Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden of
New York, a former prosecutor. Democrats combined attacks on Reconstruction with attacks on corruption.
The Republican nominee, Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, accused Democrats of treason and promised to clean up corruption.
Tilden won more votes than Hayes, but both sides claimed victory
In three southern states two sets of electoral votes were returned
An electoral commission awarded the disputed votes to Hayes.
Hayes struck a deal that promised money for southern internal improvements and noninterference in southern affairs
The remaining federal troops were removed from the South
The remaining Republican governments in the South lost power
Thomas Nast was a political cartoonist who appeared in Harper’s Weekly
He attacked the dishonesty & corruption of the Tweed Ring
Thomas Nast was a political cartoonist who appeared in Harper’s Weekly
He attacked the dishonesty and corruption of the Tweed Ring
President Lincoln’s PlanPresident Lincoln’s Plan10% Plan
* Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (December 8, 1863)
* Replace majority rule with “loyal rule” in the South.
* He didn’t consult Congress regarding Reconstruction.
* Pardon to all but the highest ranking military and civilian Confederate officers.
* When 10% of the voting population in the 1860 election had taken an oath of loyalty and established a government, it would be recognized.
President Lincoln’s PlanPresident Lincoln’s Plan
1864 “Lincoln Governments” formed in LA, TN, AR
* “loyal assemblies”
* They were weak and dependent on the Northern army for their survival.
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)Wade-Davis Bill (1864) Required 50% of the
number of 1860 voters to take an “iron clad” oath of allegiance (swearing they had never voluntarily aided the rebellion ).
Required a state constitutional convention before the election of state officials.
Enacted specific safeguards of freedmen’s liberties.
SenatorBenjamin
Wade(R-OH)
Congressman
HenryW. Davis(R-MD)
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)Wade-Davis Bill (1864) “Iron-Clad” Oath.
“State Suicide” Theory [MA Senator Charles Sumner]
“Conquered Provinces” Position[PA Congressman Thaddeus Stevens]
PresidentPresidentLincolnLincoln
PresidentPresidentLincolnLincoln
Wade-DavisWade-DavisBillBill
Wade-DavisWade-DavisBillBill
PocketVeto
PocketVeto
Jeff Davis Under ArrestJeff Davis Under Arrest
13th Amendment13th Amendment Ratified in December, 1865.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)
Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.
Many former northern abolitionists risked their lives to help southern freedmen.
Called “carpetbaggers” by white southern Democrats.
Freedmen’s Bureau Seen Through Southern Eyes
Freedmen’s Bureau Seen Through Southern Eyes
Plenty to eat and
nothing to do.
Freedmen’s Bureau School
Freedmen’s Bureau School
President Andrew Johnson
President Andrew Johnson Jacksonian
Democrat.
Anti-Aristocrat.
White Supremacist.
Agreed with Lincolnthat states had neverlegally left the Union.
Damn the negroes! I am fighting these traitorous aristocrats, their masters!
President Johnson’s Plan (10%+)
President Johnson’s Plan (10%+) Offered amnesty upon simple oath to all except
Confederate civil and military officers and those with property over $20,000 (they could apply directly to Johnson)
In new constitutions, they must accept minimumconditions repudiating slavery, secession and state debts.
Named provisional governors in Confederate states and called them to oversee elections for constitutional conventions.
EFFECTS?
1. Disenfranchised certain leading Confederates.2. Pardoned planter aristocrats brought them back to political power to control state organizations.3. Republicans were outraged that planter elite were back in power in the South!
Growing Northern Alarm!
Growing Northern Alarm! Many Southern state
constitutions fell short of minimum requirements.
Johnson granted 13,500 special pardons.
Revival of southern defiance.
BLACK CODES BLACK CODES
Slavery is Dead?Slavery is Dead?
Black CodesBlack CodesPurpose:
* Guarantee stable labor supply now that blacks were emancipated.
* Restore pre-emancipationsystem of race relations.
Forced many blacks to become sharecroppers [tenant farmers].
Congress Breaks with the President
Congress Breaks with the President Congress bars Southern
Congressional delegates.
Joint Committee on Reconstruction created.
February, 1866 Presidentvetoed the Freedmen’sBureau bill.
March, 1866 Johnsonvetoed the 1866 Civil Rights Act.
Congress passed both bills over Johnson’s vetoes 1st in U. S. history!!
Johnson the Martyr / Samson
Johnson the Martyr / SamsonIf my blood is to be shed If my blood is to be shed
because I vindicate the because I vindicate the Union and the preservation Union and the preservation of this government in its of this government in its original purity and original purity and character, let it be shed; character, let it be shed; let an altar to the Union be let an altar to the Union be erected, and then, if it is erected, and then, if it is necessary, take me and necessary, take me and lay me upon it, and the lay me upon it, and the blood that now warms and blood that now warms and animates my existence animates my existence shall be poured out as a fit shall be poured out as a fit libation to the Union.libation to the Union. (February 1866) (February 1866)
14th Amendment14th AmendmentRatified in July, 1868.
* Provide a constitutional guarantee of the rights and security of freed people.
* Insure against neo-Confederate political power.
* Enshrine the national debt while repudiating that of the Confederacy.
Southern states would be punished for denying the right to vote to black citizens!
The Balance of Power in Congress
The Balance of Power in Congress
State White Citizens Freedmen
SC 291,000 411,000
MS 353,000 436,000
LA 357,000 350,000
GA 591,000 465,000
AL 596,000 437,000
VA 719,000 533,000
NC 631,000 331,000
The 1866 Bi-ElectionThe 1866 Bi-Election
Johnson’s “Swing around the Circle”
A referendum on Radical Reconstruction.
Johnson made an ill-conceived propaganda tour around the country to push his plan.
Republicanswon a 3-1majority in both houses and gained control of every northern state.
Radical Plan for Readmission
Radical Plan for Readmission Civil authorities in the territories were
subject to military supervision.
Required new state constitutions, includingblack suffrage and ratification of the 13th and 14th Amendments.
In March, 1867, Congress passed an act that authorized the military to enroll eligible black voters and begin the process of constitution making.
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
Military Reconstruction Act
* Restart Reconstruction in the 10 Southern states that refused to ratify the 14th Amendment.
* Divide the 10 “unreconstructed states” into 5 military districts.
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
Command of the Army Act
* The President must issue all Reconstruction orders through the commander of the military.
Tenure of Office Act
* The President could not remove any officials [esp. Cabinet members] without the Senate’s consent, if the position originally required Senate approval.
Designed to protect radicalmembers of Lincoln’s government.
A question of the constitutionality of this law. Edwin Stanton
President Johnson’s Impeachment
President Johnson’s Impeachment Johnson removed Stanton in February, 1868.
Johnson replaced generals in the field who were more sympathetic to Radical Reconstruction.
The House impeached him on February 24 before even drawing up the charges by a vote of 126 – 47!
The Senate TrialThe Senate Trial
11 week trial.
Johnson acquitted 35 to 19 (one short of required 2/3s vote).
The 1868 Republican Ticket
The 1868 Republican Ticket
The 1868 Democratic Ticket
The 1868 Democratic Ticket
Waving the Bloody Shirt!Waving the Bloody Shirt!
Republican “Southern Strategy”
1868 Presidential Election
1868 Presidential Election
President Ulysses S. GrantPresident Ulysses S. Grant
Grant Administration Scandals
Grant Administration Scandals Grant presided over an era of
unprecedented growth and corruption.
* Credit Mobilier
Scandal.
* Whiskey Ring.
* The “Indian Ring.”
The Tweed Ring in NYC
The Tweed Ring in NYC
William Marcy Tweed (notorious head of Tammany Hall’s political machine)
[Thomas Nast crusading cartoonist/reporter]
Who Stole the People’s Money?
Who Stole the People’s Money?
And They Say He Wants a Third Term
And They Say He Wants a Third Term
The Election of 1872The Election of 1872 Rumors of corruption
during Grant’s first term discredit Republicans.
Horace Greeley runsas a Democrat/LiberalRepublican candidate.
Greeley attacked as afool and a crank.
Greeley died on November 29, 1872!
1872 Presidential Election
1872 Presidential Election
Popular Vote for President: 1872
Popular Vote for President: 1872
The Panic of 1873The Panic of 1873 It raises “the money
question.”
* debtors seek inflationarymonetary policy bycontinuing circulation of greenbacks.
* creditors, intellectuals support hard money.
1875 Specie Redemption Act.
1876 Greenback Party formed & makes gains in congressional races The “Crime of ’73’!
Legal ChallengesLegal Challenges
The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)
Bradwell v. IL (1873)
U. S. v. Cruickshank (1876)
U. S. v. Reese (1876)
SharecroppingSharecropping
Tenancy & the Crop Lien System
Tenancy & the Crop Lien SystemFurnishing Merchant Tenant Farmer Landowner
Loan tools and seed up to 60% interest to tenant farmer to plant spring crop.
Farmer also secures food, clothing, andother necessities oncredit from merchant until the harvest.
Merchant holds “lien” {mortgage} on part of tenant’s future crops as repayment of debt.
Plants crop, harvests in autumn.
Turns over up to ½ of crop to land owner as payment of rent.
Tenant gives remainder of crop to merchant inpayment of debt.
Rents land to tenant in exchange for ¼ to ½ of tenant farmer’s future crop.
Black & White Political Participation
Black & White Political Participation
Establishment of Historically Black Colleges in the South
Establishment of Historically Black Colleges in the South
Black Senate & House Delegates
Black Senate & House Delegates
Colored Rule
in the South?
Colored Rule
in the South?
Blacks in Southern PoliticsBlacks in Southern Politics Core voters were black veterans.
Blacks were politically unprepared.
Blacks could register and vote in states since 1867.
The 15th Amendment guaranteedfederal voting.
15th Amendment15th Amendment Ratified in 1870.
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.
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Women’s rights groups were furious that they were not granted the vote!
The “Invisible Empire of the South”
The “Invisible Empire of the South”
The Failure of Federal Enforcement
The Failure of Federal Enforcement Enforcement Acts of 1870 &
1871 [also known as the KKK Act].
“The Lost Cause.”
The rise of the“Bourbons.”
Redeemers (prewarDemocrats and Union Whigs).
The Civil Rights Act of 1875The Civil Rights Act of 1875
Crime for any individual to deny full &equal use of public conveyances andpublic places.
Prohibited discrimination in jury selection.
Shortcoming lacked a strong enforcement mechanism.
No new civil rights act was attemptedfor 90 years!
Northern Support WanesNorthern Support Wanes “Grantism” & corruption.
Panic of 1873 [6-yeardepression].
Concern over westwardexpansion and Indian wars.
Key monetary issues:
* should the government retire $432m worth of “greenbacks” issued during the Civil War.
* should war bonds be paid back in specie orgreenbacks.
1876 Presidential Tickets1876 Presidential Tickets
“Regional Balance?”“Regional Balance?”
1876 Presidential Election
1876 Presidential Election
The Political Crisis of 1877
The Political Crisis of 1877
“Corrupt Bargain”Part II?
Hayes PrevailsHayes Prevails
Alas, the Woes of Childhood…
Alas, the Woes of Childhood…
Sammy Tilden—Boo-Hoo! Ruthy Hayes’s got my Presidency, and he won’t give it to me!
A Political Crisis: The “Compromise” of 1877A Political Crisis: The “Compromise” of 1877
