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Reconstruction (1865-1876). Wartime Reconstruction. President Lincoln ’ s Plan. 10% Plan “ Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction ” (December 8, 1863) Presidential Pardons to: 1) took loyalty oath to the Union and Constitution & 2) agreed to emancipation.
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Reconstruction (1865-1876)
Wartime Reconstruction
President Lincoln’s Plan • 10% Plan • “Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction” (December 8, 1863) • Presidential Pardons to: 1) took loyalty oath to the Union and Constitution & 2) agreed to emancipation. • When 10% of the voting pop. in the 1860 election were “loyal” the state could be reestablished. • He didn’t consult Congress regarding Reconstruction.
President 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) • Many Republicans in Congress felt Lincoln’s plan too lenient. • Required 50% of the number of 1860 voters to take oath • “Iron-clad Oath” only non-Confederates could vote only if they never voluntarily aided the rebellion. • Enacted specific safeguards of freedmen’s liberties. • Lincoln “pocket” vetoed it. SenatorBenjaminWade(R-OH) CongressmanHenryW. Davis(R-MD)
13th Amendment • Ratified in December, 1865. • Slavery abolished. • Congress has the power to enforce it.
Freedmen’s Bureau (1865) • “Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands” • Provided food, schooling, and attempted land. “Forty Acres and a mule”? • Headed by General Oliver O. Howard • Many former northern abolitionists risked their lives to help southern freedmen. • Called “carpetbaggers” by white southern Democrats.
Freedmen’s Bureau School • Established 3,000 schools and several black • Colleges - educated 200,000 by 1870
Freedmen’s Bureau Seen Through Southern Eyes Plenty to eat and nothing to do.
Presidential Reconstruction
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%+) • Offered amnesty with oath to most southerners • Confederate civil and military officers and the wealthy ($20,000 or more in property) had to apply directly to Johnson • States had to ratify 13th Amendment. • Johnson granted 13,500 special pardons. • None of the new state constitutions extended voting rights to blacks - result?
Congress Breaks with the President • Congress bars SouthernCongressional 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 “If my blood is to be shed because I vindicate the Union and the preservation of this government in its original purity and character, let it be shed; let an altar to the Union be erected, and then, if it is necessary, take me and lay me upon it, and the blood that now warms and animates my existence shall be poured out as a fit libation to the Union.” (February 1866)
Black Codes • Couldn’t own land • “Vagrants” could be arrested and forced into labor • Purpose: • Guarantee stable labor supply. • Forced many blacks to become sharecroppers[tenant farmers].
Radical (Congressional) Reconstruction
Johnson’s “Swing around the Circle” The 1866 Bi-Election • 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.
14th Amendment • Late 1866 (Ratified in July, 1868). • Citizenship Clause: All persons born or naturalized in U.S. are citizens. • Due Process Clause: States can’t deny citizen rights, “equal protection” or “due process” to any U.S. citizen • Disqualified former Confederate political leaders from holding state or fed. office. • Confederate states must pay off debts. • Equal Protection Clause: Punished states that denied black suffrage by reducing members of Congress & electoral college
Radical Plan for Readmission • Military Reconstruction. • Required new state constitutions, including black suffrage and ratification of the 13th and 14th Amendments. • In March, 1867, Congress authorized the military to assist enrollment of black voters.
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 • 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. Edwin Stanton
President Johnson’s Impeachment • Johnson fired Stanton in February, 1868. • Johnson fired generals 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 Trial • 11 week trial. • Johnson acquitted 35 to 19 (one short of required 2/3s vote).
The Grant Administration (1868-1876)
“Waving the Bloody Shirt!” Cartoonist Thomas Nast Republican “Southern Strategy” “This is a white man’s government”
1868 Presidential Election What was essential to Grant’s victory in the South?
15th Amendment • Passed in 1869 - Ratified in 1870. • The right to vote can’t be denied by the fed or state government“on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” • The Congress shall enforce it. • Women’s rights groups were furious - why? Susan B. Anthony Grrrr!
Grant Administration Scandals • Grant presided over an era of unprecedented growth and corruption. • Jay Gould & James Fisk corner the Gold Market “Black Friday” • Credit Mobilier Scandal • Whiskey Ring. • The “Indian Ring.” • “Grantism”
The Tweed Ring in NYC William Marcy Tweed (notorious head of Tammany Hall’s political machine) [Thomas Nast crusading cartoonist/reporter]
The Election of 1872 • Horace Greeley runsas a Democrat/LiberalRepublican candidate. • “New Departure” Democrats • Greeley attacked as afool and a crank & waved the “bloody shirt” again • Greeley died two weeks after the election “Whoever says this isn’t a real Elephant is a liar!”
The Panic of 1873 • Sparked by failure of Jay Cooke & Company & over-speculation of railroads • Lasted 4 years • Raised “the money question.” • Greenbacks vs. “sound currency” • 1875 Specie Resumption Act • 1876 Greenback Party formed & makes gains in congressional races The “Crime of ’73’!
Reconstruction in the "New South"
Blacks limited success • Reunited with families, many moved to cities. • Rise of Negro Baptist and American Methodists Episcopal (AME) churches • New black colleges - Howard, Atlanta, Fisk, Morehouse - train black ministers & teachers
Black Senate & House Delegates 20 blacks served in the House and 2 Senators including Hiram Revels & Blanche Bruce Senators of Mississippi
The “Invisible Empire of the South” *Enforcement Acts of 1870 & 1871 (KKK Acts) - fed troops to stop violence and protect civil rights. *Grant declared SC “state of lawlessness” *By 1872 KKK in decline Ku Klux Klan Founded in 1867
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 • Prohibited discrimination in public transportation, public places (hotels, railroads & theaters) & in jury selection. • Shortcoming lacked strong enforcement once troops were gone. • No new civil rights act was attempted for nearly 90 years! Thaddeus Stevens & Charles Sumner
The Abandonment of Reconstruction
Return of White Rule • Amnesty Act of 1872 • The rise of the “Redeemers” or “Bourbon Rule” • By 1876Democrats regained all ex-confederates except SC, FL & LA.
Northern Support Wanes • “Grantism” & corruption. • Panic of 1873 [worst depression yet]. • Concern over westwardexpansion and Indian wars. • Rise of Social Darwinism • 1874 Democrats gain House