Reconstruction (1865-1876)

1. Reconstruction (1865-1876) REBUILDING the South RESTORING the Union RESTRUCTURING Southern society

2. Key Questions 1. How do webring the Southback into the Union? 4. What branchof governmentshould controlthe process ofReconstruction? 2. How do we rebuild the South after itsdestruction during the war? 3. How do weintegrate andprotect newly-emancipatedblack freedmen?

3. “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural, March 4, 1865 Wartime Reconstruction

4. President Lincoln’s Plan • 10% 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 a state’s voting population in the 1860 election had taken an oath of loyalty, pledged to abide by emancipation and established a government, it would be recognized.

5. President Lincoln’s Plan • 1864  “Lincoln Governments” formed in TN, LA, AR • “loyal assemblies” • They were weak and dependent on the Northern army for their survival.

6. Wade-Davis Bill (1864) • Congressfeared restoration of planter aristocracy & potential re-enslavement • 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 and stronger safeguards of freedmen’s liberties. SenatorBenjaminWade(R-OH) CongressmanHenryW. Davis(R-MD)

7. Wade-Davis Bill (1864) • “State Suicide” Theory [MA Senator Charles Sumner • Seceded states had committed “suicide” & were no more than territories with conditions of readmission to be determined soley by Congress • “Conquered Provinces” Position [PA Congressman Thaddeus Stevens – Radicals”] • LINCOLN VETOES! PocketVeto PresidentLincoln Wade-DavisBill

8. Capture of Jefferson Davis Jeff Davis Under Arrest

9. 13th 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. • CONGRESSshall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

10. Freedmen’s Bureau (1865) • Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. • Many former northern abolitionists risked their lives to help southern freedmen. • Primitive “welfare” agency – food, clothes, medical care • Called “carpetbaggers” by white southern Democrats. • Scalawags?

11. Freedmen’s Bureau Seen Through Southern Eyes Plenty to eat and nothing to do.

12. Freedmen’s Bureau School Primary success is in education

13. Presidential Reconstruction Andrew Johnson • A southerner who didn’t • understand the North, • A Tennessean who had earned the • distrust of the S, • A D who had never been accepted • by the Rs, • A P who had never been elected to • office • “The wrong man in the wrong place • at the wrong time.” • 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!”

14. 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 (but they could apply for pardon) • In new constitutions, they must REPEAL ordinances of secession, REPUDIATE war debts, & RATIFY 13TH Amendment in order to be READMITTED. • Named provisional governors in Confederate states and called them to oversee elections for constitutional conventions. 1. Disenfranchised certain leading Confederates. EFFECTS? 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 “New South!”

15. Growing Northern Alarm! • Many Southern state constitutions fell short of minimum requirements. • Johnson granted 13,500 special pardons. • Revival of southern defiance in the Post-war South. BLACK CODES

16. Slavery is Dead?

17. Black Codes in the Post-War South • Purpose: • Guarantee stable labor supply now that blacks were emancipated. • Restore pre-emancipationsystem of race relations. • Examples? • Forced many blacks to become sharecroppers[tenant farmers].

18. Congress Breaks with the President • Congress bars newly-elected Southern Congressional delegates. • Fear the power of a restored South. • February, 1866  Presidentvetoed bill to extend the life of the Freedmen’s Bureau. • Congress passes Civil Rights bill in March, 1866 to grant citizenship to blacks  Johnson vetoed it. • Congress passed both bills over Johnson’s vetoes  1st time in U. S. history!! - & will continue to override his vetoes “Dead Dog of the White House”

19. 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)

20. Radical (Congressional) Reconstruction Charles Sumner R (MA) Senate Thaddeus Stevens R (PA) House

21. Desire to punish South & wrest control from former Southern leaders…..wealthy landowners Desire to confiscate Southern land and redistribute to slaves “40 acres & a mule” Some southern land had been redistributed by Stanton & Sherman 40 acres in SC & GA to 40,000 freedmen All subsequently rescinded by Johnson Radicals and Southern Land

22. 14th Amendment • Ratified in July, 1868. • Provides a constitutional guarantee of the rights of citizenship & security of freed people. • Insures against neo-Confederate political power – How? • Enshrines the national debt while repudiating that of the Confederacy. • Why better than the Civil Rights Bill? • Southern states would be punished (representation reduced) for denying the right to vote to black MALE citizens!

23. The Balance of Power in Congress

24. Johnson’s “Swing around the Circle” The 1866 Congressional Elections • A referendum on Radical Reconstruction. • Johnson made an ill-conceived propaganda tour around the country to push his plan. • Republicanswon a 3-1veto-proof majority in both houses and gained control of every northern state.

25. Radical Plan for Readmission • Radicals seek full & complete rights for blacks with federal gov’t in control • Moderates (majority in Congress) just trying to keep states from infringing basic rights of blacks. • Required new state constitutions which included black suffrage and ratification of the 13th and 14th Amendments. • By 1870 – 15th Amendment ratified. • Why necessary in light of 14th Am.? • In March, 1867, Congress authorized the military to enroll eligible black voters.

26. 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. • Each has military governor • 20,000 troops • TN was first Southern state back in – 1866 & thus escaped military reconstruction

27. 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. • Was this law constitutional? Edwin Stanton, Sec. of War

28. Limitations of Radical Reconstruction • No land or education was guaranteed to freedmen • Belief that creating an electorate would be enough to protect freedmen’s rights. • Questionable legality of military rule: • Ex parte Milligan – Supreme Court had ruled that military tribunals could not try civilians even during wartime if civil courts were open. • So peacetime military rule would be in direct contrast to Constitution.

29. “Black Reconstruction” • Only one state legislature (SC) elected a majority of blacks in its lower house • No state senates had black majorities • No black governors elected • Most black officials that were elected were capable, educated, free-born • 2 U.S. Senators elected from MS • 14 black Congressmen elected

30. Southern Resentment & Resistance • “Scalawags” and “Carpetbaggers” • Accusations of corruption • Ku Klux Klan, TN, 1866 • Terrorists that targeted blacks, carpetbaggers, teachers in black schools, Radical Republicans • Main goal is disenfranchisement of blacks • How else were blacks disenfranchised? • Congress passes Force Acts of 1870 & 1871 – purpose?

31. President Johnson’s Impeachment • Johnson removed Stanton in February, 1868. • Johnson dismissed and 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!

32. The Senate Trial • 11 week trial. • Johnson acquitted 35 to 19 (one short of required 2/3 vote).

33. The Grant Administration (1868-1876)

34. The 1868 Republican Ticket The 1868 Democratic Ticket

35. Waving the Bloody Shirt! “Vote as you Shot!”

36. 1868 Presidential Election Grant’s popular vote low-won due to black vote. 3 Southern state votes not even counted – MS, TX, VA

37. President Ulysses S. Grant

38. Grant Administration Scandals • Grant presided over an era of unprecedented growth and corruption. • Known as Era of …? • Credit Mobilier Scandal. • Whiskey Ring. • The “Indian Ring.”

39. The Tweed Ring in NYC William Marcy Tweed (notorious head of Tammany Hall’s political machine) [Thomas Nast crusading cartoonist/reporter]

40. Who Stole the People’s Money?

41. The 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

42. 1872 Presidential Election

43. Popular Vote for President: 1872

44. The Panic of 1873 • It raises “the moneyquestion.” • 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’!

45. The Abandonment of Reconstruction

46. Northern 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?

47. And They Say He Wants a Third Term

48. 1876 Presidential Tickets

49. 1876 Presidential Election

50. ELECTORAL COUNT ACT Electoral commission of 15 to deal with disputed votes from FL, LA, SC From Senate, House & Supreme Court Voted on party lines…. 8 Republicans & 7 Democrats The Political Crisis of 1877 • “Corrupt Bargain” Part II?????