Reconstruction 1865-1877

1. Reconstruction1865-1877 Chapter 12

2. What difficult problems after the Civil War did out nation face? 1. First issue was how to bring the South back into the Union. 2. Lincoln had wanted to make the reunion easy but after his assassination, Congress wanted to punish the South and to ensure those who had been slaves would be able to vote. 3. Yet these policy would cause considerable tension between the various regions.

3. Reconstruction Battle Begins • Union troops and cannons had devastated most Southern cities and the South’s economy. • The President and Congress had to deal with reconstructionwhat is this? • Rebuilding the South after the Civil War.

4. Congress also had to decide under what terms and conditions the former Confederate states would rejoin the Union.

5. President Lincoln’s Proclamation for Amnesty and Reconstruction called for a general amnesty or pardon to all Southerners who took an oath of loyalty to the United States and accept the Union’s proclamations concerning slavery. • After 10% of the state’s voters in the 1860 presidential election had taken an oath, the state could organize a new state government.

6. Radical Republicans • The Radical Republicans were led in Congress by Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, they did not want to reconcile with the South.

7. The Radical Republicans had three main goals. • They wanted to prevent the Confederate leaders from returning to power after the war. • They wanted the Republican Party to become powerful in the South. • They wanted the federal government to help former slaves achieve political equality by guaranteeing them the right to vote in the South.

8. Moderate Republicans thought Lincoln’s plan was too lenient on the South and the Radical Republicans’ plan was too harsh. • By the summer of 1864, the moderates and the radicals came up with a plan that they both could support. • It was called the what?

10. The Wade-Davis Bill required that 50 percent of a states white males take a loyalty oath to be readmitted to the Union. • In addition, states were required to give blacks the right to vote. • Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill, but President Lincoln chose not to sign it, killing the bill with a pocket veto. • What is a pocket veto? • Letting the session of Congress expire without signing the bill.

11. Lincoln’s Response • Lincoln refused to sign the Wade-Davis Bill. • He wanted state governments to form quickly. • Lincoln wanted to order restored in the South as soon as possible. • Lincoln had to compromise with Radical Republicans.

12. Lincoln continued to advocate tolerance and speed in plans for the reconstruction of the Union in opposition to the Congress. • After Lincolns assassination in April 1865, however, the Congress had the upper hand in shaping Federal policy toward the defeated South and imposed the harsher reconstruction requirements first advocated in the Wade-Davis Bill.

13. Freedmen’s Bureau • Thousands of freed African Americans known as freedmen had followed General Sherman on his march through Georgia.

14. As a result of the refugee crisis, Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau. • The Bureau was to feed and clothe war refugees in the South using military supplies. • The Bureau made a lasting contribution in education.

15. Many freed African Americans served in the Calvary after 1866 most were stationed in the southwestern U.S. and were called what? • Buffalo Soldiers

16. AndrewJohnson Vice- President Andrew Johnsonwould become the 17th president after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson agreed with Lincoln that a moderate policy was needed to bring the South back to the Union. 4

17. May 1865 Andrew Johnson issued a Proclamation of Amnesty. • This plan offered to pardon all former citizens of the Confederacy who took an oath of loyalty to the Union and return their property. • Excluded from the plan were all former Confederate officers and officials and all former Confederates who owned property worth more than $20,000. • These people could individually ask the president for pardon. Was this fair?

18. Johnson’s plan to restore the South to the Union included having former Confederate States call a constitutional convention to repeal its order to secede and to ratify theThirteen Amendment- What did the 13th Amendment do? • Abolished slavery

19. They also had to reject all debts acquired during the Civil War. • The Southern States, for the most part met, Johnson’s conditions. • Aimed at controlling freemen and enabling plantation owners to exploit African American workers. • The new Southern state legislatures would pass laws known as what? • black codes

20. They limited the rights of former slaves in the South. • The codes would vary from state to state but in general they were written with the intention of keeping African Americans in conditions similar to slavery.

21. What was Johnson’s plan to restore the South? 1. Have each former Confederate State call a constitutional convention to repeal its order to secede . 2. Ratify the 13th Amendment- abolishing slavery. 3. Had to reject all war debts acquired during the Civil War.

22. Radical Republicans take Control • In late 1865, House and Senate Republicans created a Joint Committee on Reconstruction develop their own program for rebuilding the Union. • In March of 1866 Congress would pass the Civil Right Act of 1866. • What did it do?

23. The act gave citizenship to all persons born in the United States except who? • Native Americans. • It also allowed former slaves to own property and to be treated as equals in court. • It granted the U.S. government the right to sue people who violated these rights.

24. What amendment granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States? • 14th Amendment • What does it state? • That no state could deprive any person of life, liberty or property “without due process of the law.” • No state could deny any person “equal protection of the laws.” • Congress passed the amendment in June 1866.

25. The 14th Amendment became the major issue in the congressional election of 1866. • President Andrew Johnson was against the amendment. • He wanted Northern voters to elect a new majority in Congress that would support his plan for Reconstruction.

26. In March 1867, Congress would pass the Military Reconstruction Act. • What was this? • This act did away with Johnson’s reconstruction programs. • The act divided the former Confederate states except Tennessee because it had not ratified the 14th Amendment, into five military districts.

27. Each former Confederate State had to hold another constitutional convention why? • Had to write a constitution that Congress would accept. • The constitution had to give the right to vote to all adult male citizens. • After the state ratified its new constitution, it had to ratify the 14th Amendment. • Then the state could elect people to Congress.

28. The Republicans feared that President Johnson would refuse to enforce the Military Reconstruction Act. • So Congress passed the Command of the Army Act. • This required all orders from the President to go through the Headquarters of the General of the Army. • Is this fair?

29. Congress also passed the Tenure of Office Act. • What is this? • Required the Senate to approve the removal of any government official whose appointment had required Senate approval.

30. Sec. of War Edwin Stanton agreed with the Radical Republican Reconstruction plan. • On February 21, 1868, President Johnson challenged the Tenure of Office Act by firing Stanton.

31. After Johnson fired Stanton, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Johnson what is this? • They charged Johnson with breaking the law by refusing to uphold the Tenure of Office Act and with trying to undermine the Reconstruction program. • After more than two months of debate, the Senate vote was one vote short for conviction.

32. The impeachment took away what little power President Johnson had left. • He did not run for reelection in 1868. • Who would be the Republican candidate? • Gen. Ulysses S. Grant

33. The Republican-led Congress passed the 15th Amendment to the Constitution. • What does this amendment guarantee? • Stated the right to vote could not be denied on account of race, color, or previous servitude. • The amendment became part of the Constitution in 1870.

34. Did you know? • In 1866 the House of Rep. brought 11 articles of impeachment against Pres. Johnson – Tickets were sold to the President’s trial. • In 1974 Pres. Richard M. Nixon was charged with 3 articles of impeachment. • Nixon resigned from office before there was a trail in the Senate. • In 1998 the House of Rep. brought 2 articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton. Like Johnson Clinton was not convicted.

35. The Republican Party became very powerful in the South and started many major reforms. • The reforms included repealing the black codes, making many more state offices elective and establishing a system of public schools.

36. To pay for Reconstruction reforms, many Southern state governments borrowed money and imposed high property taxes. • Graft or getting money illegally through politics was very common in both the South and North.

37. African American Communities • Many former slaves started to attend schools in the South during Reconstruction. • An important network of African American colleges and universities began to grow in the South. • African Americans in the South established churches, which served as the center for many of them. • There were organizations established to help support them as well.

38. The Southerner Resistance • Many Southerner whites resented the African-Americans and the Black Republican governments. • Some Southerners organized secret societies such as the what? • Ku Klux Klan- The goal of the Klan was to drive out Union troops and carpetbaggers and regain control of the South for the Democratic Party.

39. In 1870 and 1871 Congress passed three Enforcement Acts to end violence in the South. • Made it a federal crime to interfere with a citizen’s right to vote. • Put elections under the supervision of federal marshals. • Made the activities of the Klan illegal.

40. Alabama and Reconstruction Reconstruction faltered in Alabama as a result of conflicting interests and corruption.

41. In June 1865 two months after the surrender of the Confederacy, President Andrew Johnson appointed Lewis E. Parsons as provisional governor of Alabama. In his first speech Parsons made it clear there is no longer a slave in Alabama.

42. Postwar Challenges • Many of the official records for Alabama had been destroyed during the Civil War there is an estimated 40,000 Alabamians were killed in the Civil War. • Some 35,000 sustained disabling injuries. • Inflation was high many of the once powerful landowners were now suffering bankruptcy.

43. Change in the Countryside • Alabama’s farms had fallen into complete disarray. • Many of the fields had gone unplanted, crops had been burnt, equipment were in poor condition. • The livestock was virtually gone. Alabama’s farmers also had to cope with the loss of slave labor. • Why would this be a problem?

44. Confusing Freedom • Thousands of African Americans meanwhile would rejoice in their emancipation, but they were still uncertain about what their new status meant to them. • They were freemen,persons free from slaver but they had no home no work, and no land of their own to farm.

45. Freedmen’s Bureau and Alabama • One aspect of Reconstruction that had a positive impact was the Freemen’s Bureau. • Established by Congress in March 1865, the Bureau was a federal agency that assisted those freed from slavery. In Alabama General Wager Swayne implemented the Freedmen’s Bureau policy that called for former slaves and their employers to sign a contract detailing in it the length of employment and rate of pay.

46. Grant’s Administration

47. Grant Administration

48. The presence of Union soldiers in the South helped many former slaves vote in large numbers. • Grant easily won the election. • Republicans kept majorities in both houses of Congress.

49. Ulysses S. Grant • Late in the administration of Andrew Johnson, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant quarreled with the President and aligned himself with the Radical Republicans. • He was, as the symbol of Union victory during the Civil War, their logical candidate for President in 1868.

50. As President, Grant presided over the Government much as he had run the Army. • Indeed he brought part of his Army staff to the White House.