Reconstruction

1. Reconstruction Chapter 15

2. Presidential Reconstruction • How should the Southern states be re-admitted into the Union? • Lincoln’s “10 Percent Plan” • Southerners could be reinstated as citizens by taking a oath of loyalty • When a number equal to 10 percent of those who had voted in 1860 had done so they could set up a state government • That government must be a republican form, must recognize freedom of slaves, and provide for education of freed slaves

3. Presidential Reconstruction • Radicals against 10 percent plan – too moderate and gave Lincoln too much power to determine policy in South • Radicals passed Wade-Davis Bill • Constitutional conventions in states had to have a majority • Those who bore arms against Union were barred from voting • States had to repudiate Confederate debt • Bill vetoed by Lincoln (just prior to assassination) Lincoln Presidency

4. Lincoln Dead! • After Lee’s surrender, John Wilkes Booth’s plot to kidnap Lincoln changed to assassination • Lincoln was not the only one targeted- General Grant, Vice-President Johnson, and Secretary of State Seward were also to be killed

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12. Lincoln Dead! Lincoln Johnson Seward Grant John Wilkes Booth George Atzerodt Lewis Powell

13. Lincoln Dead! Mary Surratt was the first woman to be executed by the US government

14. Lincoln Dead! • Major Rathbone, who, with his fiance Clara Harris, had accompanied the Lincolns to Fords theater, was appointed counsel to Hannover, Germany in 1882 • While there, he killed his wife, almost killed his three children, and attempted suicide • Rathbone spent the rest of his life in a German insane asylum • It is said that Rathbone’s insanity was caused by his sense of failure in stopping Booth • In the 1950’s, the bodies of Rathbone and his wife were disposed of by the German cemetery

15. Lincoln Dead! • Robert Lincoln • Only Lincoln son to reach adulthood (Edward, Willie, and Tad all died in childhood) • Had his mother committed to an insane asylum (she escaped) • Was present at the assassination of President Garfield • Was present at the McKinley assassination Robert Lincoln

16. Lincoln Dead! • Some weeks before his father’s assassination, Robert Lincoln was at the train station • A large crowd jostled him and he fell from the platform onto the tracks into the path of an oncoming train • Just before he would have been hit and probably killed, a hand reached down and grabbed him, pulling him to safety • The man that saved Robert Lincoln was Edwin Booth, older brother of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth Edwin Booth

17. Presidential Reconstruction • Lincoln succeeded by Andrew Johnson • Tennessee Unionist Democrat • Champion of the small farmer • Hated Southern aristocrats which endeared him to Republican radicals thinking he was anti-South • Johnson shared South’s views on states’ rights and contempt for blacks • Enacted an amnesty program only slightly more rigorous than Lincoln’s • By 1865, all Southern states had governments, had ratified the 13th Amendment, and were ready to re-join the Union

18. Republican Radicals • Southern states provoked North by electing representatives from former Confederacy • South provoked North by enacting Black Codes • Johnsonian Reconstruction therefore rejected

19. Congress versusJohnson • Johnson vetoed legislation expanding the Freedmen’s Bureau • Congress passed Civil Rights Act putting teeth in 13th Amendment • Johnson’s veto was overridden – Congress was now in control • Radicals demanded extra rights to protect blacks – faced increasing opposition President Andrew Johnson

20. Fourteenth Amendment • Supplied a broad definition of American citizenship • Struck at discriminatory state laws such as Black Codes • If states refused the vote to any adult male, its representation was to be reduced • Former federal officials who had served in the Confederacy were barred from holding state or federal office • The Confederate debt was repudiated

21. The Reconstruction Acts • South unwilling to ratify 14th Amendment • Furious North enacted coercive measures known as the Reconstruction Acts • Divided South into military districts each controlled by a general with near-dictatorial powers • Military rule would end only with ratification of the 14th Amendment

22. The Reconstruction Acts • First Reconstruction Act too vague to be workable – South made no effort to follow laws • A Second Reconstruction Act required military to register voters and supervise election of delegates to constitutional conventions • Southerners refused to go to the polls • Georgia last to ratify in 1870

23. Congress Supreme • Southern resistance to even the mildest forms of reconstruction goaded the North to apply increasingly harsher measures • Johnson’s stubbornness also influenced Republicans • Congress exerted more authority over army, cabinet members, and even Supreme Court (size reduced and jurisdiction limited)

24. Congress Supreme • Johnson refused to submit to Congress reducing executive powers • Johnson violated “Tenure of Office Act of 1867” by removing Sec. War Stanton • Johnson was impeached but escaped conviction by 1 vote • Kept Congress from permanently damaging the power of the executive President Andrew Johnson

25. The Fifteenth Amendment • Grant elected president in 1868 • Radicals wanted to give right of vote to all blacks in all states • Republicans saw black vote as advantageous – 15th Amendment sent to states in 1869 and ratified in 1870 • Amendment to give suffrage to all men regardless of color – women outraged • Suffrage restricted through literacy tests and other measures

26. “Black Republican” Reconstruction • Within five years of emancipation, blacks were exerting real political influence • Real winners were “scalawags” – white Southerners willing to cooperate with Republicans • “Carpetbaggers” – Northerners who went to South to help blacks, serve in federal system, or take advantage of the destitute South

27. Confederate General James Longstreet Scalawag Hillary Clinton Carpetbagger

28. “Black Republican” Reconstruction • Blacks failed to dominate Southern politics • Most of those who held office were house servants or artisans • Mulattos also fared better politically and socially • Black officials were usually competent and conscientious though there were examples of corruption

29. “Black Republican” Reconstruction • Biggest thieves were white • Despite wasted money, Southern infrastructure was rebuilt • Major contribution made by the Freedmen’s Bureau • Programs enacted under Black Republicans as well as corruption continued under white rule that came later

30. The Ravaged Land • South was never as wealthy as the North – now it was desperately poor due to the destruction of war • Radical Republicans wanted to confiscate plantations and divide land between freed slaves • Land without seed and tools useless • Blacks had to either strike out on their own or work for former masters

31. The Ravaged Land • Black productivity dropped after emancipation • Whites assumed blacks “lazy” • Black family dynamics changed- male authority increased and women moved to child-rearing roles

32. Sharecropping and Crop-Liens • After the war, Southern planters tried farming through gang-labor – failed due to scarce money and black dislike of working under whites • Sharecroppingsystem emerged- planter supplied land, seed, equipment in return for half the crop • Sharecropping gave blacks more control over their lives • Poor whites also sharecroppers

33. White Backlash • Dissident Southerners powerless to oppose the League openly • Secret terrorist societies established such as KKK, White Camelia, and Pale Faces • KKK began as social club in 1866 but by 1868 it was taken over by vigilantes trying to drive blacks out of politics • Claimed to be ghosts of dead Confederate soldiers • When intimidation failed they used violence

34. White Backlash • KKK eroded will of white Republicans and Black voters • Open intimidation and violence erupted with the Red Shirts in Mississippi beginning 1874 • Terrorism against blacks increased white fears of black retaliation • Blacks learned to stay home on election day

35. White Backlash • Northern anger at South diminished over time and “conservative” white governments took over in South • North had little interest in racial equality • Southern idea of the need for the workforce to be disciplined gained ground in the North Johnson Presidency

36. Grant as President • Stock market crash of 1873 created economic problems for a decade • Controversies over “greenbacks” versus “sound” money • Used US troops to crush KKK – wanted to attack KKK in second term but Congress refused funds • Corruption President Ulysses Grant Grant Presidency

37. Election of 1876 • Republican: Rutherford B. Hayes / Democrat: Samuel J. Tilden • Tilden carried enough states to win – Republicans controlling Southern states threw out Democratic ballots so that Hayes “won” • BUT many blacks kept from voting • An electoral commission organized by Congress to judge the election was corrupted by both sides • Commission voted for Hayes 8 to 7 President Rutherford B. Hayes

38. Compromise of 1877 • Southern Democrats ready to accept Hayes if military occupation of South ended • Hayes elected - troops removed • Efforts made by Republicans to find niche in South but South remained solidly Democratic • Compromise ended Reconstruction and began new political order in the South • Blacks returned to second-class status as North & courts forgot about them Hayes Presidency