Reconstruction (1865-1876)

1. Reconstruction (1865-1876)

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. Wartime Reconstruction

4. President Lincoln’s Plan Lincoln’s 10% Plan • Pardon all confederates: except high ranking military officers and those accused of crimes against POWs • Once 10% of voting population swore allegiance to the Union and promised to obey its laws – launch new gov – reenter Union • Lincoln guaranteed southerners that he would protect their private property, though not their slaves. • 1864: “Lincoln Governments” formed in LA, TN, AR

5. Radical Republican’s in Congress Disagree • Radical Republicans - Sen. Charles Sumner and Rep. Thaddeus Stevens: • want to destroy political power of former slave holders • African Americans should have full citizenship & rights to vote. • Congress: should be in Charge of Reconstruction

6. Congresses 1st Proposal: 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) • A state must formally abolish slavery • No Confederate officials could participate in the new governments • Required a state constitutional convention before the election of state officials. • Enacted specific safeguards of freedmen’s liberties. • Congress, NOT THE PRESIDENT, is responsible for Reconstruction SenatorBenjaminWade(R-OH) Congr.HenryW. Davis(R-MD)

7. Wade-Davis Bill (cont.) • “State Suicide” Theory - MA senator Charles Sumner, believed southern states committed suicide when they seceded, therefore, treated as new states. • “Conquered Provinces” Position– PA representative Thaddeus Stevens, treated south like conquered territories/prisoners of war PocketVeto PresidentLincoln Wade-DavisBill

8. 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. • Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

9. Freedmen’s Bureau (1865) • First federal relief agency in American history • Set up to assist freed African Americans • distributed food, clothing • set up hospitals, employment agencies, education. • First Agency to provide public education for African Americans

10. Freedmen’s Bureau (1865) • Many former northern abolitionists risked, and some gave, their lives to help southern freedmen. • Called “carpetbaggers” by white southern Democrats.

11. Freedmen’s Bureau (1865) • SCALAWAGS: Southerners who believed in reconstruction (name given by southerners)

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

13. Freedmen’s Bureau School

14. Presidential Reconstruction

15. President Andrew Johnson • Jacksonian Democrat • Anti-Aristocrat (blames rich southern plantation owners) • White Supremacist. • Agreed with Lincolnthat states had neverlegally left the Union. Damn the negroes! I am fighting these traitorous aristocrats, their masters!

16. President Andrew Johnson President Andrew Johnson lacked the experience, charisma and patience of Lincoln and immediately became involved in the struggle with Congress regarding the process of Reconstruction

17. 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) • A state needed to ratify the 13th Amendment before being readmitted  • Annul Confederate war debts • A state was required to repeal its secession ordinance before being readmitted • Named provisional governors in Confederate states and called them to oversee elections for constitutional conventions. 1. Disenfranchised certain leading Confederates. 2. Pardoned planter aristocrats brought them back to political power to control state organizations. EFFECTS? 3. Republicans were outraged that planter elite were back in power in the South!

18. Growing Northern Alarm! • Many Southern state constitutions fell short of minimum requirements. (ex: MS didn't ratify the 13th Amendment) • Johnson granted 13,500 special pardons. (“White men alone must manage the South”) • Dec. 1865 – Southern Congressmen take their seats: 58 were in the Confederate Congress, 6 in the cabinet and 4 in the army) …………………Congress barred the Southern Congressional delegates.

19. Slavery is Dead?

20. Revival of southern defiance led to: Black Codes • Purpose: • Restore pre-emancipation system of race relations. • Prohibited blacks from: carrying weapons, serving on juries, testifying against whites, marrying whites, traveling without permits & in some states, from owning land • Laws were enforced by violence • Forced many blacks to become sharecroppers [tenant farmers] • Guarantee stable labor supply now that blacks were emancipated.

21. Congress Breaks with the President • Joint Committee on Reconstruction created. • February, 1866  Presidentvetoed the Freedmen’sBureau bill. • March, 1866  Johnsonvetoed the 1866 Civil Rights Act (gave blacks citizenship & forbade “black codes”) • Congress passed both bills over Johnson’s vetoes  1st in U. S. history!!

22. 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)

23. Radical (Congressional) Reconstruction

24. 14th Amendment • Ratified in July, 1868. • All people born in America are equal citizens and guaranteed equal protection • 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!

25. The Balance of Power in Congress

26. 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 bothhouses andgained controlof everynorthern state.

27. Radical Plan for Readmission • Civil authorities in the territories were subject to military supervision. • Required new state constitutions, including black 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.

28. Reconstruction Act of 1867 • doesn’t recognize most new state • governments (except TN with • ratified 14th Amendment) • divides South into 5 military • districts • sets new conditions for reentry in • Union • Johnson believes act unconstitutional, vetoes; Congress overrides

29. Military Reconstruction Act

30. Reconstruction Acts of 1867 (cont.) • Command of the Army Act • - required President to issue all military orders through the General of the Army instead of dealing directly with military governors in the South. • Tenure of Office Act • - President cannot remove a federal official without approval of senate (designed to protect radical members of Lincoln's government)

31. The Tenure of Office Act • The Senate must approve any presidential dismissal of a cabinet official or general of the army. • Designed to protect radical members of Lincoln’s government. • Question of the constitutionality of this law. Edwin Stanton

32. 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!

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

34. The Grant Administration (1868-1876)

35. The 1868 Republican Ticket

36. The 1868 Democratic Ticket

37. Waving the Bloody Shirt! Republican “Southern Strategy”

38. Ulyssess S Grant (Rep) Equal Rights African Americans Out of 6 million ballots casted Grant received a majority of only 310,000. 500,000 African Americans voted. Horatio Seymour (Dem) Return Southern Rule Election of 1868

39. 1868 Presidential Election

40. Grant Administration Scandals • Grant presided over an era of unprecedented growth and corruption. • Credit Mobilier Scandal • Whiskey Ring. • Stock Market Collapse

41. Credit Mobilier– Consturction Co skimmed off large profits from government. Involved Colfax (VP) Whiskey Ring – IRS accepted bribes so that Whiskey distillers pay no taxes. Cost Millions Changed Gold Standard (influenced by Gould & Fisk) sent stock market to collapse Sept. 24, 1869 “Black Monday” The Scandals

42. The Panic of 1873 • Small Banks closed, 180,000 companies folded, 3 million people out of work. • 1875 Species Redemption Act – US back on Gold Standard; helps to restore the economy

43. 15th 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!

44. Legal Challenges to 14th and 15th Amendments • The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873) • Bradwell v. IL (1873) • U. S. v. Cruickshank (1876) • U. S. v. Reese (1876)

45. Black "Adjustment" in the South

46. Blacks & Land Ownership • Jan. 1865 - Sherman had promised the freed slaves who followed his army “40 acres and a mule” • 40,000 claimed 400,000 abandoned or forfeited land in GA & SC • Aug. 1865 – Johnson ordered original landowners to reclaim land & evict the former slaves • Some Radical Republicans disagreed • Majority felt it was wrong to seize citizen’s private property

47. The Crop Lien System • Crop-Lien System - Works land for someone else, includes sharecroppers and tenant farmers • Sharecroppers - people who rent a plot of land from another person, and farm it in exchange for a share of the crop. does NOT live on the land. • Tenant farmers - Someone who farms land owned by someone else, keeping part of the produce as payment. DOES live on the land.

48. Tenancy & the Crop Lien System

49. Little Change for African-Americans This photograph shows an African-American family in Kentucky living under conditions similar to what they probably experienced during slavery.

50. Sharecropping