RECONSTRUCTION 1864 - 1877

1. RECONSTRUCTION1864 - 1877 EUGENIA LANGAN MATER ACADEMY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL HIALEAH GARDENS, FLORIDA WITH THANKS TO SUSAN POJER

2. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS: THIS LESSON: DID DEVELOPMENTS IN THE U.S. BETWEEN 1860 AND 1877, PARTICULARLY DURING RECONSTRUCTION, AMOUNT TO A REVOLUTION? (CAUSES, PRINCIPAL FACTS AND FIGURES, EFFECTS OF RECONSTRUCTION) BROAD: HOW DID THE U.S. BECOME A SUPERPOWER? AND – WHICH IS THE MOST POWERFUL BRANCH OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AT WHICH TIMES?

3. REVIEW AND BACKGROUND: • THE CIVIL WAR WAS THE MOST COSTLY WAR IN TERMS OF LIFE AND LIMB IN U.S. HISTORY

4. COMPARE TOTAL DEATHS/ CASUALTIES, CW, WWI & WWII

5. CIVIL WAR WAS ALSO VERY COSTLY IN $ • TOTAL DIRECT COST = $6.65 BILLION IN 1860 DOLLARS (≈ 25 BILLION TODAY) • DIRECT COSTS ≈ 1.5 TIMES THE 1860 GDP • ADDITIONAL INDIRECT COSTS (LOST CONSUMPTION, EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION AND COLLAPSE OF COTTON EXPORT MARKET) BRING TOTAL TO OVER $10 BILLION (≈ 39 BILLION TODAY) • COSTS WERE MUCH HIGHER TO SOUTH THAN TO NORTH: • SOUTH WAS DESTROYED (TOTAL WAR) • SOUTH LOST INVESTMENT IN SLAVES • SOUTHERN COTTON EXPORTS STOPPED DURING WAR AND NEVER COMPLETELY RECOVERED

6. CIVIL WAR COSTS, IN MILLIONS OF $$

7. COMPARISON: PER CAPITA COSTS, SOUTH AND NORTH

10. KEY QUESTIONS FOR U.S. AS SOON AS IT BEGAN WINNING THE WAR (LATE 1863) 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?

11. THE FOUR RECONSTRUCTION THEORIES CONGRESS – RADICAL REPUBLICANS PRESIDENTS VS. SENATOR CHARLES SUMNER, MASS REP. THADDEUS STEVENS, PA. • DISPUTE OVER: • HOW HARSHLY TO TREAT SOUTH/ RIGHTS OF FREEDMEN • IS PRESIDENT OR CONGRESS IN CHARGE? SENATOR BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE, OH, SENATOR HENRY WINTER DAVIS, MD

12. 1) PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION – TWO ASPECTS: • A) STATES HAD NO RIGHT TO SECEDE, SO SOUTHERN STATES DIDN’T – IT’S JUST THAT THEIR LEADERS COMMITTED TREASON • WHITE SOUTHERN POPULATION MUST ELECT LOYAL GOVERMENTS • B) PRESIDENT IS IN CHARGE OF RECONSTRUCTION (PARDON POWER, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF POWER)

13. REMAINING THREE THEORIES ARE CONGRESSIONAL -- ALL SHARE PREMISE THAT CONGRESS IS IN CHARGE • 2. FORFEITED RIGHTS – SOUTHERN STATES COULDN’T AND DIDN’T SECEDE – BUT BY REBELLING FORFEITED CERTAIN CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS THAT ONLY CONGRESS COULD RESTORE • TO THE EXTENT THAT MOST MEMBERS OF CONGRESS EVER HAVE PRINCIPLED THEORIES, FORFEITED RIGHTS WAS PROBABLY THE DOMINANT ONE

14. 3. STATE SUICIDE: SOUTHERN STATES HAD “COMMITTED SUICIDE” BY SECEDING AND WERE NOW TERRITORIES FOR WHICH CONGRESS COULD PRESCRIBE LAWS (SUMNER) 4. CONQUERED TERRITORIES THEORY: SOUTHERN STATES HAD LOST ALL RIGHTS, WERE LIKE CONQUERED FOREIGN STATES – HAD ONLY SUCH RIGHTS AS WOULD EXIST UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW (STEVENS)

15. WARTIME RECONSTRUCTION • LINCOLN’S “10% PLAN” – ANNOUNCED IN HIS PROCLAMATION OF AMNESTY, DECEMBER 8, 1863 • PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION -- HE DID NOT CONSULT CONGRESS, BASED IT ON PRESIDENTIAL PARDON POWER • PREMISES: • 1) STATES COULD NOT SECEDE, THEREFORE SOUTH HADN’T – BUT ITS LEADERS WERE GUILTY OF TREASON TO THE U.S. • 2) THEREFORE SOUTHERN STATED DIDN’T HAVE TO BE READMITTED – THEY JUST NEEDED “LOYAL” GOVERNMENTS

16. PROVISIONS: • PARDONS TO ALL BUT HIGHEST-RANKING CONFEDERATE MILITARY AND CIVILIAN OFFICERS • WHEN 10% OF THE VOTING POPULATION (BASED ON 1860 ELECTION) OF A STATE SWORE LOYALTY OATH TO U.S. AND ESTABLISHED NEW GOVERNMENT, THE STATE COULD SEND REPRESENTATIVES TO CONGRESS & ELECTORAL COLLEGE • DID NOT PROPOSE SUFFRAGE FOR FREED SLAVES – LINCOLN THOUGHT THAT WOULD ALIENATE WHITE PRO-NORTHERN ELEMENTS IN SOUTH

17. “LINCOLN GOVERNMENTS” • DURING THE FIRST HALF OF 1864 “LOYAL” GOVERNMENTS ELECTED BY WHITE CITIZENS (BASED ON 10% OATHS) WERE ESTABLISHED IN THE “WEST: • LOUISIANA • TENNESSEE • ARKANSAS • U.S. ARMY “SUPERVISED” VOTING TO INTIMIDATE DEMOCRATIC VOTERS (HAD DONE THIS DURING WAR IN BORDER STATES TOO) • THESE GOVERNMENTS WERE WEAK AND SURVIVED ONLY BY BACKING OF U.S. ARMY – BUT RADICAL REPUBLICANS DIDN'T LIKE STATE GOV'TS LOYAL TO LINCOLN

18. WADE-DAVIS ACT, JULY 2, 1864 • BASED ON SUMNER’S STATE SUICIDE THEORY IN SENATE AND STEVENS’ CONQUERED TERRITORIES THEORY IN HOUSE (N.B. HOW INCONSISTENT THESE WERE WITH UNION WAR THEORY THAT SOUTH HAD NO RIGHT TO SECEDE!) • SET CONDITIONS FOR SOUTHERN STATES TO BE READMITTED TO UNION: • “IRONCLAD OATH” - MAJORITY OF (WHITE) ELECTORATE HAD TO SWEAR THEY HAD NEVER VOLUNTARILY SUPPORTED OR AIDED THE CONFEDERACY -- NOTE THAT THIS WAS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ALMOST ALL ADULT MALES

19. STATES MUST HOLD CONVENTIONS AND ADOPT NEW CONSTITUTIONS THAT • ABOLISHED SLAVERY (N.B. THAT THIS PROVISION WAS PROBABLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL UNDER DRED SCOTT) • REPUDIATED CONFEDERATE WAR DEBT (WOULD FURTHER IMPOVERISH MANY SOUTHERNERS!) • LINCOLN POCKET-VETOED THE WADE-DAVIS ACT • HIS RE-ELECTION IN 1864 AND CONGRESSIONAL PASSAGE OF 13TH AMENDMENT MOMENTARILY TOOK THE WIND OUT OF RADICAL REPUBLICANS’ SAILS

20. LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS (MARCH 4, 1865) CALLED FOR RECONCILIATION: • “With malice toward none, with charity for all, ...let us strive on to finish the work we are in, ...to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” • Q: WOULD RECONSTRUCTION BEEN RECONCILIATION IF LINCOLN HAD LIVED?

21. 13TH AMENDMENT – PASSED CONGRESS JANUARY 1865 “1. 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. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

22. FREEDMEN’S BUREAU BILL, MARCH 1865 – PROPOSED BY LINCOLN • ESTABLISHED BUREAU OF REFUGEES, FREEDMEN AND ABANDONED LAND, WITH DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY (ORIGINALLY FOR ONE YEAR, BUT IT WILL CONTINUE UNTIL 1872) • INTENDED TO AID NEWLY FREED SLAVES WITH FOOD AND HOUSING, EDUCATION, HEALTH CARE, AND EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS – ALWAYS UNDERFUNDED BY CONGRESS • ITS MAIN ROLE WAS AS EMPLOYMENT AGENCY -- ARRANGED SHARECROPPING AND OTHER LABOR CONTRACTS TO GET FREED SLAVES BACK TO WORK ON COTTON PLANTATIONS

23. COERCED NEWLY-FREED SLAVE WOMEN TO WORK BY MAKING HUSBANDS SIGN CONTRACTS COMMITTING ENTIRE FAMILY TO WORK • ALTHOUGH THE BUREAU DID PROVIDE SOME EMERGENCY RATIONS TO NEWLY FREED SLAVES IN 1865-66, MOST FOOD AID = ALLOWING PLANTERS TO BORROW RATIONS FROM GOV’T TO FEED FREED SLAVES WHO WORKED FOR PLANTERS • SET UP A FEW CLINICS – BASICALLY A BUST (SOUTHERN BLACKS RECEIVED POORER MEDICAL CARE AFTER SLAVERY ENDED THAN DURING IT

24. DURING RECONSTRUCTION AND UP TO 1960S, MOST SOUTHERN BLACKS WERE SHARECROPPERS (MANY ILLITERATE) BUT SO WERE MANY WHITE SOUTHERNERS

25. SHARECROPPING -- Tenancy & the Crop Lien System TENANT NEVER GETS OUT OF DEBT AND IS BOUND TO LAND – SERFDOM!

26. FREEDMAN’S BUREAU DID BETTER WITH EDUCATION: • SET UP ABOUT 1000 SCHOOLS FOR FREED SLAVES 1866 – 76 – TO TEACH WORK ETHIC.  • PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR BLACK CHILDREN (VERY POOR SCHOOLS MOSTLY) • LED TO ESTABLISHMENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR WHITES IN SOUTH • ALSO SUPPORTED ESTABLISHMENT OF BLACK COLLEGES -- BUT MOSTLY A & M, NOT LIBERAL ARTS

27. A FREEDMEN’S BUREAU SCHOOL

28. Establishment of Historically Black Colleges in the South

29. WHITE SOUTHERNERS OPPOSED THE BUREAU “PLENTY TO EAT AND NOTHING TO DO”

30. AND PROGRESSIVE WHITES GLORIFIED THE BUREAU. FROM HARPER’S:

31. POST-WAR RECONSTRUCTION • APRIL, 1865: LEE SURRENDERED, AND LINCOLN WAS ASSASSINATED  • WAR ENDED WITH A SOUTHERN PRESIDENT • ANDREW JOHNSON OF TENNESSEE – LOYAL TO THE UNION, BUT STILL A SOUTHERNER • DEFINITELY THE WRONG TIME FOR A SOUTHERN PRESIDENT!

32. President Andrew Johnson • Jacksonian Democrat. • Anti-Aristocrat. • White Supremacist. • Agreed with Lincolnthat states had neverlegally left the Union. • QUOTATION: “Damn the negroes! I am fighting these traitorous aristocrats, their masters!”

33. PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION UNDER JOHHSON • Offered amnesty/ PARDON upon simple oath to all except Confederate civil and military officers and those with property over $20,000 (they could apply directly to Johnson – AND HE PARDONED 13,500 OF THEM) • In new constitutions, they must accept minimumconditions repudiating slavery, secession and CONFEDERATE / state debts. • Named provisional governors (MOSTLY FROM PLANTER CLASS) in Confederate states and called them to oversee elections for constitutional conventions

34. NOT PARDONED IN 1865 - JEFFERSON DAVIS WAS ARRESTED AND INDICTED, BUT NEVER TRIED, FOR TREASON -- WENT ON TO BECOME PRESIDENT OF LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY

35. ALSO NOT PARDONED IN 1865 – ROBERT E. LEE – BUT HE APPLIED FOR PARDON LEE’S AMNESTY OATH – WHICH GOT “LOST” IN STATE DEPARTMENT FILES LEE LOST HIS AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP HE WAS NEVER ARRESTED OR CHARGED WITH ANY CRIME – AFTER THE WAR HE WAS PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON & LEE UNIVERSITY

36. LEE AND HIS FAMILY ALSO LOST THEIR HOME: IN 1864 THE U.S. CONFISCATED THEIR PLANTATION, ARLINGTON, TO MAKE SOLDIERS’ CEMETERY ARLINGTON HOUSE WAS HOME BUILT BY LEE’S FATHER-IN-LAW IN 1882, THE SUPREME COURT HELD THAT THE TAKING OF ARLINGTON WAS WRONG, AWARDED IT TO LEE’S GRANDSON, WHO SOLD IT BACK TO U.S. FOR $150,000 IN 1975, PRESIDENT GERALD FORD RESTORED LEE’S U.S. CITIZENSHIP Q: DID ROBERT E. LEE DESERVE TO LOSE HIS CITIZENSHIP AND PROPERTY?

37. EFFECTS OF JOHNSON’S RECONSTRUCTION PLAN: • WHITE PLANTERS BACK IN POWER IN SOUTH (DESPITE JOHNSON’S JACKSONIAN CRITICISM OF “ARISTOCRATS” (SOME PLANTERS WERE NOW NORTHERNERS) • MANY NEW STATE CONSTITUTIONS FELL SHORT OF MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS • 13TH AMENDMENT WAS RATIFIED, DECEMBER 1865, WITH VOTES OF 7 SOUTHERN STATES (AK. AL.,GA., LA., N.C., S.C., TENN.) • BUT FORMER CONFEDERATES STATES ENACTED BLACK CODES, 1865 – 1866, REMINISCENT OF THEIR SLAVE CODES

38. BLACK CODES – PURPOSE TO ENSURE CONTINUED STABLE PLANTATION LABOR FORCE -- ESSENTIALLY RE-ESTABLISHED SLAVERY • REGULATED LABOR CONTRACTS – REQUIRED MINIMUM ONE-YEAR SERVICE OR WAGES FORFEIT • REINFORCED WITH VAGRANCY LAW – UNEMPLOYED BLACKS SOLD INTO “LABOR” FOR ONE YEAR • N.B. FREEDMEN’S BUREAU IMPLEMENTED THESE RULES! • BANNED BLACKS FROM VOTING, SERVING ON JURIES • ALLOWED THEM TO OWN OR RENT PROPERTY ONLY IN RURAL AREAS – TO KEEP THEM ON PLANTATIONS

39. THE RESULT: CONGRESS REBELS – RADICALS GAIN SUPPORT • January 1866: Congress barred Southern Congressional delegates , created joint Committee on Reconstruction • February 1866: johnson vetoed vetoed the Freedmen’sBureau bill. • March 1866: Johnsonvetoed the (TOOTHLESS) 1866 Civil Rights Act. • April 1866: Congress passed both bills over Johnson’s vetoes  1st veto overrideSin U. S. history!! • JULY 1866 – SOUTHERN HOMESTEAD ACT (CHEAP SALES FED. LANDS -- NOT MUCH SOLD!)

41. June, 1966: congress passed the 14th AMENDMENT (ratified july 1868) • 1. ALL PERSONS “BORN OR NATURALIZED” IN THE U.S. ARE CITIZENS OF U.S. AND STATE THEY LIVE IN (overrules Dredscott); • STATES CANNOT ABRIDGE THE “PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES “ OF U.S. CITIZENS – THIS WAS INTENDED TO APPLY THE BILL OF RIGHTS TO THE STATES • STATES CANNOT DEPRIVE “ANY PERSONS” OF “LI FE, LIBERTY OR PROPERTY WITHOUT DUE PROCESS OF LAW.” • STATES CANNOT DENY “ANY PERSON” THE “EQUAL PROTECTION OF THE LAWS” – INTENDED TO BAN DISCRIMINATION

42. 2. 3/5 CLAUSE REPEALED. IF ANY STATE DENIES ANY MALE CITIZEN OVER THE AGE OF 21 THE RIGHT TO VOTE (EXCEPT AS PUNISHMENT FOR “REBELLION” AND OTHER CRIMES), THE STATE’S REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS WILL BE REDUCED PROPORTIONATELY 3. NO PERSON WHO HAS ENGAGED IN REBELLION AGAINST THE U.S. CAN HOLD ANY FEDERAL OR STATE OFFICE (UNLESS CONGRESS ALLOWS IT BY 2/3 VOTE) 4. ALL CONFEDERATE DEBTS (INCLUDING STATE DEBTS) ARE “ILLEGAL AND VOID” BUT NOBODY CAN QUESTION THE “VALIDITY” OF THE U.S. PUBLIC DEBT 5. CONGRESS CAN ENFORCE WITH APPROPRIATE LEGISLATION OF THE FORMER CONFEDERACY, ONLY TENNESSEE RATIFIED THE 14TH AMENDMENT IN 1866

43. 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)

44. RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION PLAN (CONQUERED TERRITORY THEORY) PLAN: TO BE READMITTED TO THE UNION, FORMER CONFEDERATE STATES MUST • RATIFY 13TH AND 14TH AMENDMENTS • MAKE NEW CONSTITUTIONS GRANTING SUFFRAGE TO BLACKS AND DISENFRANCHISING “REBELS” • MILITARY WOULD ENFORCE

45. 1866 MID-TERM ELECTIONS: A REFERENDUM ON THE 14TH AMENDMENT AND RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION • JOHNSON’S “SWING AROUND THE CIRCLE” – CAMPAIGN TOUR OF EAST, MIDWEST STUMPING FOR DEMOCRATS AND HIS RECONSTRUCTION PROGRAM -- BOMBED JOHNSON WITH GRANT AT A BANQUET DURING THE SWING AROUND THE CIRCLE RUMORS SWEPT COUNTRY HE APPEARED DRUNK (HE DID AT 1865 INAUGURATION)

46. ELECTION RESULTS (WITH ONLY TENNESSEE AMONG THE FORMER CONFEDERATE STATES ALLOWED TO VOTE!) – REPUBLICANS WON ALL NORTHERN STATES + TENNESSEE AND A 3-1 MAJORITY IN BOTH HOUSES  • RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION - FOUR ACTS OF CONGRESS, ALL PASSED OVER JOHNSON’S VETO, MARCH 1877 -- MAJOR SHOWDOWN BETWEEN CONGRESS AND PRESIDENT • 1. AN ACT FOR THE MORE EFFICIENT GOVERNMENT OF THE REBEL STATES (AKA “MILITARY RECONSTRUCTION ACY”) – MILITARY OCCUPATION OF THE SOUTH • RESTARTED RECONSTRUCTION FOR THE 10 STATES THAT REFUSED TO RATIFY 14TH AMENDMENT

47. DIVIDED THEM INTO 5 MILITARY DISTRICTS ADMINISTERED BY U.S. ARMY (DISSOLVED CIVILIAN GOV’T)

48. 2. AN ACT SUPPLEMENTARY TO THE ACT FOR THE MORE EFFICIENT GOVERNMENT OF THE REBEL STATES • AUTHORIZED ARMY TO ENROLL BLACK VOTERS IN SOUTH (EXCEPT TENN.) • DISENFRANCHISED MOST ADULT WHITE MEN – IRONCLAD OATH REQUIRED TO VOTE • ARMY TO SUPERVISE STATE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS AFTER ELECTIONS BY NEW ELECTORATE

49. A MEASURE OF THE BALANCE OF POLITICAL POWER UNDER MILITARY RECONSTRUCTION IN THESE 7 STATES, FREEDMEN WERE EITHER IN THE MAJORITY OR A CONTROLLING BLOC OF THE ELECTORATE AFTER WHITE DISENFRANCHISEMENT

50. 3. COMMAND OF THE ARMY ACT: REQUIRED PRESIDENT (GRANT) TO ISSUE RECONSTRUCTION ORDERS THROUGH THE COMMANDING GENERAL OF THE ARMY (GRANT) – EFFECTIVELY REQUIRED ARMY APPROVAL OF PRESIDENT’S ORDERS • PROBABLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL – ART. II OF CONSTITUTION MAKES PRESIDENT “COMMANDER IN CHIEF” OF THE ARMED SERVICES • 4. TENURE IN OFFICE ACT: PRESIDENT COULD NOT REMOVE CABINET MEMBER OR ANY OTHER OFFICER CONFIRMED BY SENATE, WITHOUT SENATE CONSENT • CLEARLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL – CONST. SAYS THESE OFFICERS SERVE “AT PLEASURE” OF PRESIDENT.