Reconstruction

ReconstructionChapter 17Post war problemsSouths economy shattered4 million freed blacksWhere will they go?What will they do?How will they adjust to freedom?

The Unvanquished, William Faulkner 1934Read pages 91-92

How should the former Confederate states now be treated? (How will the Union be restored?)As states with political participation?As conquered territory subject to military occupation?Who gets to decide?

The long-standing conflicts did not end with the war.RegionsPolitical partiesEconomic interests

EconomyNorth wants to develop industrial interests and to make economic progress.South needs to work its plantations with cheap labor.Freed men and women desire independence and equal rights.Constitutional limitations: limited government, states rightsMost people believed people have an opportunity and responsibility to provide for themselves. Not much government helpPresidential ReconstructionLincoln & JohnsonAbraham Lincoln

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 nations wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphanto do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations. Second Inaugural 1865LincolnWanted to treat southern states as though they had never left the Union because he believed secession was not legal.State governments would need to be reconstructed with Unionists in charge rather than secessionists.

Lincolns PlanProclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction 1863Full presidential pardons to be granted to most southerners who1. Took an oath of allegiance to the Union and the U.S. Constitution2. Accepted the emancipation of slavesA state government could be re-established and accepted as legitimate by the PRESIDENT as soon as 10% of the voters had taken the loyalty oath.Lincolns PlanNote this proclamation was 1863 in the middle of the war.Lincoln was thinking forward to try to end the war and to win the 1864 election.(NOT) Lincolns PlanWade-Davis Bill Congress proposed this. Lincoln refused to sign it.Required 50% of a states voters to take the loyalty oath.No former Confederates could vote on the states new constitution.Revealed tension between the president and congress.Lincolns PlanFreedmens Bureau aka Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned LandsEstablished in March 1865 to provide food, shelter, and medical aid for those made destitute by the war mostly freed slaves, but intended originally also for poor whites.Give confiscated land to blacksJohnson gave back most of the land to original ownersGreatest Success: Education. 3000 schools and several black colleges. (funding stopped in 1870)Andrew Johnson

Democrat from Tenn.Chosen to be Lincolns VP in 1864 election.Despised southern aristocrats.Became president upon Lincolns death.Johnsons PlanNow the war is over.May 1865 ProclamationNone of the following could vote1. all former leaders and officeholder of the Confederacy2. Confederates with more than $20,000 in taxable property

President could grant individual pardons to disloyal southerners.Johnsons PlanEight months after Johnson became president, all 11 Confederate states qualified under Johnsons reconstruction plan.Southern states now hadConstitutions that repudiated secessionRatified the 13th amendment

But none had given voting rights to blacks.Former Confederate leaders had been elected to CongressJohnsons PlanBlack Codes restricted the freedom of newly freed African AmericansCould not rent land or borrow money to buy landForced freedmen to sign work contractsCould not testify in court against whitesJohnson vetoes two bills increasing power and scope of the freedmens Bureau and a civil rights bill nullifying the Black Codes.Election of 1866Congressional elections (not presidential)Johnson attacked his congressional opponents with racial rhetoric (fears of Africanized society)Republicans appealed to anti-southern prejudices by waving the bloody shirt reminding northerners of the hardships of the warPainted all the Democrats as rebellious and treasonous.Republicans won in a landslide and controlled both houses of congress with more than 2/3 majority. (veto proof)Congressional ReconstructionCongressional PlanRadical Republicans are in control of both houses of Congress with a veto proof majority.Take control of reconstruction.Leaders: Charles Sumner (MA) and Thaddeus Stevens (PA)Desire to revolutionize southern society through an extended period of military rule

Congressional PlanFederal government educates freed blacks.Blacks receive confiscated land. Blacks would participate in government.Congressional PlanCivil Rights Act of 1866Said African Americans were citizensAfraid it would be repealed if Dems take power backFourteenth AmendmentAll persons born or naturalized in the U.S. are citizens.States must respect the rights of U.S. citzens and provide them with equal protection of the laws and due process.Basically it applied the Bill of Rights to the States as well as the federal government.

Congressional PlanSaid southern states were not entitled to equal representation in congress.Said CONGRESS would determine the process for allowing states to REJOIN the Union.Placed the south under MILITARY OCCUPATION.Divided the Confederate States into 5 military districts under a Union general.Now states had to ratify the 14th amendment and had to guarantee that all adult males could vote.Impeachment of Andrew JohnsonShowdown between Congress & PresidentCongress passed the Tenure of Office Act 1867Said president could remove a cabinet member without congressional approval.Johnson wanted to remove radical Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Removed him.Congress impeached him from violating the Tenure of Office Act.Senate failed to convict him and remove him from office by one vote.

Congressional PlanUlysses Grant is elected president in 1868.Passed the 15th Amendment in 1868 gave suffrage to African AmericansEnacted the Civil Rights Act of 1875 guaranteeing equal accommodations in public places and forced courts to allow African Americans to serve on juries. (wasnt enforced very well)Reconstruction in the SouthEven though Republicans controlled all the governments in the south, in all states but one, whites remained a majority in the state legislatures.Scalawag a southerner who supported the Republican governmentsCarpetbaggers northerners who came south to profit after the warAfrican American LegislatorsFirst African American to serve in the Senate Hiram Revels, a minister from MississippiFirst African American to serve a full term in the Senate Blanche K. Bruce, also from MississippiBlacks in positions of power caused southerners who were DISENFRANCHISED to bitter and resentful.Good or Bad?AccomplishmentsUniversal male suffrageProperty rights for womenDebt reliefBuilt infrastructurePublic schools

FailuresWasteful spendingCorruptionTax increasesIncreased federal power over the statesCreated resentment that would have consequences lasting 100 yearsEffects on BlacksBuild new black communitiesChurchesLeadershipSchools

Sharecropping

Slavery by a different nameBlacks and whites were sharecroppersFarmed land owned by someone else and gave them a share of the crops as rent.Was very difficult to get out of this system and to buy your own land.Became the dominant economic system of the south after the war.

End of ReconstructionBacklashKu Klux Klan white supremacists in secret societies who would intimidate blacks and white reformersAmnesty Act 1872 removed restrictions on most ex-Confederates, now they can vote for Democrats to regain control of state governments

Election of 1876Samuel L. Tilden (D) v. Rutherford B. Hayes (.)Tilden won the majority of the popular vote.Three states electoral votes were contested.Tilden only needed ONE of the electoral votes from those 3 states.A commission was appointed to determine who the electoral votes should go to.The commission chose (by a vote of 8-7) Rutherford B. Hayes.Compromise of 1877The Democrats threatened to filibuster the election results and not accept them.A compromise resolved the issue.Hayes would become president IF heImmediately ended federal support for the Republicans in the SouthSupport the building of a southern transcontinental railroad.Withdrew the remaining federal troops in the southSupreme CourtBesides ending the occupation, the court also made some decisions that helped end Reconstruction by striking down some of the Reconstruction laws as unconstitutional.The Constitutional Amendments remained however.

Reconstruction AmendmentsThirteen Amendment abolished slaveryFourteenth Amendment gave citizenship to blacksFifteenth Amendment universal male suffrage