Norton Chapter 16 - Reconstruction
1. Four pressing questions
a. Who would rule the South?
b. Who would hold power in the federal government: Congress or the President?
c. What would freedom be like for former slaves?
d. Would we return to the old republic or build a new one?
2. Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan
a. Lincoln feared that guerilla warfare would continue in the south after the generals had surrendered
b. Lincoln proposes pardons for all but the highest ranking generals
c. After 10% of the population that voted in the 1860 election pledged an oath of loyalty and established a state government, then the state would be readmitted to the union.
d. Lincoln did not consult Congress, LA, TN, and AK established such governments in 1864 under northern occupation
3. Congress’ Wade-Davis Bill
a. Radical Republicans
i. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and Charles Sumner of Mass proposed that confederate states ought to be treated as conquered lands and returned to territory status
b. July 1864 – Wade Davis Bill passed in Congress
i. A majority of white male citizens must participate in the creation of a new state government
ii. To vote men had to take an “iron-clad” oath that they never helped in the confederate war effort
iii. All officers above the rank of lieutenant and all civilian officials of the confederacy are declared non-citizens
iv. Lincoln pocket –vetoes the bill – declares that there is no one path to reconstruction
c. The Wade-Davis Manifesto, August 1864
i. Republicans (his own party) attack Lincoln in the papers
ii. Accuse him of usurping presidential powers
4. Thirteenth Amendment
a. Passed on Jan 31, 1865
b. Abolishes “involuntary servitude” everywhere in the US
c. Gave congress the power to enforce this by “appropriate legislation”
d. Passed by only two votes
5. Freedmen’s Bureau
a. Created by Congress on March 3, 1865
b. “Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands”
c. Largest social agency in US history to this point
d. Provides food, medical services, several thousand schools, and several colleges.
e. Helped negotiate contracts and manage confiscated lands
f. Answers the big question: “What are a government’s social responsibilities to its people and what do the people owe the government in return?”
6. Freed Slaves
a. All slaves were excited
b. Some rebelled – ran away
c. Most tested the waters cautiously, often resettling on the plantations where they used to work
d. Many sought to reunite their families and establish their own homes
e. They built homes as far away from their old masters as they could while still working the same land
f. Most slaves wanted to come to own their own land
g. But occupying union troops and reconstructionist congress pushed cash crops and large parcels of land. Blacks wanted self-sufficient farms
h. Many blacks pursued education, even paying tuition to attend schools
i. 600,000 blacks enrolled in elementary school by 1877
j. Free Blacks from the North helped to lead reconstructionist efforts, including the founding of several colleges such as Fisk University and Howard University. Many southern churches founded universities as well.
k. Black churches grew dramatically, a clear demonstration of freedom
l. Still, blacks wanted their own land
7. Sharecropping
a. Blacks wanted land to work
b. Whites had land they could not work
c. Whites did not want to sell land to blacks because of racism
d. So the whites rented the land to the blacks under a racist system called sharecropping
e. In share cropping the landowner furnished food and supplies before the harvest and received a portion of the proceeds from the harvest in exchange
f. Sharecropping would later become a poor arrangement because of the cycle of debt that resulted for laborers
g. Owners and merchants conspired to insure that sharecroppers could never pay off the debts that they owed
8. The Failing Economics of Cotton
a. During the civil war Britain was supplied cotton by other countries: Egypt and Brazil.
b. In freedom black women did not want to return to working in the fields
c. Black families placed a greater value on human dignity than on increased production
d. Cotton demand and therefore prices fell worldwide.
9. Andrew Johnson
a. Democrat from Tennessee
b. Wanted to deal strictly with the South
c. Very racist, white supremacist (?)
d. Favored small government, but also public schooling
e. Accepted emancipation, but did not favor it
f. “The Constitution as it is, the Union as it was”
g. Proposed reconstruction rules that would keep the white wealthy planter class out of power in the south
h. Johnson required that the following people swear an oath of amnesty in order to be pardoned by the president: southern federal officials, high ranking confederate officers, graduates of west point or Annapolis that violated their duties, and any southerner who aided the confederacy and had more than $20,000 in property
10. Process for readmission to the union (Table p. 442)
a. Johnson appoints a new governor
b. The governor calls a state constitutional convention
c. The constitution must eliminate slavery and invalidate secession
d. Elect new government under the new constitution
e. Only southerners who had taken the oath of amnesty could vote
f. Unpardoned whites and former slaves could not vote
11. Johnson shots himself in the foot
a. Johnson recognized the election to office of many southerners who had not taken the oath.
b. Johnson also began pardoning whole groups of southern planter elites all at once
c. He also shunned the Freedman’s Bureau
d. The South came to love him
e. Why did he do it?
i. Maybe he liked the popularity
ii. Maybe he was concerned about the 1866 election
iii. Maybe he wanted reconstruction to happen quickly
12. Reconstruction in the South – The Implementation of Johnson’s Plan
a. Alexander Stephens – Vice President of the confederacy, returned to congress as the senator for Georgia
b. States dragged their feet on eliminating slavery and invalidating secession
c. Two states refused to pay the debt they owed from the war
d. Many states simply replaced the word “slaves” in their constitutions with “freedmen” thereby limiting their rights
13. Congressional Reconstruction – December 1865
a. Northern Democrats were tired of war and did not want to pursue moral reforms, they supported Johnson’s ideas to expedite reconstruction
b. Conservative Republicans advocated a limited federal role
c. Radical Republicans had bigger goals
i. Led by Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner and George Julian
ii. Wanted to democratize the south
iii. Establish public education
iv. Favored black suffrage
v. Willing to leave the south out of the union for several years if they had to
vi. Wanted to create an activist federal government
d. Republicans introduced the civil rights bill of 1866
i. Modifies Johnson’s plan
ii. Extend existence of freedman’s bureau one more year
iii. Allows federal courts to hear state cases in which blacks were treated unfairly
iv. Johnson vetoes the bill, congress overrides him
e. Violence in the South, 1866
i. Memphis – 40 blacks killed and 12 schools burned in a riot
ii. New Orleans – 34 blacks killed and 200 wounded in a riot
iii. Congress responded by proposing the 14th amendment
f. The Fourteenth Amendment
i. Passed in June 1866
ii. President Johnson tried to block its passage
iii. Johnson traveled campaigning for himself on a train, passing out flags with 36 stars, declaring reconstruction complete
iv. Amendment passes anyway
v. Section 1
1. citizenship to all persons born (or naturalized) in the US
2. Guarantees constitutional “privileges and immunities”
3. Bars the state from taking a person’s “life, liberty or property” without due process
4. guarantees “equal protection under the law”
vi. Section 2
1. Nullifies Confederate debt
vii. Section 3
1. Bars confederate leaders from holding state and federal office
viii. Section 4
1. congress has the power to enforce this amendment by legislation
ix. does not address black suffrage because of the imbalance of north\south power it would have created in the federal government
g. The Reconstruction Acts
i. First Reconstruction Act, March 1867
1. readmits southern states to the union
2. union generals and troops divide south into military districts to supervise elections
3. confederates who were bared from voting by the 14th amendment are kept from voting by the troops
4. freedmen guaranteed the right to vote
5. state constitutions rewritten and ratified
ii. Second, Third, and Fourth Reconstruction Acts, March 1867-1868
1. detailed the election processes and oath processes
2. Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens tried to include a redistribution of confiscated lands, but it did not make it as part of the reconstruction acts
h. Conflicts between Congress and the President
i. Congress set its own date to convene, the past they had been called by the president
ii. Congress required that military orders be given by the president through the General of the Army, who could not be dismissed without congressional consent
iii. Tenure of Office Act – senate approves changes in the presidents cabinet
iv. All of these and the Reconstruction Acts were passed by a 2/3 majority
v. Critics called it a “congressional tyranny”
vi. Johnson responds issuing orders to military commanders in the south limiting their powers an increasing the powers of the civil governments he created
vii. Johnson removed military commanders who were enforcing the reconstruction acts
viii. Finally Johnson tried to remove Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
1. Congress had said that he needed approval to remove a member of his cabinet
i. Johnson’s Impeachment
i. The House had tried twice before to recommend impeachment, but they did not have enough votes until he tried to remove Stanton.
ii. Johnson’s trial in the Senate lasted three months
iii. Thaddeus Stevens questioned him, both to show his guilt and to show that he was a lousy president
iv. The senate comes up one vote short of the required 2/3 majority to impeach Johnson
j. Election of 1868
i. Ulysses S. Grant, democrat defeated
ii. Horatio Seymour, republican
iii. Grant was not radical, supported congressional reconstruction, endorsed black suffrage in the south, but not in the north
iv. Democrats adamantly opposed congressional reconstruction
v. Democrats associated themselves with Johnson and other racist views
vi. Blacks voted decisively for Grant in their first election
k. Fifteenth Amendment
i. Passed in 1869 by Radical Republicans
ii. Forbids restriction of voting based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
iii. Deliberately leaves out women, illiterate, and those unable to pay poll taxes
iv. Considered the end of reconstruction
14. Conditions in the South during and after reconstruction
a. Southern Republicans
i. Due to restrictions on former confederate officers and a large black voter turnout a new republican party was elected
ii. Republicans elected by these constituents were proponents of democratizing the south
iii. Eliminate property qualifications for voting or holding office
iv. Turned appointed positions into elected positions
v. Provided for public schools
vi. Provided institutions for the mentally ill, blind, etc.
vii. Broadened women’s rights – more for debt relief that equality
viii. This did not lead to “Negro Rule” on the contrary blacks constituted a majority in most state legislatures and constitutional conventions
b. Carpetbaggers and Scalawags
i. Some northerners moved south after the civil war to take advantage of business opportunities
1. Some were honest some were not
ii. Southerners called these northerners carpetbaggers because they were accused of coming south, loading money into their bags and then heading back north
iii. Southerners who supported the republican reforms were called scalawags
iv. In reality most scalawags were yeoman farmers, many of whom lived outside the plantations system, who had participated very little in the civil war.
v. Scalawags advocated for freedman as they advocated for themselves to get a start in the new economy
c. Tax problems
i. The republicans advocated a lot of social programs which required funding
ii. But during the civil war the south’s largest property (slaves) ceased to exist
iii. And a lot of other property was destroyed
iv. This resulted in even higher tax rates
v. There was some corruption as well as carpet baggers and scalawags sought to make profits by buying votes and other schemes
d. Birth if the Klu Klux Klan
i. Began in Tennessee in 1866 as a secret veterans club
ii. Many confederate leaders and former members of the wealthy planter class who sought to benefit from maintaining the previous social structure became its leaders
iii. This was organized terror along political lines
iv. The KKK terrorized not only blacks but prominent Radical Republicans who advocated democratization of the south, even teacher in the schools that the Radical Republicans advocated for through the freedman’s bureau
e. Results of Reconstruction
i. Reconstruction of the US after the civil war can be considered a failure
ii. Although slavery was abolished and blacks given the right to vote by the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, the social order in the south was quickly reconstructed to restrict the rights of former slaves
iii. It was near impossible for former slave to come to own property, therefore they would be unable to produce their own wealth and prosper
iv. Economically the south still struggled due the decrease in cotton demand and a loss of taxable property to enact the social reforms that Radical Republicans proposed
v. Politically the KKK and other groups acts of terror restricted the liberties of former slaves
15. Reversals of Reconstruction
a. Enforcement Acts and Anti-Klan Laws
i. By 1870 KKK Terrorist acts required federal attention
ii. Congress passed these pieces of legislation to make actions of individual against the political rights of others a federal offense
iii. They also provided election supervisors and permitted marshal law and suspension of habeas corpus to combat KKK violence
iv. These laws were not effectively enforced
b. Election of 1872
i. Democrats nominate Horace Greeley
ii. Republicans stick with Grant
iii. The closeness of the election made Grant want even less conflict with the south
iv. In 1875 several of grants cabinet members are indicted for corruption
v. Grant is not an effective president
c. Amnesty Act of 1872
i. Congress pardoned almost all southerners
ii. Only 500 of the top officials remained barred from office
d. Civil Rights Act of 1875
i. Supposedly a tribute to the deceased Charles Sumner
ii. Guaranteed equal rights to public places for blacks
iii. No enforcement, later struck down by the supreme court
e. Democrats rise back to power in Congress
i. Read about it in the book p. 452
f. Industrial Expansion
i. Read about it in the book p. 452
g. Greenback Circulation
i. Read about it in the book p. 452
h. Alaska & Midway Islands
i. Alaska Bought from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million
ii. By Secretary of State William Seward
iii. Claimed economic potential and potential friendship with Russia
iv. US takes control of midway Islands the same year, 1867
i. The Supreme Court and the Failure of Reconstruction
i. Reaction in 1857 to the Dred Scot decision made the court quiet during the civil war
ii. Ex parte Milligan, 1866
1. A military court tried Lambdin Milligan for plotting to free confederate prisoners in Indiana and plotting to overthrow state governments and sentenced him to death
2. Lamdin challenged that his case should be in civil court not military court
3. The Supreme Court ruled that military courts should not hear cases when civil courts were available to hear them
4. (James Garfield was one of Milligan’s lawyers, future president in 1880)
iii. Slaughter House cases 1873
1. Louisiana legislature grants one New Orleans butchering company a monopoly.
2. Other butchers sue under the fourteenth amendment, that their civil rights had been infringed upon
3. Supreme Court argues that state citizenship and national citizenship are different. National citizenship and the fourteenth amendment apply only to things like travel betweens states and waterway navigation.
iv. US v. Cruikshank
1. A group of whites attacked a meeting of a group of blacks in Louisiana
2. The blacks sued the white claiming that they were infringing on their rights
3. The Supreme court ruled that it was a “states rights” matter and they did not have jurisdiction
j. The election of 1876 & Compromise of 1877
i. Democrats nominate Samuel J. Tilden
ii. Republicans nominate Rutherford B. Hayes
iii. They both dispute election results from S. Carolina, Florida and Louisiana. Therefore they both claim to have won their electors
iv. They tie
v. The constitution doesn’t outline exactly what to do in this case, so congress appointed a commission
vi. The commission was to have equal representation of Democrats and Republicans. But independent Republican Supreme Court Justice David Davis refused his appointment in order to accept his election to the Senate. A strong minded Republican took his place.
vii. Consequently the commission votes 8 to 7 in favor of Hayes.
viii. The commission’s recommendation is sent to Congress for their approval
ix. Behind closed doors republicans agree to end reconstruction, democrats give in to Hayes’ election
x. Hayes is inaugurated privately inside the white house to avoid any possible violence