O. Period 5 1844 - 1877 Amsco Note Taking Guide (Ch. 15) PDF

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Period 5: 1848 - 1877 Chapter 15: Reconstruction, 1863-1877 [291 - 304] Due Date: 12/8

Reconstruction Plans of Lincoln and Johnson -

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Lincoln viewed Confed as disloyal minority Lincoln’s Policies - Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (1863) - Lincoln set up process for political reconstruction--reconstructing state govs in South so that Unionists were in charge - Proclamation provided: - Full presidential pardons granted to most Conf. who took an oath of allegiance to the Union and US Constit and accepted the emancipation of slaves - A state gov could be reetablihed and accepted as legitimate by the US president as soon as >10% of the voters in that state took the loyalty oath - Proclamation meant that each state required to rewrite state constitution to eliminate slavery - Policy designed to shorten the war and give added weight to his Emancipation proclamation - Wade-Davis Bill (1864) - Many Repubs disagreed bc believed that it would give too much power to secessionists - Wade-Davis Bill proposed more demanding terms for Reconstruction - 50% of voters of a state to take a loyalty oath and only non-Confederates could voter for a new state constitution - LIncoln didn’t sign the bill - Tense situation over Recon policies between Lincoln and Congress - Freedmen’s Bureau - March 1865: Congress created new agency the Freedmen’s Bureau (the Bureau of Refugee, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands) - Acted as early welfare agency - provided food, shelter, and medical aid to newly freedmen who were struggling - Tried to resettle freed blacks but effort thwarted by president Johnson - Greatest success in education - General Oliver O. Howard led establishment of 3,000 schools for freed blacks - Taught approx. 200,000 Af Ams to read - Federal funding stopped in 1870 - Lincoln’s Last Speech - Last public address April 11, 1865 - Encouraged Southerners to accept Louisiana as a reconstructed state - Addresses controversial question of whether freedmen should be able to vote (yes) - Assassinated three days later Johnson and Reconstruction - Southern Dem, White supremacist, clashed with congress about slavery issue - Johnson’s Reconstruction Policy - May 1865: Johnson issued own Recon proclamation similar to 10% plan - Provided for the disfranchisement (loss to vote and hold office) of all former leaders and officeholders of the Confed and Confederates with more than $20,000 in taxable property - President retained power to grant individual pardons to disloyal Southerners - Many presidential pardons → many former CSA leaders back in office by fall of

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1865 Southern Government of 1865 - All 11 southern states drew up constitutions that repudiated secession, negated the debts of the Conf. gov, and ratified the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery - None of the new constitutions extended voting rights to blacks - Former leaders of CSA won seats in Congress (ex. Alexander Stephens) - Republicans in congress upset Black Codes - Repubs even more mad with Johnson when Southern state legislatures adopted Black Codes that restricted the rights and movements of former slaves - Codes prohibited blacks from renting land or borrowing money to buy land; placed freedmen into a form of semibondage by forcing them as vagrants and apprentices to sign work contracts; and prohibited blacks from testifying against whites in court - Contract-labor system: blacks worked cotton fields under white supervision for deferred wages - 1866: unhappiness w/ Johnson developed into rift wen Northern Repubs in Congress challenged the results of election in the south - Refused to seat Alexander Stephens and other elected reps from ex-CSA states Johnson’s Vetoes - 1866: Johnson alienated moderate Repubs by vetoing a bill increasing the services and protection offered by the Freedmen’s Bureau and a civil rights bill that nullified the Black Codes and guaranteed full citizenship and equal rights to Af Ams - Vetoes marked end of 1st round of Recon - Lincoln and Johnson restored 11 ex-CSA states to former position in union - ex-CSA’s returned to high offices - Southern states began passing Black Codes

Congressional Reconstruction -

Spring 1866: angry response of many Congressmen to Johnson’s policies led to 2nd round of Reconstruction Dominated by Congress and had policies that were harsher on S whites and protective of freed Blacks Radical Republicans - Repubs divided between moderates (concerned w/ economic gains for white middle class) and Radicals (civil rights for blacks) - Most were moderates, became radical in 1866 out of fear that reunified Dem party become dominant - Fed census now counts everyone equally, South gets more reps in Congress and more strength in electoral college - Leading Radical Repub in Senate was - Charles Sumner of MA (returned 3 years after he got caned) - Thaddeus Stevens of PA hoped to revolutionize S society by military rule, African Ams would be free to exercise civil rights, educated in schools by fed gov, and receive confiscated lands from planter class - Benjamin Wade of OH (and others) endorsed women’s suffrage, rights for labor union, and civil rights for Northern Af Ams - Program never fully implemented, struggle to get equal rights to all Americans - Civil Rights Act of 1866 - First actions in congressional Reconstruction were votes to override, w/ modifications, Johnson’s vetoes of Freedmen’s Bureau Act and first Civil Rights Act which said all Af Ams were US citizens (Dred Scott case) and attempted to provide legal shield against

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South’s Black Codes - Repubs feared they would be repealed if Dems ever got majority of Congress - Decided on Constitutional Amendment - Fourteenth Amendment - June 1866, Congress passed, sent states amendment that when ratified in 1868 would. - Declare all persons born/naturalized in US as citizens - Obligate states to respect rights of US citizens, provide w/ equal protection of laws, due process of law (future generations, minorities, women, children, disabled people, and those accused of crimes) - First time states and fed gov have to uphold rights of citizens - Disqualify former CSA political leaders from holding fed or state office - Repudiated the debts of defeated govs of CSA - Penalized a state if they kept any eligible person from voted by reducing state’s proportional rep in Congress and electoral college - Report of the Joint Committee - June 1866, joint committee of House and Senate issued report recommending reorganized states of Confed weren’t entitled to rep in Congress, so senators and reps from South shouldn’t take their seats - Congress not Pres should have authority to determine conditions for allowing reconstructed states to rejoin Union - Officially rejected Pres’s plan of Reconstruction and promised to substitute its own plan, partly embodied in 14th Amendment - The Election of 1866 - Couldn’t work w/ Congress, Johnson took to road in 1866 w/ “swing around the circle” to attack opponents - Speeches appealed to racial prejudices of white by arguing that equal rights for blacks would result in “Africanized” society - Repubs counter attack by calling him drunkard and traitor, appealed to Anti-Southern prejudices by employing tactic “waving the bloody shirt” inflaming anger of N voters by reminding them of war - Propaganda emphasized that Southerners were Dems and by gross jump in logic, branded the entire Dem party as rebellion and treason - Repubs overwhelming victory - After 1866, Johnson’s political adversaries- moderate and Radical Republicans- had more than ⅔ majority in House and Senate - Reconstruction Acts of 1867 - Congress passed three Reconstruction acts in 1867 overrode Johnson’s veto - Placed South under military occupation - Divided former Confed states into 5 military districts under Union army - Increased requirements for rejoining the Union - Had to ratify 14th amendment - Place guarantees in its constit to grant right to vote to all males of all races Impeachment of Andrew Johnson - 1867 Congress passed overriding Johnson’s veto, passed Tenure of Office Act - May have been unconstitu violation of exec authority, prohibited Pres from removing a fed office official or military official w/out Senate - Politically motivated - Wanted to protect Radical Repubs in Johnson’s Cabinet, Sec of War Edwin Stanton in

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charge of military gov in the S - Johnson thought it was unconstit, dismissed Stanton anyway so they impeached him with 11 high crimes and misdemeanors - 1st Pres to be impeached (Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998) - 1868 after three month Senate trial, fell one vote short of ⅔ vote to remove him. Seven moderate Repubs joined Dems in voting against bc they thought it was bad precedent to remove him for political reasons Reforms After Grant’s Election - Impeachment and trial of Johnson occurred in an election year - Dems nominate Horatio Seymour so Johnson’s Pres would have ended anyway - The Election of 1868 - At convention, Repubs turned to war hero General Ulysses S Grant - Despite North popularity, he won only 300,000 more votes than Dem opponent, votes of 500,000 blacks gave Repubs margin of victory - Moderate Repubs began to realize that voting rights of freedmen needed fed protection if party hoped to keep control - Fifteenth Amendment - Repub maj in Congress in 1869 to secure Af Am vote - Adding one more Reconstruction amendment - Prohibited courts from denying or abridging a citizen’s right to vote on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude - Ratified in 1870 - Civil Rights Act of 1875 - Last civil rights reform enacted by Congress in Reconstruction - Guaranteed equal accommodations in public places (hotels, railroads, theaters) - Prohibited courts from excluding Af Ams from juries - Poorly enforced bc moderate and conservative Repubs were frustrated by unwilling S and feared losing white votes in the N - 1877 Congress abandons Reconstruction

Reconstruction in the South -

Second round of Reconstruction, Congress, Repub party in S dominated the govs of ex-Confed states 1867 each Repub controlled gov under military protection until Congress satisfied that the state met Reconstruction requirements Then troops withdrawn Lasted from one year (TN) to nine years (FL) for conservative Dems to gain control Composition of the Reconstruction Governments - In every Repub state gov in S except one, whites were maj in both houses of the legislature. Exception was SC, freedmen controlled lower house in 1873 - Repub legislators included native white Southerners, freedmen, recently arrived Northerners - “Scalawags” and “Carpetbaggers” - Dem opponents gave nicknames to hated Repub rivals - S Repubs were “scalawags” - N newcomers were “carpetbaggers” - Southern whites support Repub gov were usually former Whigs who were interested in eco development for state and peace between sections - Northerners went S for - Investors interested in setting up new businesses - Ministers and teachers with humanitarian goals - Plundering

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African American Legislators - Most Af Ams who held elective office in reconstructed state govs were educated property holders who took moderate positions on most issues - Durine Recon era, S sent 2 Af Ams (Blanche K Bruce and Hiram Revels) to the senate and more than a dozen Af Ams to the House - Revels elected in 1870 to take seat from MS senator Jefferson Davis - Seeing Af Ams and former slaves in power caused bitter resentments in ex-Confeds Evaluating the Republican Record - Did Repubs abuse their power or govern responsibly w/ public interest - Accomplishments - On pos side, Repub legislators liberalized state constit in the S - Universal male suffrage - Property rights for women - Debt relief - Modern penal codes - Promoted building of roads, bridges, railroads, and internal improvements - Est state institutions - hospitals, asylums, and homes for the disabled - Est state-supported public school systems in S - Benefited whites and Af Ams - Paid for by overhauling tax system and selling bonds - Failures - Some Historians see Repubs as utterly wasteful and corrupt - Graft and wasteful spending - Repubs take kickbacks and bribes from contractors - Corruption in whole country, N states and cities too - No geographic section, political party, or ethnic group was immune to general decline in ethics in gov African Americans Adjusting to Freedom - Southerners who had greatest adjustment were freedmen and freedwomen - Faced with securing economic survival and political rights - Building Black Communities - Reunited families, learned to read and write, migrated to cities where “freedom was freeer”, view emancipation as an opportunity for achieving indep from white control - Drive for autonomy was evident in founding of hundreds of thousands of Af Am churches - Left white dominated churches for - Negro Baptist - African Methodist Episcopal - Black ministers emerged as leaders - Percentage of School Age Children Enrolled, 1850 to 1880

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Year

White

African American

1850

56

2

1860

60

2

1870

54

10

1880

62

34

Desire for edu induced large #s of Af Ams to use scarce resources to est indep

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schools for their children and to pay educated Af Ams to become their teachers - Black colleges Howard, Atlanta, Fisk, and Morehouse were est during Recon to prep Af Am ministers and teachers - Aspect of search for indep and self-sufficiency was decision of many freedmen to migrate away from S and est new black communities in frontier states like KS Sharecropping - South agricultural economy in turmoil after war b/c landowners lost labor force - White landowners tried to force freed Af Ams into signing contracts to work the fields - Terms binding signer to unrestricted and permanent labor - Af Ams insistence on autonomy + changes in postwar economy → white landowners adopted system based on tenancy and sharecropping - Sharecropping: farmer lended out seeds and supplies and got part of gain - Sharecropping evolved into a new form of servitude for Af Ams

The North During Reconstruction -

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North’s economy post war driven by Industrial Revolution and pro-business policies of Repubs Focused on railroads, steel, labor problems, and money Greed and Corruption - During Grant administration material interests focus; idealism and civil rights pushed aside - Rise of the Spoilsmen - Early 1870s: leadership of Repub party passed from reformers to political manipulators - Abused patronage (giving jobs and gov. favors to supporters) - Corruption in Business and Government - Postwar years notorious for corrupt schemes from business and political bosses to enrich themselves at public’s expense - 1869: Wall St. Financers Jay Gould and James Fisk schemed and cornered the gold market and made a huge profit before stopped by the Treasury Dept. - Crédit Mobilier affair: Insiders gave stock to influential members of Congress to avoid investigation of huge profits they were making from gov subsidies for building transcontinental Railroad - Whiskey Ring: federal revenue agents worked w/ liquor industry to defraud gov of millions of taxes - Local politics in Grant years just as corrupt The Election of 1872 - Scandals of Grant administration drove reform-minded Repubs to break w/ party in 1872 - Chose Horace Greeley as presidential candidate - Advocate for civil service reform, end to railroad subsidies, withdrawal of troops from South, reduced tariffs, and free trade - Dems also nominated Greeley - Regular Repubs endorsed Grant and he was reelected in a landslide The Panic of 1873 - Over Speculation by financiers and overbuilding by industry and railroads led to widespread business failures and depression - Debtors (farms and cities) suffered from tight money policies and demanded the creation of greenback paper money that was not supported by gold - 1874: Grant vetoed a bill calling for the release of additional greenbacks (sided w/ hard-money bankers and creditors wanting a money supply backed by gold)

The End of Reconstruction -

During Grant’s 2nd term apparent that it was 3rd phase of Reconstruction Radical Republicanism on wane → Southern conservatives (redeemers) took control of

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state govs (by 1877) - Agreed on states’ rights, reducing taxes, reducing spending on social programs, and white supremacy White Supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan - During Repub control of state govs in South, groups of Southern whites organized secret societies to intimidate blacks and white reformers - Klu Klux Klan founded in 1867 by ex-Cond general Nathan Bedford Forrest - “Invisible empire” - Burned black-owned buildings and flooged and murdered freeman to withhold them from exercising voting rights - Congress passed the Force Acts of 1870 and 1871 - In order to protect the civil rights of citizens in the South The Amnesty Act of 1872 - By this time most Northerners ready to put hatred for CSA behind them - Congress passed a general amnesty act removing the last of the restrictions on ex-CSA’s except for the top leaders - But allowed Southern conservatives to vote for Democrats to retake control of state govs The Election of 1876 - 1876: Federal troops withdrawn from all Southern states except SC, FL, and LA - Democrats returned to power in all ex-CSA states except SC FL and LA - Republicans nominated governor of OH, Rutherford B. Hayes - Democrats chose NY reform governor, Samuel J. Tiden (fought the corrupt Tweed Ring) - Democrats had clear majority in popular votes but in three Southern states the returns were contested (SC FL and LA) but Tilden (Democrat) only needed one of their Electoral votes - Special electoral commission gave all electoral votes to Republican candidate Hayes - Democrats outrages and threatened to filibuster results to send election to House of Reps (Democrat control) The Compromise of 1877 - Democrats would allow Hayes to become president if he would immediately end federal support for the Republicans in the South and support the building of a Southern transcontinental Railroad - Pres. Hayes promptly withdrew last of federal troops protecting African Americans and other Republicans - Reconstruction brought to an end - In 1880s and 1890s Supreme Court struck down series of Reconstruction laws that protected blacks from discrimination - Supporters of New South promised a future of industrial development - Most Southern African AMericans and whites after Civil War remained poor farmers who fell further behind the rest of the nation

Historical Perspectives: Did Reconstruction fail?...