University:
Arizona State University
Course:
HST 200 | Historical Themes
Academic year:

2024
Views:

416

Pages:

2
Author:

Thuyoul US

ASU HST 200 (Historical Themes) The Era of Reconstruction, 1865–1877 The Fourteenth Amendment Questions swirled about the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Many contended that the 1866 act could not change the Supreme Court's understanding of the Constitution, which it had established in its 1857 ruling prohibiting Black citizenship. The Radical Republicans crafted a second constitutional amendment that closely mirrored the 1866 Civil Rights Act in an attempt to circumvent any legal challenges. The Fourteenth Amendment was sent to state legislatures for approval in July 1866. The Dred Scott ruling was overturned by the Fourteenth Amendment, which gave citizens equal protection under both state and federal law and declared, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." It also decreased the number of House representatives and Electoral College electors for any state that denied suffrage to any adult male resident, Black or White. It did this by eliminating the three-fifths compromise of the 1787 Constitution, which had allowed an enslaved person to be counted as three-fifths of a free White person. In the Wade-Davis measure, as advocated by Radical Republicans, anyone who had “engaged in insurrection or rebellion [against]. ....Unless pardoned by two-thirds of Congress, those had "given aid or comfort to the enemies [of]" the United States were prohibited from holding federal or state political office. obligations from the Civil War were also addressed by the amendment, which stated that any obligations made during the war to defeat the Confederacy would be paid. Therefore, claims by former slaveholders seeking compensation for slave property were without legal standing because Confederate debts would not: "[N]either the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void." The Fourteenth Amendment would instantly entitle any state that approved it to readmission. With the exception of Tennessee, the majority of former Confederate states declined to pass the amendment in 1866. In an outspoken appeal to reject the Fourteenth Amendment, President Johnson further strained his relationship with congressional Republicans. He delivered a series of talks dubbed the "swing around the circle" in the late summer of 1866 in an effort to garner support for his moderate brand of Reconstruction. Johnson thought that putting an end to slavery went far enough; he thought that giving liberated people citizenship rights and safeguards went much too far. He persisted in thinking that Black people were less valuable than White people. The president's attempts to disrupt the Radical Republicans and garner support for his policy through "swing around the circle" speeches were a complete failure because hecklers forced Johnson to say hurtful things. Radical Republicans claimed that Johnson's speeches were delivered while intoxicated. Johnson's reputation fell as a result.