Andrew Johnson And The Battle Over Reconstruction

ASU HST 200 (Historical Themes) The Era of Reconstruction, 1865–1877 Andrew Johnson And The Battle Over Reconstruction Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, became president following Lincoln's assassination. Johnson had come from quite low status. Johnson was the epitome of the self-made guy, having been raised in abject poverty and never having attended school in North Carolina. He had been an apprentice tailor since he was a little boy, and his wife had taught him to read. He had gone to Tennessee as a young man, and there he worked his way up the political ladder, developing a reputation as a formidable stump speaker and ardent supporter of the underprivileged in the South. A few years before the nation went to war, he was elected to the U.S. Senate after being chosen to serve in the House of Representatives in the 1840s and then Tennessee's governor the next ten years. Johnson continued in the Senate and supported the Union when Tennessee withdrew. Lincoln named him governor of the then-occupied state of Tennessee as Union forces advanced on his native state of North Carolina. He held this position until the Republicans selected him to run for vice president on the Lincoln ticket. Republicans who were worried decided to nominate Johnson, a Democrat and a Southerner who owned slaves, out of practical consideration. They had to demonstrate that the party stood behind all faithful men, no matter where they were from or what party they belonged to. Since Johnson's candidacy would win over both pro-Southern factions and War Democrats—the northern Democrats opposed to the Civil War who took a conciliatory stance—he seemed like the perfect candidate. This once poor tailor's apprentice and steadfast opponent of the rich southern planter class was unceremoniously promoted to the president in 1865 and given the responsibility of overseeing the reconstruction of the devastated South. Lincoln maintained as president that the Southern states' attempt to secede from the Union was illegal and that, as a result, they were entitled to certain state autonomy rights. Johnson wanted to swiftly and leniently reintegrate the South into the Union in order to mend the nation's wounds, in accordance with Lincoln's strategy. Many in his own party were incensed by this stance. The goal of the northern Radical Republican plan for Reconstruction was to destroy the plantation system in particular and to completely upend southern civilization. When President Johnson turned down the radical Republicans' proposal for the federal government to provide former slaves the opportunity to vote, they were immediately let down. More hostilities were precipitated by the president and the Radical Republicans' early disputes on how to handle the vanquished South. In actuality, rebellious Southerners were granted broad "amnesty and pardon" by President Johnson in his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in May 1865. All of their property was restored to them, save the individuals they had enslaved, and all that was required of them was an affirmation of their support for the US Constitution. High-ranking military commanders, members of the Confederate political leadership, and anyone with taxable property valued at more than $20,000 were among the Southerners excluded from this amnesty. This final group was included with the express purpose of showing the southern planter class that they bore a special responsibility for the start of hostilities. This class of rich Southerners would need to swallow their pride and ask Johnson for a pardon in order to reclaim their privileges. States were obligated to call separate state conventions to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment and rescind their secession decrees. Many former Confederate officials arrived in the Union capital by the end of 1865, hoping to reclaim their congressional seats. Confederate vice president Alexander Stephens was one of them; during the war, he had spent some months imprisoned in Boston. Republicans in Congress protested loudly, but by early 1866 Johnson declared that all former Confederate states had met the standards. He said that since the Union had been restored, nothing further needed to be done. It makes sense that radical Republicans in Congress disagreed with Johnson's viewpoint. They, along with their supporters in the north, were deeply offended by his forbearance toward the former Confederate states, particularly with regard to the re-admission of former Confederate officials such as Alexander Stephens to Congress. The administrations of the southern states he permitted were met with resistance. They thus refused to allow senators and representatives from the states that had been part of the Confederacy to assume their positions in Congress. Rather, a joint committee of senators and representatives was established by the Radical Republicans to supervise Reconstruction. After taking control of the House in the 1866 congressional elections, they campaigned for the entire reconstruction of the South and the deconstruction of the old southern system in the years that followed. They were directly at odds with President Johnson as a result of this endeavor, and his refusal to reach a settlement with Congress paved the way for further conflicts.