Reconstruction 1863-1877 Notes

Reconstruction 1863-1877 Big Ideas/Topics: - How will the south rebuild it’s society after the war? How should they be accepted back into the Union? - How will the newly freed Africans fit into society and how will the government help with that? Reconstruction Plans of Lincoln and Johnson - Lincoln’s policies - Believed that south couldn’t constitutionally leave the union, therefore never left so his plan was less severe - Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (1863) - Full presidential pardons given to states who swore allegiance to union and emancipated slaves - State government could be reestablished as legitimate by the US if 10% of its voters took the loyalty oath - Southern states would have to rewrite their state constitutions to eliminate the existence of slavery - Wade-Davis Bill (1864) - Republicans in congress disagreed w/Lincoln that 10% was too less so they created their own bill requiring a more demanding 50% of a state's voters to take a loyalty oath and only allowed nonConfederates to vote for a new state constitution - Lincoln refused to sign the bill (pocket-vetoed) Freedmen’s Bureau - March 1865, Congress created Freedmen’s Bureau providing food, shelter, and medical aid for - Supposed to resettle blacks on confiscated farmland but couldn;t when President Johnson - Greatest success: education; under Gen. Oliver O Howard, established 3k schools or freed blacks those affected by the war, both blacks and homeless whites returned most land to their original owners including some colleges; bureau’s schools taught an estimated 200k Africans before federal funding stopped in 1870 - Lincoln’s Last Speech (April 11, 1865) - Encouraged north to accept Louisiana as a reconstructed state as they abolished slavery and provided education for African Americans - Also answered is freedmen should be allowed to vote but his Reconstruction plans ended w/his assassination - Johnson and Reconstruction - Johnson was the only senator from a Confederate state that remained loyal to the Union - Johnson’s Reconstruction Policy - May 1865, Johnson issued his own Reconstruction plan similar to Lincoln’s 10% but also took away the right to hold office and vote of former leaders and officeholders of the Confederacy and Confederates w/over $20k in taxable property - Problem: president could grant pardons; Johnson used often so most leaders were back in office - Southern Governments of 1865 - 8 months into Johnson’s presidency, 11 ex-Confederate states qualified for readmission - They drew up constitutions that refused secession, ratified 13th amendment (abolished slavery) but never gave voting rights to blacks - Leaders of the Confederacy won seats in Congress (ex. ALexander Stephens (former confederate VP) won senator for Georgia) Republicans were mad - Black Codes - - Republicans disappointed w/Johnson when southern states adopted black codes - Prohibited blacks from renting or borrowing money for land - Forced freedmen to sign work contracts - Prohibited blacks from testifying against whites in court The contract-labor system where blacks worked in cotton fields was little different from slavery Johnson’s Vetoes - Johnson alienated some Republicans when he vetoed a bill increasing services and protection offered by the Freedmen's Bureau and civil rights bill that nullified Black Codes and gave Africans full citizenship and equal rights - Marked end of first round of Reconstruction, restored 11 Confederate states and south pass Black Codes Congressional Reconstruction - Congress members mad at Johnson’s policies, led to 2nd round of reconstruction dominated by Congress and - Radical Republicans featured policies that were much harsher on the south and more protective to African Americans - Republicans divided into moderate (concerned w/economic gains for white middle class) and radicals (championed civil rights for blacks) - Republicans fear that Democrats reunify and become dominant - Radical Republicans leader: Charles Sumner of MA (returned 3yrs after caning by Brooks) - - Now all people are equal (3/5ths rule gone), south more reps in Congress and electoral college Thaddeus Stevens of PE hoped Africans would be free to exercise civil rights, educated, and receive lands confiscated from panter class - Benjamin Wade of OH endorsed women’s suffrage, rights for labor unions, and civil rights for Northern Africans - Civil Rights Act of 1866 - Johnson vetoed the Freedmen’s Bureau Act and 1st Civil Rights Act - Civil Rights act pronounced Africans US citizens and provide shield against South’s Black Codes - Republicans feared that if Democrats won control of Congress, they would repeal so took a more permanent solution in the for of a constitutional amendment - Fourteenth Amendment - Declared all people born or naturalized in the US were citizens - Obligated states to respect rights of US citizens and provide them with equal protection and due - First time the COnstitution required states and federal gov to uphold the rights of citizens - Other parts of amendment applied specifically to Congress’ plan for reconstruction process of law - Disqualified former Confederate leaders to hold office - Repudiated the debts of defeated governments of the Confederacy - Penalized state if prevents an eligible voter from voting by reducing state’s proportional representation in Congress and the electoral college - Report of the Joint Committee - Joint committee of House and Senate issued report recommending that former states of the - Asserted that Congress had the authority for allowing reconstructed states to rejoin Union Confederacy weren’t allowed reps in Congress - Election of 1866 - Johnson unable to work w/Congress; his speeches argued equal rights for blacks would lead to - Republicans attacked Johnson for being a drunkard traitor - Election results gave republicans overwhelming victory; 2/3rds of house and senate republicans Africanized society - Reconstruction Acts of 1867 - Congress passed 3 reconstruction acts early 1867 that put south under military occupation - divided confederate states into 5 military districts each under control of Union army Increased requirements for readmission: had to ratify 14th amendment and give all adult males the right to vote regardless of race - Impeachment of Andre Johnson - Congress passed Tenure of Office act that prohibited president to remove federal official or military commander from office without approval of Senate (violated executive authority) - - Purpose: protect radical republicans in Johnson’s cabinet such as Edwin Stanton (sec of war) - Johnson challenged by dismissing Stanton on his own authority and House responded by impeachment - Johnson first president to be impeached; fell one vote short from being removed from office (needs ⅔) Reforms After Grant’s Election - The Election of 1868 - Republicans nominated war hero Ulysses S Grant who had no political experience - Despite his popularity, he only won w/300k more popular votes; 500k black voters gave republicans their victory making moderate Republicans realize protecting freedmen’s voting rights was crucial - Fifteenth Amendment - Republicans acted quickly to secure voting rights for Africans with the 15th amendment - Prohibited state from denying citizen’s right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude - Civil Rights Act of 1875 - Last civil rights reform enacted by Congress; law guaranteed equal accommodation in public - Law was loosely enforced, republicans frustrated trying to reconstruct the unwilling south and places and prohibited courts from excluding Africans from juries fear losing white votes in the North so by 1877, Congress abandon reconstruction completely Reconstruction in the South - During 2nd round of reconstruction, Republican party dominated southern governments - Each republican-controlled government protected by US army - Composition of Reconstruction Governments - Every state government in the south were majority white in both houses except South Carolina where freedmen controlled the lower house in 1873 - - Scalawags and Carpetbaggers - Democrats called southern republicans scalawags and northern newcomers carpetbaggers - Southern whites that support republican governments were usually whigs - North went to south to set up businesses, humanitarian goal, or simply to plunder African American Legislators - Africans who held office were educated, owned property, took moderate position on most issues - During reconstruction, republicans in south sent 2 Africans to senate (Blanche K. Bruise and - Revels elected in 1870 to take senate seat from MI, ex-Confederate resent former slaves in high Hiram Revels) and more than a doven to house positions of power - Evaluation the Republican Record - Accomplishments - Republican legislatures liberalized state constitutions in the south: provide universal male - Promoted internal improvements and established state institutions and schools suffrage, property rights for women, debt relief, modern penal codes - - Failures - Republican politicians took advantage of power to take kickbacks and bribes from contractors - Corruption occurred throughout entire country; everything and everyone was affected by postwar African Americans Adjusting to Freedom - Building Black Communities - To blacks, emancipation meant opportunity for independence from white control - - Desire for education led to building independent schools for children - Migrate away from south to establish blakc communities in frontier states such as Kansas - - Built black churches and black ministers were leaders in African community Black colleges: Howard, Atlanta, Fisk, and Morehouse established during reconstruction Sharecropping - South’s economy turmoil after war because loss of labor force (slaves) - At first tried to force ex-slaves to sign work contract (basically another name for slavery) but Africans insistence on autonomy led to whites adopting a systom of tenancy and sharecropping - Sharecropping: landlord provides supplies needed to farm in return for a share of the harvest (usually ½) - Gave Africans opportunity to work piece of land for themselves but still dependent on landlord The North During Reconstruction - Greed and Corruption - Rise of Spoilsmen - Leadership of Republican party passed from reformers to manipulators who gave jobs to supporters - Corruption in Business and Government - Postwar years notorious for corrupt schemes for business and political bosses to enrich themselves at the public’s expense - In 1869, Wall Street financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk got help from president Grant’s brother in law in a scheme to corner the gold market. Treasury Department broke scheme but Gould had already made a huge profit - Credit Mobilier affair, insiders gave stock to influential members of Congress to avoid investigation of the profits they were making - Whiskey Ring; federal revenue agents conspired w/liquor department to defraud government of millions in taxes - Although Grant himself didn’t make profits, his loyalty to those who did tarnished his presidency The Election of 1872 - Scandals of Grant administration drove reform-minded Republicans to break from party and nominate Horace Greeley; surprisingly, Democrats joined them and also nominated Greeley - Regular Republicans countered by “waving the bloody shirt” and Grant won again in a landslide Panic of 1873 - Grant’s 2nd term began w/economic disaster; overspeculation by financers and overbuilding by industry and railroads lead to widespread business failures and depression - People called for greenback paper money, not back up by gold; Grant decided to take a side and wanted money back up by gold and vetoed a bill calling for release of greenbacks The End of Reconstruction - During Grant’s 2nd term, there was a 3rd phase of reconstruction: Southern conservatives took control of state - White Supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan governments one after another - During republican rule in the south, southern whites organized secret groups to intimidate blacks and white reformers; most prominent was the KKK - Founded by Nathaniel Bedford Forrest, burnt black buildings, murdered blacks to stop voting - To stop KKK, Congress passed Force Acts of 1870 and 1871 to protect civil rights of citizens The Amnesty Act of 1872 - 7 years after war ended, Northerners ready to put hatred for confederacy behind them so Congress signed general amnesty act that removed last restrictions on ex-Confederates except for top leaders - Problem: allowed southern conservatives to vote fro Democrats and retake control of government The Election of 1876 - 1876, federal troops removed from south except in SC, FL, and Louisiana - Republicans nominate Rutherford B Hayes and Democrats nominate Samuel J TIlden - Tilden won popular vote and only needed 1 electoral vote from consented returns of SC, FL, LA - Held special electoral commission; in a straight party vote of 8-7, the commission gave all electoral votes to Hayes which outraged the Democrats who threatened to filibuster the results and send election to the House of Representatives that they controlled - The Compromise of 1877 - - Leaders o two parties made a deal, Democrats would let Hayes be president and in return he would: - Immediately end deferral support for the Republicans in the south - Support the building od a southern transcontinental railroad Shortly after he took office, Hayes fulfilled his part and withdrew troops protecting repubs and blacks Removal of federal troops brought reconstruction to an end but also a series of decisions in the 1890s where supreme court struck down laws protecting Africans from discrimination - South promised a future of industrial development but most Africans and whites remained poor farmers