Transcript Reconstruction

Reconstruction
The Civil War Amendments
• 13th Amendment
– Ended Slavery in the Union
• 14th Amendment
– Provided Citizenship to former slaves
– Provided Due Process of Law
– Provided Equal Protection of Law
• 15th Amendment
– Voting Rights for African Americans
Devastation of the South
• The war destroyed the South’s economy and
displace its cultural traditions
– Land values dropped
– Cash crops demand dwindled
– Labor force freed
– Infrastructure destroyed
– Plantation System broken up
• Today, the south is the poorest region of the
united states
The Freedmen’s Bureau
• Former Slaves suffered the most from the 13th
Amendment
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Gained Freedom – positive
No land – negative
No money – negative
No education – negative
Hostile environment – negative
– Black Codes – System of laws to prevent AA from gaining equality
• March 3, 1865 War department created
Freedman’s Bureau to
• Relieve “destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen”
• Set up schools hospitals, provided economic relief, and
protection from white southerners
Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction
• Lincoln’s 10% Plan
• Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
• When 10% of white males in a state who voted in 1860
took an oath of allegiance to the Constitution and
Union, the state would be allowed back into the Union
• Wanted a peaceful, quick and easy restoration
of southern states to the Union
• Avoid southern animosity
• Avoid future rebellion
• Assassination by John Wilkes Booth on April
14th, 1865
• His plan for reconstruction died with him
Radical Republicans Plan for…
• Most connected to the anti-slavery cause
• Lead by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner
• Needed African American vote to ensure power
• Needed the disenfranchisement of the south
• Followed Forfeited-Rights Theory
• States continued to exist, but by acts of secession and war
forfeited civil and political rights under the constitution
• Rejected Lincoln’s Plan
• Wanted to punish the south for slavery and secession
• Favored a sweeping transformation of southern society
based on the freed slaves
• Wade-Davis Bill
• Required a majority of white males in a state declare
allegiance to the Union
• Lincoln Vetoed
• RR issued Wade-Davis Manifesto
Johnson’s Plan for Reconstruction
• Johnson became president upon Lincoln’s
death
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Racist
Illiterate
Alcoholic
Lacked most presidential virtues
• RR hoped he would follow their plan for Rec.
• Preferred Restoration to Reconstruction
• Issued Proclamation of Amnesty
• Similar to Lincoln’s Plan, but harsher on Planter Society
Johnson v. Radical Republicans
• Radical Republicans had Majority in Congress
by end of 1965
– Extended of Freedman’s Bureau
• Johnson Vetoed and Senate overrode vetoed
– Passed Civil Rights Act – provided former slaves
citizenship and bypassed Black Codes
• Johnson Vetoed and Senate overrode Veto
– Military Reconstruction Act
• Setup five military districts in the rebel states that
provided order and protected former slaves
• Johnson Vetoed and Senate overrode Veto
Continued
• The Impeachment of Johnson
– Johnson Violated the Tenure of Office Act
• Required Senate permission for the president to remove any
officeholder whose appointment the senate had confirmed
• Removed Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
– February 24, 1868 House passed 11 articles of
impeachment, 8 dealt with with Stanton
– Senate tried the case from March 5, 1868 to May 26,
1868
• The impeachment vote was 35-19
– 1 vote short of the 2/3 majority need for impeachment
• The trial Crippled Johnson weak presidency
– Lost Democratic Nomination (was a republican
president) for second term
The Grant Years
• Election of 1868
– Ulysses S. Grant
• Republican Nomine
• War Hero
• Most popular man in America
– Republican Platform
• Embraced Reconstruction
• Defended Black Suffrage
• Payment of National Debt
– Democrats
• Took opposite position on all issues
• Nominated Horatio Seymour
– Result
• Grant won by 307,000
• 500,000 African American voted for Grant
Scandal and Debt
• Grant was ineffective as a leader and allowed
others to influence his decisions
• The Public Credit Act
– Hard Currency (gold) was to replace Soft Currency
(paper money) that had been used during the war
• Scandals
– Gold Market Plot
• Jay Gould and James Fisk
– Credit Mobilier Scandal
– Cabinet Bribery and Kickbacks
– All hurt Grants presidency and image
Economic Panic
• Northerners lost interest because of economic
distress and Grant’s presidential scandals
– Panic of 1873
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Resulted from decommissioning of soft money
Failure of railroad companies to pay loans
Stock Market closed for 10 days
Lasted six years
• Business went bankrupt and unemployment
shot up
• Republican power diminished as a result
– Impacting their influence in the election of 1877
Compromise of 1877
• Election of 1876
– Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes
• Received 165 Electoral Votes
• Claimed 15 disputed votes from FL, LA, and SC
– Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden
• Received 184 Electoral Votes
• One shy of majority need for victory
• Compromise of 1877
– Republicans agreed to withdraw troops if Hayes receives
victory
– End of Reconstruction
– Republican party shifts agenda from abolitionism to
Economics
– White Democrat rule returned to the South
– African Americans suffered from Black Codes and Jim Crow
laws that diminish 13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments
The End