Transcript Document

The Politics of Reconstruction
• The process by which the
seceding states are restored to a
proper relationship with the
Union.
• Republican Myth – “Since there
was no legal secession, there
need be no readmission.”
• “The Southern armed minority
tricked the majority into
fighting the War….so lets turn
Southern gov’t over to the
unarmed majority.”
• African Americans were very
optimistic about freedom.
• However, the Southern
economy was devastated by the
war
Lincoln’s 10% Plan
• Lincoln’s 10% Plan- very
lenient.
• Offered “amnesty” to all except
high ranking Confederates, who
swore loyalty to the
Constitution.
• Allowed a state to rejoin the
union when 10% of the 1860
voting population swore loyalty
to the U.S.
• This was called the 10 % Plan.
Wade Davis Bill
• 1864- Proposed that
Congress, not the President
would be in charge of
Reconstruction.
• Said that a majority (50%)
of those eligible to vote in
1860 swear a loyalty oath
to support the Constitution.
– Lincoln used a pocket veto
to kill the bill
Andrew Johnson
• Johnson was a Democrat, when
the entire North voted
Republican.
• So if he wanted any chance of
getting re-elected President he
had to appease (and pardon)
some influential Confederates,
who were most likely also
influential Democrats. So, most
southern leaders were pardoned
after brief jail terms
Andrew Johnson
• The only confederate
congressman not to
leave congress during
secession.
• Lincoln pick this
southerner to show his
support for southern
states.
Andrew Johnson as President
– His plan was similar to
Lincoln's…swift readmission
upon the meeting of conditions
– For readmission, Southern
states had to: nullify acts of
secession, abolish slavery, and
refuse Confederate war debts.
– Wanted to punish former
Confederate leaders but his
policies sometimes helped
them.
-13th Amendment – Jan 1865 – abolished
slavery but was countered with
-Black Codes – resembled slave codes
Black Codes
– For African Americans, emancipation
meant the ability to freely seek out lost
relatives, (although most stayed in the
South doing so), to marry, to get an
education, to form their own churches.
– In order to keep them in check local
laws “black codes were passed to limit
freedoms (curfews, ban of jury service,
bar on blacks to rent land, punishment
for “idleness”, heavy fines for laborers
who broke labor contracts)
– It was done to guarantee a cheap stable
(and subservient) labor supply
– Northern Republicans were angry at the
Black Codes. They felt it was arrogance
on behalf of the South (they were
continuing aspects of sla
Reconstruction
• Congress listened to
hearings (1865-1866) on
the horrible conditions in
the South for the blacks.
Convinced the moderates to
join the radicals
• Freedman’s Bureau –
created in 1865 to help
former slaves
– President Johnson
vetoed a bill in 1865 to
extend its life.
(Republicans later
overrode the veto).
Civil rights Act of 1866
• Said everyone born in the U.S.
was a U.S. citizen with full
rights.
• Designed to combat the Dredd
Scott decision and
discriminatory state laws.
• President Johnson vetoed it but
Congress overrode the veto and
it passed.
• Both of these vetoes showed
that President Johnson did not
support greater rights for
African Americans in the South.
•Moderates
•The majority in Congress.
•Wanted some civil rights for
blacks, but not suffrage or
participation in gov’t.
•Radicals
•Lead by Thaddeus Stevens in the
House of Reps.
•Insisted on black suffrage.
•Wanted total reform and
reconstruction in the South.
•Wanted land reform and
distribution
•The Radical Republicans believed the legislative
branch of the federal government should be in
charge of Reconstruction policy.
14th Amendment
• 1866 Made states extend
citizenship to blacks.
• Made “All persons born or
naturalized in the U.S.” citizens
of the nation.
• Has a due process of law clause
with equal protection of the law.
– (States have to offer all people due
process and equal protection of the
law. The National government is
making State governments do this).
• Civil rights are now enforced by
the Federal, not State,
governments. WOMEN not
mentioned
• Did not guarantee voting rights.
• President Johnson opposed it.
1866 Congressional Election
-Republicans win majorities in both houses on Congress (the
House of Reps and the Senate).
-Now Republicans in Congress can override vetoes and control
Reconstruction.
Republicans rule Congress
• With the South in secession
and Republicans holding a
strong majority in congress,
they passed the Morrill
Tariff, the Pacific
Railroad Act, and the
Homestead Act.
– All of which were strongly
opposed by Democrats and
Southerners.
New Problems
• With slavery now illegal
and Blacks now counting
as a full person (not 3/5 as
before) the South would
actually be stronger
politically than before.
– Republicans feared a return
of the Democrats to the
White House and Congress
•
On December 6, 1865,
President Johnson
declared that the South
had satisfied all of the
conditions needed, and
that the Union was now
restored.
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
• Divided the South into 5 military zones.
• To be readmitted as states to the Union, they had to:
-Ratify the 14th Amendment and guarantee all men the right to
vote.
- This did not include "40 acres and a mule."
Tenure of Office Act
• Required Senate approval for
the President to remove an
officer earlier confirmed by the
Senate.
• Impeachment – Johnson tests
of Tenure of Office Act by
removing Secretary of War
Edwin Stanton.
• Congress decides to impeach
Johnson on charges of:
1. Violating the T of O Act
2. Making scandalous
speeches
3. Exposing Congress to
ridicule
• Johnson was indeed impeached
but came 1 vote shy in the
Senate of being removed from
the Presidency. (some say he
was not convicted because he
agreed to not run again)
• Johnson vetoed so many
important civil rights and
Reconstruction legislation, that
impeachment was a way to stop
him and limit his power.
• In 1868 Ulysses S. Grant, a
Republican, was elected
President.
• While Grant was not personally
involved, his administration was
plagued by scandals throughout
his presidency.
th
15
Amendment
• No person can be denied
the right to vote based on
race, color, or previous
condition of servitude.
Reconstructing Society
• Many blacks were elected to
state “reconstruction”
legislatures.
• Republicans won majorities in
most southern state legislatures.
• By 1870 all of the former
Confederate states had rejoined
the Union.
– Reconstruction was not over
though.
Economic conditions
• The South was physically
destroyed: farms, roads,
buildings, etc.
• Per capita wealth dropped from
$18,000 for white families in
1860 to $3,000 in 1870.
• Everyone in the South was
poorer after the war.
• More than 1/5 of the adult white
men in the south died in the
War.
Postwar Politics
• Carpetbaggers- Northern
politicians/opportunists.
• Scalawags- Southerners who were
Republican or supported
Reconstruction.
– African Americans made up the
largest group of Southern
Republicans.
– Gained voting rights after the 15th
Amendment.
• 90% of Blacks voted in the South in
the late 1860s
• For many Southerners,
their worst fears came true:
– The Federal
Government had
sovereignty over states.
– Slaves were free and had
equal rights (in theory).
– The South was
completely decimated.
From slavery to freedom
• Most blacks were cautious
about their new freedom.
• For many, life was worth as
they had no land, few
skills, no opportunities, no
education, no homes, a still
racist and prejudice white
majority, and no way out of
the south.
Education
• Strictly forbidden under slavery.
• 90% of African Americans were
illiterate after the War.
• Most Blacks sought education
during reconstruction.
• By 1877, more than 600,000
Blacks were enrolled in
elementary schools.
Churches
• Many new churches were
formed by African
Americans during
Reconstruction (mostly
Baptist and Methodist).
• Usually the only institution
that Blacks could totally
control themselves
(important during the civil
rights movement of the
1950s and 60s as well!)
• Other support groups were
formed to help former
slaves.
Politics
• From 1865-1877 African
Americans were elected to
local, state, and national
political positions.
• Most states (all but S.C.) were
still dominated by white
legislatures.
• Only 16 out of 125
Congressmen were Black
during Reconstruction.
• All Southern governors were
white.
40 Acres and a mule
• Promised to freed slaves by
General Sherman in 1865 if
they would follow his army.
• Republicans in Congress failed
to pass effective land reforms.
• 44 million acres was set aside to
homestead in the South but
most of the land was swampy
and unsuitable for farming.
• Few Blacks had the $ to buy
land and if they did whites
refused to sell to them.
• Even less had the resources to
farm on their own (seed, tools,
horses, etc.)
• The South faced a labor
shortage
• Sharecropping- the cropper
works the land, pays a portion
of the harvest in exchange for
rent, seed, supplies.
– The sharecropper does all of the
work but reaps the fewest benefits.
• Tenant Farming: Renting Land
to farm, but the tenant owns his
own tools and keeps all of his
harvest which he sells for a
profit (not rent).
– Rarely worked out for the best for
the tenant
– Kept the South tied to 1 crop
agriculture
– Discouraged change and
diversification
– Kept the South dependant to the
North.
Cotton no longer king
• During the War other
countries began
growing cotton.
– After the war the
market was flooded
with cheap cotton.
Many farmers started
growing tobacco, but
the South’s economy
was still frail.
Life gets worse
• Industrialization- came
very slowly
• Poll Taxes and Literacy
Tests – ways around the
14th and 15th
Amendments.
• Jim Crow Laws- made
segregation possible.
The Supreme Court
• The Civil Rights Cases
(1883) – said the 14th
Amendment prohibited
States, not individuals or
businesses from
discriminating.
• Plessy v. Ferguson –
(1896) gave us “separate
but equal”
KKK
• (Ku Klux Klan)
• To keep blacks from
voting, then their goals
spread. They used brutal
tactics to keep blacks
down.
The Collapse of Reconstruction
• Most southern whites
reluctantly accepted
reconstruction and the new
rights for blacks.
• Some states (GA) expelled
black members of their state
legislatures…the U.S. congress
eventually forced their
reinstatement.
• Some whites, turned to violence
and intimidation to keep blacks
down and the laws ineffective.
The Ku Klux Klan
• Began in 1866 as a social club
for Confederate veterans.
• Their popularity grew and
agenda turned to keep blacks
down, especially politically.
• Burned houses & churches,
killed, raped, beat up, and
bullied blacks any way possible.
• Whites who helped blacks were
also targets.
Southern Politics
• Republicans were the enemy of
most Southerners (including the
KKK).
• Democrats cheated to get the
Republicans out of their state
governments.
• Many blacks who voted
Republican were revealed and
black listed (no one would hire
them for a job, sell them
anything, or buy their crops)
• By the 1880s the Klan’s
activities had worked to the
point that few blacks voted and
hardly any were ever elected to
office.
Democrats return to power
• The Amnesty Act, 1872
restored the right to vote
and run for office to about
150,000 former
Confederates (who all
voted Democrat).
• 1873- Congress allows the
Freedman’s Bureau to
expire.
• Radical Republicans lost
seats in Congress during
the 1870s as moderates
took over.
• Grant’s two terms as President
1868-1876 were plagued by
scandals.
– Although never involved
personally, many of his top
aides, cabinet members and
even V.P. were caught in
scandals.
– Drew attention away from
Reconstruction as did bad
economic conditions (The
Panic of 1873 and a currency
dispute over greenbacks and
hard currency)
Reconstruction fades
• The leading radicals were
dead (Thaddeus Stevens,
Charles Sumner).
• Reconstruction legislation
either didn’t work
effectively or was
overturned by the S.C.
• Scandals diverted attention.
Reconstruction Ends
• Southern Democrats
“Redeemed” themselves by
recapturing the state
governments of AL, AR,
GA, MS, NC, TN, TX, and
VA by 1875..
Election of 1876
• Rutherford B.Hayes, Republican vs. Samuel J. Tilden, Democrat.
• Tilden won the popular vote but was 1 vote shy of a majority in the
electoral college…so the House of Reps gets to decide (Dems have a
majority by Republicans controlled the electoral commission)
• Democrats agreed to accept Hayes as President if the Republicans
agreed to end Reconstruction. A sneaky deal!
Compromise of 1877
• The Democratic majority in
the House agrees to elect
Hayes (Republican) as
President if:
– 1. Federal troops are taken
out of the South.
– 2. Federal $ is spent on a
railroad from TX to the West
coast, and on roads, bridges,
harbors, etc in the South.
– 3. Hayes appoints a
conservative Democrat to his
cabinet.
– Effectively ends
Reconstruction.
Home Rule returns
• After 1876, southern states
were free to run their states
as they wanted without
intervention from the
Federal Gov’t.
• Democrats dominated
every southern state.
• Most of the post-civil war
reforms were now gone.
The Purchase of Alaska
The Purchase of Alaska
In 1867, Secretary of State
William H. Seward bought
Alaska from Russia to the
United States for $7.2 million,
but most of the public jeered
his act as “Seward’s Folly.”
Only later, when oil and gold
were discovered, did Alaska
prove to be a huge bargain.