Transcript Problems Facing Post Civil War America

RECONSTRUCTION:
SUCCESS OR FAILURE?
READING
• While I come around to CHECK YOUR NOTECARDS and
COLLECT YOUR UNIT 11 JOURNALS, please read the article and
answer the following questions…
ANSWER ON A SEPARATE SHEET OF PAPER!
1. In what ways are the North and South still split today?
2. Should the South have the right to commemorate the
Civil War in these controversial ways? Why or why not?
3. In what way is the Civil War still being “fought”?
DEFINE:
1. What does RECONSTRUCTION mean?
2. What will the RECONSTRUCTION of
America entail?
• Recalling from last class…what are the main
issues that America will need to focus on?
UNIT 12, JOURNAL #1
At the end of the Civil War, many things
are left unsettled.
Based on what you know about the Civil
War and its end, will the
“reconstruction” of America be
successful or not successful?
Provide three examples or predictions for
why/why not.
PROBLEMS FACING POST CIVIL WAR
AMERICA
1. Political re-entry of formerly
rebellious states
• Punish or pardon?
2. Economic devastation of the
South
3. Education and support of
freedmen
• What are freedmen?
DIFFERING OPINIONS
• Complicating the process of Reconstruction,
everyone who has power during this period
seems to have a different idea of HOW to
rebuild.
1. Lincoln
2. Johnson
3. Congress
LINCOLN’S PLAN – DEC. 1863
• Although Lincoln did not live to carry out his plan, he made it
clear that he favored leniency in bringing the Union back
together
• It was individuals, not states, who had rebelled.
• President has the right to “pardon” individuals, and he intended to do so.
• WHY WOULD LINCOLN FAVOR LENIENCY?
• Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction Plan (aka 10% Plan)
• Pardon all Confederates who took loyalty oath (swear allegiance to
the Union and promise to obey its laws)
• Exceptions:
• High-ranking Confederate officials
• Those who committed crimes against POW’s
• If 10% of voters took the oath, statehood would be re-established in
the U.S.
WADE DAVIS BILL – JULY 1864
• 10% Plan opposed by Radical Republicans- too
moderate
• Wanted to destroy the political power of former slaveholders
• African Americans should be given full citizenship and the right to vote
 RADICAL– No country that had previously abolished slavery had ever
given them the right to vote
• Offered the Wade-Davis Bill:
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Congress responsible for Reconstruction, NOT the President
Military governors to rule Southern states
Majority of citizens required to take loyalty oath
Attitude: South should be treated as conquered territory
• Lincoln uses “pocket veto,” Congress has supreme
authority!
• Congress threatens Lincoln to stick to Executive duties
JOHNSON’S PLAN – PRESIDENTIAL
RECONSTRUCTION – MAY 1865
• Johnson’s intent had always been to deal
harshly with Confederate leaders
• Considered a “traitor” to his region, radicals
believed he was one of them….BOTH were
wrong.
• The 7 remaining Southern states could be
readmitted if they:
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Declared secession illegal
Swore allegiance to the Union
Pay off war debts
Ratified the 13th Amendment (?)
JOHNSON’S PLAN – PRESIDENTIAL
RECONSTRUCTION – MAY 1865
• Johnson:
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Confederate leaders and wealthy Southern landowners
excluded from taking oath to break planter’s power.
Support of state’s rights
Fails to address African Americans in the following regards:
land, voting rights, protection under the law.
JOHNSON REASSURES THE SOUTH
• Pardoned 13,000 Confederates
• “White men alone must manage the South”
• Former slaves should not gain the right to vote
• Some Southern States did not fully comply (i.e. MS, TX)
and still allowed back.
RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION
• Newly elected Southern legislators allowed to sit in
Congress– Johnson pardons them all…
• 58 had been in Confederate Congress
• 6 had served in the Confederate Presidential Cabinet
• 4 had fought as Confederate Generals in the Civil War
• Radical Republicans disputed that Reconstruction was
complete (Dec. 1865)
• Southern states not much different than before the war!
• African Americans feel betrayed!
• Congress refused to admit the new legislators from the South
RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION
• Moderates pushed for new laws to remedy
the weaknesses in Johnson’s plan:
• Congress voted to continue and enlarge the
FREEDMAN’S BUREAU
• What is it?
THE FREEDMAN’S BUREAU
RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION
• The Freedmen’s Bureau would assist former
slaves and poor whites in South (food, clothing,
hospitals, schools, etc.)
• At the end of the war, the Bureau's main role was
providing emergency food, housing, and medical aid to
refugees, though it also helped reunite families.
• Its main job was setting up work opportunities and
supervising labor contracts.
• It soon became a military court that handled legal issues.
• By 1866, it was attacked by Southern whites for organizing
blacks against their former masters.
• How might Johnson react? VETO
RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION
• Civil Rights Act of 1866
• Defined citizenship
• Outlawed discrimination on the basis of race (Black Codes)
• Black codes had been instilled in 1865 and severely restricted
black rights:
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Prohibit carrying weapons,
Serving on juries,
Testifying against whites,
Marrying whites,
Starting their own businesses,
Traveling without permits
Used violence to keep African Americans from advancing their
position in society.
• SURPRISE! Johnson Vetoed
MORE ABOUT BLACK CODES
• "Black Codes" were legal statutes and constitutional
amendments enacted by the ex-Confederate states following
the Civil War that sought to restrict the liberties of newly freed
slaves, ensure a supply of inexpensive agricultural labor, and
maintain white dominated hierarchy.
• While each ex-Confederate state enacted its own set of Black
Codes, all of them shared certain features:
1. First, they defined the term "person of color."
2. They prevented blacks from voting, holding office, or serving on juries.
3. They prevented blacks from serving in state militias.
4. They mandated for poor, unemployed persons (usually blacks) be arrested
for vagrancy or bound as apprentices.
5. They mandated and regulated labor contracts between whites and free
blacks.
6. They prohibited interracial marriages between whites and blacks.
CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION
• These vetoes were an opening shot in the battle
between the President and Congress.
• By rejecting these two acts, he did not help with
compromise (improvements to the Reconstruction Plan)
• Moderate Republicans decided to work together to
shift the control of the Reconstruction process from
the Executive Branch to the Legislative.
• What does this mean?
CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION
• Re-established the Civil Rights Act, needed to provide a
Constitutional basis for the act…
• The 14th Amendment:
• Made African Americans citizens
• All people are entitled to equal protection under the law, no state can
deprive you of life, liberty, property without due process
• If any state prevents a portion of its male citizens from voting, state would
lose percentage of its Congressional seats
• Barred most Confederate leaders from holding offices
• Johnson believed the Confederate leaders were being
treated too harshly, and advised Southern states to reject the
amendment.
• All but TN rejected it, and was not ratified for two years.
RECONSTRUCTION ACT OF 1867
• Proposal:
• Other 10 states in South divided into
5 military districts
• Headed by Union generals
• Elect delegates to re-write state
constitutions
• MUST ratify the 14th amendment and
grant African Americans the right to
vote
• Once a state met these terms, Congress
would re-admit them to the Union.
• Passed by Radicals and
Moderates
• Did not recognize state govt. formed
under Lincoln and Johnson, except TN
because it ratified the 14th Amendment.
Johnson tried to veto this
Act, but was quickly
overturned by Congress
ATTACK ON THE PRESIDENCY
• Johnson is not living up to his
constitutional obligation to
enforce the Reconstruction Act!
• As Johnson attempted to
counter Radical moves, they
planned his impeachmentformal charge for misconduct in
office.
• Tenure of Office Act (1867) requiring Senate approval to
remove Cabinet officials
• Johnson thought that this act was
unconstitutional, so to test it he fired
the Secretary of War (Radical ally)
• Johnson had provided the
necessary means to initiate the
• Brought 11 charges for
impeachment, 9 based on
Tenure of Office Act
• Trial lasted 11 weeks
• Fell one vote short of convicting
Johnson (35-19)
• Inability of Radicals to convict
Johnson helped preserve the
balance of power between the
executive and legislative
branches of the government.
REPUBLICANS IN THE SOUTH
• Scalawags – white southerners
who joined Republican party
• Wanted industrialization
• Supported Union in war
• Disliked power of wealthy planters
• Carpetbagger – Northerner
who moved to the South
• Freedmen’s Bureau agents,
teachers, ministers
• Moral duty to help former slaves
• Entrepreneurs or Land Seekers
• Exploit South’s turmoil for profit
SOUTHERN REACTION TO
RECONSTRUCTION
Former Confederate officials elected to public office when eligible
Resentment of Freedmen's Bureau and occupying troops
Passage of black codes limiting rights of blacks
Violence rose with the creation of the Ku Klux Klan and other
vigilante groups
• Race riots erupted and killed many blacks in the South
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• Freedom A History of US: What is
Freedom? VIDEO
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