Transcript With Malice Toward None

The Debate Over
Reconstruction
Chapter 10, Lesson 1
Focus Activity
• Describe this photograph
• When and where do you
think this photograph was
taken?
• What are three things you
think people living in this
setting did in the years
following the photograph?
Focus Activity
This photograph was taken
in April 1865 in Richmond,
Virginia, the capital of the
Confederate States. Today
you are going to learn about
some of the major
challenges that the United
States faced after the Civil
War.
The Civil War, 1861-1865
The Civil War, 1861-1865. The American Civil War was fought between the United
States and the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865. Disagreements
about slavery were a central source of the increasing political unrest and disunity in
the country that led to the war. These disagreements largely followed sectional
lines. Many white Southerners, both slaveholding and not, supported slavery, while
many Northerners opposed slavery. The United States defeated the Confederate
States of America.
Reconstruction Era
Photograph of ruins in Richmond, Virginia, taken in 1865
Reconstruction refers to the period following the
Civil War between 1865 and 1877. John Wilkes
Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, assassinated
President Lincoln five days after the supreme
commander of the Confederate army
surrendered. As Lincoln’s vice president,
Andrew Johnson became the new president.
Johnson was a Southern Democrat who
opposed secession of the Confederacy but,
compared to Northern Republicans, was
relatively sympathetic to Southern states.
Many people in Congress opposed Johnson. His biggest opponents were
called Radical Republicans. “Radical” means extreme, and “radicals”
typically want to see extreme changes in society. In the 1860s the Radical
Republicans wanted to punish the South for the Civil War and supported
equal rights for freedmen.
Major Questions After the
Civil War
•
How should the South be rebuilt?
•
How should the states that seceded be brought
back into the Union?
•
How should former slaves be incorporated into
the country as freed men and women?
Reconstructing a Nation
• After 4 years of war
and over 200 years
of slavery, could
Northerners and
Southerners rebuild
the South together?
Photograph of a Union soldier camp taken
between 1861 and 1865
• Could they unify as
citizens of the same
country?
Punishment for the Confederate
States?
• Should people who
fought against the
United States be
recognized as
citizens? Should
they be punished?
Illustration of the Attack on Fort Sumter from
1861
• What should be done to the Southern state government
that fought against the United States?
African Americans in the South
• How would freed men
and women be treated
in the Southern
states?
• How would
Northerners address
the issue of including
Photograph of an enslaved family in South
former slaves as
Carolina taken in 1862
citizens in society?
• What were some major challenges that former
slaves faced?
Central Historical Question
• Why was the Radical Republican
plan for Reconstruction considered
“radical”?
Punish or Forgive?
• Both North and
South suffered
many dead
• Southern industry,
infrastructure and
government was
destroyed
Charleston, SC
• South had to rebuild
or North would have
to provide for South
Atlanta, GA
Lincoln’s Attitude to South
• Lincoln argued states
still existed
– Wanted southern
governments restored
quickly
– Wanted to prevent
Confederate officials from
joining government
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with
firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right,
let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up
the nation's wounds.” – Second Inaugural
Address
Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction
• If 10% of Southerners took oath to
Constitution and US, would be readmitted
• Let South rule itself
• South must abolish slavery
Sic Semper Tyrannis
“Thus Always to Tyrants”
• John Wilkes Booth
assassinated
Lincoln in Ford
Theater
– Conspirators also
tried to kill Vice
President Johnson
and Secretary of
State Seward
• Booth and
conspirators were
killed or executed
Radical Republicans
• Radical Republicans
wanted to punish south
– Want equality for freedmen
– States needed to be recreated
• Congress can decide how
South is governed
Thaddeus Stevens
– Wanted south ruled like a
conquered province
– Led by Thaddeus Stevens
and Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Wade Davis Plan
• Majority of southerners
must declare loyalty
– To vote or hold office could
not have served in
Confederate government or
army
• New state constitutions
must be made
• South under military rule
until requirements met
– Lincoln did not sign bill
First page of "A Bill to guaranty to certain states whose governments have been usurped or overthrown, a
republican form of government." (Wade-Davis bill as amended by Representative Thaddeus Stevens), 1864
National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives
Andrew Johnson
• Former Democrat
from Tennessee
– Made Lincoln’s Vice
President to attract
Democrat votes
– Not trusted by
Republicans
• Johnson planned to
use Lincoln’s plan
for Reconstruction,
not Congress
Andrew Johnson
Freedman’s Bureau
• Originally made to
help freed slaves
–
–
–
–
with food
Jobs
medical care
built schools
• Johnson vetoes bill
Civil Rights Bill
• Allowed federal government
to protect civil rights of all
citizens
• Johnson vetoes because he
thought it violated state’s
rights principle
• Angered Moderate
Republicans
– Moderates join with Radicals to
pass Freedman’s Bureau and Civil
Rights bills over Johnson’s veto
Presidential
Reconstruction
• Johnson tells south
– Repudiate (refuse to pay)
war debt
– Nullify ordinances of
secession
– Adopt 13th Amendment
freeing slaves
• SC does not recognize
illegality of secession
• MS does not ratify 13th
Amendment
Confederates In Office
• Johnson pardoned many
Confederate politicians and
officers
– Many were elected into new
southern governments
– Vice President of CSA, 6
Confederate Cabinet members,
58 members of Confederate
Congress
• South got more
representatives in Congress
because now blacks
counted in population
Black Codes
• Laws to restrict
freedom of blacks
– Could not vote
– Could not marry whites
– Could not serve on juries
• Vagrancy laws
– Tried to force blacks to
stay on plantations
Committee of Reconstruction
• Congressional Committee to make a
plan for Reconstruction
• Moderate Republicans joined Radical
Republicans to oppose seating
Southern congressmen
– Southern states were no longer states
– President didn’t have authority to
determine membership in Congress or
readmission of states
Fourteenth Amendment
• Section 1. All persons born or naturalized
in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United
States and of the State wherein they reside. No
State shall make or enforce any law which shall
abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of
the United States; nor shall any State deprive
any person of life, liberty, or property, without
due process of law; nor deny to any person
within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the
laws
Fourteenth Amendment
• Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned
among the several States according to their respective
numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each
State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to
vote at any election for the choice of electors for President
and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in
Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or
the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of
the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years
of age,(See Note 15) and citizens of the United States, or in
any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or
other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be
reduced in the proportion which the number of such male
citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens
twenty-one years of age in such State.
Fourteenth Amendment
• Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned
among the several States according to their respective
numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each
State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to
vote atStates
any election
the choice of electors for President
will for
lose
and Vice
President of the United States, Representatives in
Representatives
Congress,
the Executive
if they
don’t letand Judicial officers of a State, or
the members
of thevote
Legislature thereof, is denied to any of
Blacks
the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years
of age,(See Note 15) and citizens of the United States, or in
any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or
other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be
reduced in the proportion which the number of such male
citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens
twenty-one years of age in such State.
Fourteenth Amendment
• Defines citizenship in US
• Must allow all adult males to
vote
• No Confederate war debt
could be paid
• Pardons of Confederate
officials require 2/3 vote of
Congress
• Tennessee ratifies 14th
Amendment all other southern
states refuse
Military Reconstruction
• Congress divided south into 5 military districts
– Demanded south abolish slavery, protect civil
rights, ratify 14th Amendment
– Denied right to vote or hold office to
Confederates – all others can vote regardless of
color
– South feared freed slaves would take over
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
• President Johnson
vetoed many laws
passed by Congress
• Congress responded by
trying to take away
power from President
• Tenure of Office Act
– Said President needed
consent of Senate to fire
federal official
– Johnson fired Secretary
of War Stanton without
permission
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
• House impeached
Johnson for
violating Tenure
of Office Act
• Senate failed to
convict by one
vote
Election of 1868
• Ulysses S Grant (R)
• Horatio Seymour (D)
• “Waving Bloody Shirt”
– Republicans tactic to
remind voters that
Republicans freed
slaves and won war
• Grant wins with help
of black vote
Fifteenth Amendment
• Forbids US or any state denying right to vote based
on race, color or previous condition of servitude