Transcript Unit11_Reconstruction - apush-lhs

Reconstruction Era
(1863-1877)
President Lincoln’s 10% Plan
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“Loyal Rule”
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Didn’t ask Congress
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Pardon citizens
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10% vote
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Re-admit states back to Union
President Lincoln’s Plan
1864: “Lincoln Governments”
formed in LA, TN, AR
*
“loyal assemblies”
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Weak; dependent on
Union Army for survival
*
Military Force
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Minority Rule
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
 50% oath of loyalty
 “Iron Clad Oath”
Admit no involvement
Senator
Benjamin
Wade
(R-OH)
 Restrictions to elections
of state officials
 Must guarantee liberty
of freed slaves
Congressman
Henry
W. Davis
(R-MD)
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
 “State Suicide” Theory [MA Senator
Charles Sumner]
 “Conquered Provinces” Position
[PA Congressman Thaddeus Stevens]
President
Lincoln
Pocket
Veto
Wade-Davis
Bill
Lincoln is Dead!
Lincoln is assassinated!
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“Sic Semper Tyrannus!”
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Shot in the back of the head
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Andrew Johnson
th
13
Amendment
 Ratified 12/1865.
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,
except as punishment for crime whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted, shall
exist within the United States or any place
subject to their jurisdiction.”
 Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.
 Ended slavery, DID NOT grant citizenship
Johnson & Reconstruction
 Jacksonian Dem.
 From TN
 White Supremacist
 Pro-Union; not Anti-Slave
Johnson becomes President after Lincoln's assassination.
Pres. Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan:
I. The majority of voters in each Southern state must pledge their
loyalty to the U.S….
II. …and each state must ratify (approve) the Thirteenth Amendment.
• The Thirteenth Amendment, which banned slavery,
was ratified on Dec.6, 1865
Johnson's Reconstruction Plan
Offered amnesty upon simple loyalty oath to all
except:
- Civil War Officers
- Former Plantation Owners
- Individuals w/ property over $20,000
New State Constitutions
Forbid slavery; secession
Pay back war debt to Feds.
Slavery is Dead?
Growing Northern Alarm!
 Most S. state constitutions do not meet
requirements
 Johnson granted 13,500
“special pardons”
 Plantation owners resume
political power
 Revival of southern defiance; racism
BLACK CODES
Black Codes
 Purpose:
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Guarantee stable labor supply
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Restore pre-emancipation
system of race relations.
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Assures whites will earn more
$$ than blacks
 Forced many blacks to become
sharecroppers [tenant
farmers].
Black Codes laws that severely limited
the rights of freedmen.
…serving on juries.
…voting.
AfricanAmericans were
forbidden from…
…owning guns.
…running for political office.
Sharecropping
Tenancy & Crop Lien System
Furnishing Merchant
Tenant Farmer
Loan tools and seed up
to 60% interest to
tenant farmer to plant
spring crop.
Plants crop, harvests in
autumn.
Farmer also secures
food, clothing, and
other necessities on
credit from merchant
until the harvest.
Merchant holds “lien”
{mortgage} on part of
tenant’s future crops as
repayment of debt.
Turns over up to ½ of
crop to land owner as
payment of rent.
Tenant gives remainder
of crop to merchant in
payment of debt.
Landowner
Rents land to tenant in
exchange for ¼
to ½ of tenant farmer’s
future crop.
Congress Breaks with the President
 Congress bars S. delegates
 Joint Committee
 02/1866: Johnson veto
Freedmen’s Bureau bill.
 03/1866: Johnson vetoed the 1866
Civil Rights Act.
 Congress passed both bills over
Johnson’s vetoes: 1st time in
U. S. history!!!!
Radical Reconstruction
(1866-1877)
Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)
 N. Abolitionists
 Help slaves;
gain political power
 “Carpetbaggers”
 Equal opportunity
 Education Reforms
Freedman’s Bureau School
Establishment of
Black Colleges
Freedmen’s Bureau Seen Through
Southern Eyes
“Plenty to eat
and nothing
to do.”
14th Amendment
 Ratified in 07/1868.
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Natural-Born Citizens.
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Citizens Rights
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Pay back for war debt
 “Punish S.” for ignoring Fed. manadates
Radical Plan for Readmission
 Military supervision (Martial Law)
 States must:
 Ratify 13th, 14th Amendments
 Black Suffrage
 03/1867: Military to enroll black voters
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
 Military Reconstruction Act
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10 S. states refuse to ratify 14th Amend.
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Divide 10 “unreconstructed states” into
5 military districts.
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
 Command of the Army Act
 Tenure of Office Act
 Designed to protect radical
members of Lincoln’s cabinet.
 Constitutional???
Edwin Stanton
Sec. of War
President Johnson’s Impeachment
 Johnson removes Stanton 02/1868.
 Johnson puts pro-S. Gens. in charge
 House impeaches Feb. 24th by vote of 126-47.
The Senate Trial
11 week trial.
Johnson acquitted
35 to 19 (one short of
required 2/3s vote).
African-Americans & Govt.
•
•
•
•
Free blacks able to vote/participate in govt.
White hysteria
Fear of “black oppression”
Southern states feel need to
“re-establish” white rule
Examples:
- Poll Taxes
- Ku Klux Klan
- Black Codes - Lynchings
- Literacy Tests - Grandfather Clause
White
Hysteria:
Colored
Rule
in the
South?
The Balance of Power in
Congress
State
White Citizens
Freedmen
SC
291,000
411,000
MS
353,000
436,000
LA
357,000
350,000
GA
591,000
465,000
AL
596,000
437,000
VA
719,000
533,000
NC
631,000
331,000
Black & White Political Participation
Black Senate & House Delegates
Blacks in Southern Politics
 Core voters: black vets.
 Some held political office
 But, politically unprepared.
 The 15th
Amendment
guaranteed
fed. voting.
th
15
Amendment
 Ratified in 1870.
 Amendment 15: “The right of citizens of the United
States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any state
on account of race, color, or previous condition
of servitude.”
 IMPACTS:
- Forbid denying the right to vote based
on race
The Failure of Federal Enforcement
 Enforcement Acts of 1870 & 1871
[also known as the KKK Act].
 “The Lost Cause”
 Rise of the
“Bourbons”
The “Invisible Empire of the South”
Legal Challenges
to the 14th & 15th Amendments
 The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)
 The court offered a narrow definition of the 14th
Amendment.
 It distinguished between national and state
citizenship.
 It gave the states primary authority over citizens’
rights.

Therefore, the courts weakened civil rights enforcement!
Legal Challenges
to the 14th & 15th Amendments
 Bradwell vs. Illinois (1873)
 Myra Bradwell, a female attorney,
had been denied the right to
practice law in Illinois.
 She argued that in the 14th Amendment, it said that
the state had unconstitutionally abridged her
“privileges and immunities” as a citizen.
 The Supreme Court rejected her claim, alluding to
women’s traditional role in the home.

Therefore, she should NOT be practicing law!
Legal Challenges
to the 14th & 15th Amendments
 U. S. vs. Reese, et. al. (1876)
 The Court restricted congressional power to
enforce the KKK Act.
 The court ruled that the STATE alone could
confer voting rights on individuals.
 The 15th Amendment did NOT guarantee a citizen’s
right to vote, but just listed certain impermissible
grounds to deny suffrage.

Therefore, a path lay open for Southern states to
disenfranchise blacks for supposedly non-racial reasons [like
lack of education, lack of property, etc.]
Legal Challenges
to the 14th & 15th Amendments
 U. S. vs. Cruickshank (1876)
 LA white supremacists accused of attacking a
meeting of Blacks & were convicted under the
1870 Enforcement Acts.
 The Court held that the 14th Amendment extended the
federal power to protect civil rights ONLY in cases
involving discrimination by STATES.

Therefore, discrimination by individuals or groups were NOT
covered.
Abandoning Reconstruction
 Northern support decreases
 “Grantism” & political
corruption
 Panic of 1873 (6-year
depression); economic issues
overwhelm civil rights issues.
 Concern over westward
expansion and Indian wars.
 Congress leaves enforcement
up to states