Chapter Fifteen

Reconstruction
Reconstruction Plans of Lincoln and
Johnson
 Lincoln’s Policies
• Lincoln wanted to put the South to a test of
political loyalty to let them back into the
States
• Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
(1863)
– Full pardons given out for swearing fealty to the
Union
– When 10% of the population of a state swore
fealty, they could come back to the Union
 More Policies
• Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
– Required 50% of the state to promise loyalty
– Only anti-confederates could create the constitutions
– Lincoln vetoed this
• Freedman’s Bureau
– Welfare
• Food, shelter, medical
– Started many schools and colleges
– Taught 200 K blacks to read
 Lincoln’s Last Speech
• Alluded to progressive and radical republican
ideas
• He was then assassinated
 Johnson and Reconstruction
• Supported poor white people
• Confederate origins, but stayed loyal to the Union
• White supremacist
• Policy
– Disfranchisement of all authority of the Confederacy,
and all rich Confederates
• Southern Governments of 1865
– The Confederacy was part of the Union 8 months after
Johnson was inaugurated
– Many leaders of the Confederacy became
congressmen
 Johnson’s Policies Continued
• Black Codes
– Took away rights of African Americans
– Could not own land
– Made to sign work contracts
– Could not sue whites in court
• Johnson’s Vetoes
– Increase of Freedman’s Bureau power
– Nullification of Black Codes
• Election of 1866
– Republicans won by an enormous margin
 Congressional Reconstruction
• Part One of Reconstruction
– 1863 to 1866 – Lincoln and Johnson
– Brought the Union back together
• Part Two of Reconstruction
– Congress took over the reconstruction
 Radical Republicans
• Moderate Republicans
– Favored making the whites richer
• Radical Republicans
– More rights for African Americans
• Blacks became equal to whites (For purposes
of the Census) in 1866
• Thaddeus Stevens – Pennsylvania
– Wanted to use the military to give blacks rights
 Enacting the Radical Program
• Civil Rights Act of 1866
– All blacks became US citizens
– Overturned Dred Scott
• Fourteenth Amendment
– All peoples born in the US were citizens
– All rights of all citizens (Blacks) were to be observed
– Political office revoked from all Confederates
– Debts returned to Confederates
– Punished states that kept citizens from voting
 More Programs
• Report of the Joint Committee
– Confederates were not included in Congress
– Congress took over the reconstruction by declaring
that Congress had the right to readmit states to the
Union, and the president did not
• Reconstruction Acts of 1867
– Cut the Confederacy into pieces, under the Army’s
control
– Put the bar for readmission higher
• Had to accept 14th amendment
• Franchise guaranteed for all races
 Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
• Tenure of Office Act
– The president was not allowed to fire a federal
officer or military commander without the
senate’s permission
– Johnson fired his Secretary of War to challenge
the act
– In the courtroom, the republicans lacked one vote
for impeachment, and Johnson kept his job
 Reforms After Grant’s Election
• The Election of 1868
– Republican
• Ulysses S. Grant
• Won by the 500,000 votes that the blacks gave him
• Fifteenth Amendment
– No one could be denied the right to vote
• Civil Rights Act of 1875
– Equal rights pertaining to public places and
courtrooms
– Poorly enforced, due to the fear of losing white
political support
Reconstruction In The South
 Composition of the Reconstruction
Governments
• Whites were the majority in the legislative branch
• Scalawags and Carpetbaggers
– Derogatory towards republicans
– Southern Republicans
• Scalawag
– Northern Republicans
• Carpetbaggers
• African American Legislators
– Educated property holders
 Evaluating the Republican Record
• Accomplishments
– Universal Male Suffrage
– More rights for women
– Internal Improvements
– Taxes added
• Failures
– More corrupt
– Wasted money
– Decline of ethics and integrity
 African Americans Adjusting to
Freedom
• Building Black Communities
– Black churches
– Education
– College
• Howard, Atlanta, Fisk, Morehouse
• Sharecropping
– The owner provided supplies in exchange for half
of the harvest
The North During Reconstruction
 Greed and Corruption
• Rise of the Spoilsmen
– Giving government jobs and favors to supporters
• Corruption in Business and Government
– Used the stock market to make money
illegitimately
– Boss Tweed stole 200 million from taxpayers
• The Election of 1872
– Grant vs. Horace Greenly
– Grant won, and Greenly died
 The Panic of 1873
• Many in the north without jobs or homes
• Inflation
• Bill calling for additional money (Not insured
by gold) vetoed by Grant
End of the Reconstruction
White Supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan
• Started by Nathaniel Bedford Forrest
• Killed freedmen
• Congress passed the Force Acts to stop the
KKK
 Amnesty Act of 1872
• All restrictions removed from Confederates,
albeit high leaders
 Election of 1876
• Republicans
– Rutherford B. Hayes
• Democrats
– Samuel J. Tilden
• Hayes won by an minuscule margin
 Compromise of 1877
• Hayes would become the president if:
– Stopped support for the Republicans in the South
(Troops in the south withdrawn)
– Gave money to the south transcontinental railroad
• The supreme court then took apart the
reconstruction laws piece by piece, exposing
blacks to racism again (1880/1890)