USA History A Level- Unit 1

1.1 Pre-Civil War Era (1781-1861: Antebellum)

CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR

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Social, political, and economic differences between the North and South

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Unresolved tensions and questions from the time the Constitution was created.

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Northern states were heavily industrialised, whereas the South was more rural and had an agrarian economy based on the labour of the African American slaves who were farming cotton, sugar, and tobacco on large plantations.

THE CIVIL WAR 1861-1865

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When Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election, he pledged to keep slavery out of the newly gained Western territories which terrified the southerners.

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Lincoln was not an abolitionist but wanted to preserve the union of the United States, but the slave owning states in the South saw Lincoln as heralding the end of slavery, so they banded together and broke away from the North to become the Confederacy.

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At the end of the Civil War the Confederacy collapsed, and the war resulted in:

• 618,000 fatalities (more than what the US would lose in the Second World War)

• Huge expense: $2.3 billion for the Union, $1 billion for the Confederacy

• $1.1 billion in war damage to the South; the Confederacy lost 40% of its pre-civil war wealth, 40% of livestock and 50% of farm machinery.

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After the war, 3.5 million African American slaves were emancipated and released from slavery and Southern slave holders lose $1.6 billion because of this.

THE RECONSTRUCTION ERA (1865-77)

1.

The weaknesses of the federal government under Johnson and Grant and the failure of radical reconstruction

2.

Social, regional, and ethnic divisions between the North, South, and West USA, as well as the position of African Americans

3.

Economic growth and the rise of corporations, railroads, developments in agriculture and urbanisation

4.

Westward expansion and conflict with Native Americans

5.

USA's foreign policy

HOW DOES THE US GOVERNMENT WORK?

The American people elect:

1.

Congress (The Legislature Branch)

2.

The President (The Executive Branch)

The President appoints: The Supreme Court (The Judiciary Branch)

CONGRESS

Congress makes laws, have the power to reject budgets, to declare war, and check the work of the President. There are two 'Houses’ of Congress: The Senate and the House of Representatives.

THE SENATE

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Two senators represent each state no matter how big or small it is. Senators sit for six years, but one-third come up for re-election every two years.

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

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The House is elected every two years. Members represent constituencies (areas of the country) that are based on population- today about 700,000 people.

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More populous states like New York have fewer members of this House than smaller states like Vermont.

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Both Houses of Congress need to agree before any law can be passed.

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Congress may override the presidential veto.

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Congress may impeach or remove a President from office.

THE SUPREME COURT (THE JUDICIARY BRANCH)

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This is the highest court. It approves the laws and decides whether they are constitutional. The US Constitution is used to interpret all laws.

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The nine members of the Supreme Court are judges appointed by the President.

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The senate ratifies the appointments to the Supreme Court by the President.

THE PRESIDENT (THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH)

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Elected every four years by the Electoral College. Presidential candidates win states. Each state is given a minimum of 3 Electoral College votes, This is added to depending upon their population (e.g. California= 55, Colorado=9). Members of the Electoral College are selected by the party that wins the most votes in that state. They 'vote' for the President on behalf of the people.

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If a President resigns or dies, his or her Vice-President takes over.

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The President is the head of state but has some real powers. A president may call special sessions of Congress, may recommend legislation, and may veto bills.

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Presidents appoint their own ministers or secretaries who sit in the Cabinet, but these people may not sit in Congress.

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The President is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.

Conflict can emerge between the different branches of government if Congress wants to pass a bill, but the President can veto the bill, yet Congress can override the Presidential veto, which weakens the President's public image or valence.

1.2 The Era of Reconstruction (1865-77)

What is the difference between state rights and federal government?

It is the debate whether state rights surpassed the federal government.

Andrew Johnson was keen on Reconstruction and wanted to restore the Southern States to the Union as quickly as possible. He needed to compromise as he favoured leniency and had no interest in promoting the rights and interests of former slaves. The division of his Party made it difficult to decide which course of action was the right one to take.

He appeased the radical Republicans by accepting the Wade-David bill’s oath of loyalty for the Southern states to rejoin the Union. He also agreed that when the Southern states held their conventions to revise its constitution, they would be elected according to the 1860 white electorate, completely disregarding the newly emancipated African Americans which would have appeased the white Southerners.

1.3 The Impeachment of Johnson

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Congress was passing laws that inhibited Johnson's presidential powers, and he was obstructing their plans for Reconstruction.

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Johnson also did not want Edwin M. Stanton as his Secretary of War and fires Stanton in February 1868- therefore breaking the Tenure of Office Act and then giving Congress legal grounds upon which they could impeach and dismiss Johnson from office.

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The impeachment trial lasted 7 weeks and was led by Thaddeus Stevens, the leader of the Radical Republicans.

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The Radicals needed two-thirds of the Republicans to vote for impeachment to remove Johnson. The Republicans hold the majority in the Senate and so it seemed a done deal.

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Some moderate Republicans hesitated and did not want to set a dangerous precedent for removing presidents on political grounds alone. They also questioned the suitability of Johnson's successor Benjamin Wade.

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The impeachment vote resulted in thirty-five against Johnson and nineteen for him. They did not reach the threshold for the two-thirds majority needed to impeach Johnson. However, because of this, Johnson's reputation is destroyed.

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When the 1868 election came around, the Democratic Party decided not to back Johnson for a second term and picked Horatio Seymour- the Senator for Ohio instead.

1.4 The 1868 ‘Reconstruction’ Election

Candidates: Ulysses S. Grant (Republican) v Horatio Seymour (Democrat, Governor of New York)

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For the 1868 election, the Republicans chose General Ulysses S. Grant as their candidate. He was the 'Man who Won the War'. The Democrats chose not to back Andrew Johnson for a second term and instead chose Horatio Seymour, a former War Democrat and Governor of New York- who opposed Reconstruction and African American equality. The 1868 election was known as the 'Reconstruction Election' as whoever became leader would see their Presidency dominated by this issue.

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The Democrats openly and overwhelmingly believed Reconstruction as a revolutionary idea that had no legal basis within the US Constitution. They stirred up planters and poor whites who felt wronged by the Civil War. They painted the Republicans as the party making this unfair and immoral approach to national policy.

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The Republicans pushed forward their policy of Radical Reconstruction and voting rights for African Americans. They saw themselves as the 'party of patriotism' and beliefs based on principles. They labelled the Democrats as disloyal to the unification of the states and harmful to the future of the United States.

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More southern states voted Republican compared to Democrat in the 1868 election due to the presence of African American voters and the Union army ensuring that the African Americans can vote safely.

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The Democrats did particularly well in states with higher population (e.g. New York and Maryland)

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KKK activity in Tennessee, Louisiana and Georgia stopped African Americans voting for the Republicans.

BACKGROUND- ULYSSES S. GRANT

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Born in Ohio to middle class parents. His father ran his own tanning business and was a fervent abolitionist.

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Enrolled at the West Point Military Academy at 17- trained as an officer.

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Served in the Mexican American war (1846-1848) and entered civilian life in 1854 and tried to farm for a while but was unsuccessful.

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Inherited a slave from his father-in-law (who was a Democrat). Grant immediately frees the slave from his service.

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In April 1860, he was offered a job by his father in his expanding tanning business, which he accepted but then the Civil War broke out and Grant immediately joined up under Abraham Lincoln.

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During the Civil War, he fought through Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi, earning the attention of Lincoln who promoted him to Major General

THE 1872 ELECTION

Candidates: Ulysses S. Grant (Republican) v Horace Greeley (Democrat, Congressman 6th NY District)

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Grant won an easy re-election over Greeley, with a popular vote margin of 11.8% and 763,000 votes. Army support in southern states with high African American populations won Grant support as they sought to guarantee protection of their civil rights.

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Grant won the electoral college with 286 votes, while Greeley won sixty-six electoral votes.

1.5 Reconstruction: Johnson and Grant

When Johnson came to power, he treated the poorer white Confederates with leniency - he sympathised with them and gives them the right to vote again but treats the richer whiter planter class more harshly- they have to personally write to him and he still lets them into the Union.

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Poorer whites now realised that they had to compete with freed African Americans for work.

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Johnson's new rules angered the radical Republicans, especially Thaddeus Stevens. Stevens had a group of extreme Republicans called the Radicals and when the Civil War broke out, this group were one of the first to call for the abolition of slavery.

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Thaddeus Stevens saw reconstruction to remake and reinvent the South, by introducing more democracy.

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These radicals were marginalised by the rest of the party for their stance on abolition.

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Johnson's new plans are being very lenient to the South, which pleases the whites in the Confederacy, but completely shafted the African Americans and cut them out of the process and did not visualise the radical Republican vison of reconstructing the South.

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Johnson was a Democrat at heart, but both Houses of Congress were dominated by Republicans- meaning that any bills he wants to pass regarding Reconstruction would be blocked by the Republicans, which is why he pursues the path of 'Presidential Reconstruction' while he has a period of several months before Congress sat again for the December 1865 session.

WAS JOHNSON’S PRESIDENCY A TROUBLED ONE?

CIVIL RIGHTS BILL 1866

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Johnson decided to side with the minority of Democrats compared to the more moderate Republicans that made up the Congressional majority. With Congress still in power, they passed a bill to strengthen the powers of the Freedman's Bureau within Reconstruction. Johnson did not like the bill and so used his presidential veto to halt it.

Why?

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He believed that the freed African Americans should not have the chance to become dependent on the state.

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He knew expanding the African American powers and rights would anger the Southern states and then make Reconstruction even more difficult.

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The moderates and the radicals joined forced to introduce the Civil Rights bill giving minimal rights to the African Americans. Johnson vetoes the new bill yet again- Congress then overturns a presidential veto with 2/3rds of both Houses showing support for the first time in History.

THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT

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Congress wanted to introduce the 14th Amendment to overturn the 1866 Civil Rights Bill. This Amendment stated that "all people born in the USA are US citizens". This means that they are guaranteed equality in the eyes of the law. This immediately overruled the 1857 Dred Scott decision made by the US Supreme Court that ruled that African Americans are not US citizens, nor could they gain citizenship. This Amendment meant that the federal authorities can now intervene if the states do not follow this rule and/or restrict the rights given to African Americans.

RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION

To ensure that the 14th Amendment is passed, Congress put a lot more pressure on the South. This was called Radical Reconstruction.

1.

The Military Reconstruction Bill 1867- The Union sends in the army to rule in the Southern states excepting Tennessee. They were placed under a federal military commander. For the Southern states to be allowed to rejoin the Union, they would have had to elect and hold national conventions that would accept one. black suffrage (the vote), 2. accept the 14th Amendment.

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Command of the Army Act- takes away some of Johnson's military powers (title of Commander in Chief)