Chapter 16: The Era of Reconstruction - Restoring the Union

Timeline of Reconstruction:

1863 - Abraham Lincoln unveils “Ten Percent Plan”.

1865 - John Wilkes Booth assassinates Lincoln; Congress establishes Freedmen’s Bureau; Thirteenth Amendment ratified

1866 - Congress passes Civil Rights Act

1867 - Radical Republicans pass Military Reconstruction Act

1868 - Congress moves to impeach Andrew Johnson; Fourteenth Amendment ratified

1870 - Fifteenth Amendment ratified

1876 - Rutherford B. Hayes defeats Samuel Tilden in contested presidential election

1877 - Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction

The President’s Plan

Ever since the Southern states rebelled in 1861, Lincoln’s main goal had been to reunite the country (to bring the Southern states back into the Union).

Ten Percent Plan

• Three-part proposal unveiled by President Lincoln in early December 1863
• Outlined how the Southern states would return
• Gave a general pardon to all Southerners except high-ranking Confederate government and military leaders
• Required ten percent of the 1860 voting population in the former rebel states to take a binding oath of future allegiance to the United States and the emancipation of the enslaved
• Declared that once those voters took those oaths, the restored Confederate states would draft new state constitutions

Why was Lincoln’s plan so lenient toward the Southern states that had rebelled?

Lincoln hoped that:

• The plan’s leniency would bring about a quick and long-awaited resolution.
• Through the leniency of the plan, emancipation would be made more acceptable everywhere.

How did Republicans react to Lincoln’s “Ten Percent Plan”?

• Republicans were divided over Lincoln’s approach.
  • Some Republicans in the moderate wing of the Republican Party agreed with this approach; this is because they wanted to put the nation on a speedy course toward reconciliation.
  • Radical Republicans, the larger faction of Republicans in Congress, however, did NOT agree with this approach; they wanted to remake the South and punish the rebels.
  • More specifically, Radical Republicans insisted on harsh terms for the defeated Confederacy and protection for formerly enslaved people - this was far beyond Lincoln’s plan.

Wade-Davis Bill

• Proposed by two Radical Republicans in February 1864
  • Proposed by Ohio Senator Benjamin Wade and Maryland representative Henry Winter Davis
• Called for a majority of voters and government officials in Confederate states to take an oath
  • This oath, called the Ironclad Oath, would require those mentioned above to swear that they had never supported the Confederacy or made war against the United States.
  • Those who could not or would not take the oath would be unable to take part in the future political life of the South.
• What was the outcome of the Wade-Davis Bill?
  • Congress approved the Bill, sending it to Lincoln for his signature.
  • Lincoln, through the pocket veto, refused to sign the Bill, thus killing it.
    • He understood that no Southern state would have met the criteria of the Bill, and that its passage would have delayed the Reconstruction of the South.

The Thirteenth Amendment

Even with the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the legal status of enslaved people and the institution of slavery remained unresolved.

• In fact, news of the Proclamation wouldn’t even reach the rest of the country for another two and a half years.
• In efforts to resolve this issue, the Republican Party made the abolition of slavery a top priority by including the issue in its 1864 voting platform.
• In April 1864, a proposed constitutional amendment passed the Senate, and the house of Representatives concurred (agreed) in January 1865.
• The amendment made its way to the states and swiftly gained the necessary support, even from the South.
• In December 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified and added to the Constitution.
  • This was the first amendment added to the Constitution since 1804; it permanently abolished slavery.

President Lincoln’s Assassination

• On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate supporter and well-known actor, shot Lincoln while he was attending the play, “Our American Cousin”, at Ford’s Theater in Washington.

  • Lincoln died the following day.

• Why did John Wilkes Booth target Lincoln?

  • Booth was a devout supporter of the Confederacy and White Supremacy.
  • His act was a part of a larger conspiracy to eliminate the heads of the Union government and keep the Confederate fight going.
  • On the night of Lincoln’s assassination, one of Booth’s associates stabbed and wounded Secretary of State William Seward.
  • Another associate of Booth’s had abandoned the planned assassination of Vice President Andrew Johnson at the last moment.

Although Booth initially escaped capture, he was shot and killed by Union troops on April 26, 1865, in a Virginia barn.

• Lincoln’s death earned Booth immediate martyrdom, and hysteria spread throughout the North.
  • According to many Northerners, the assassination suggested an even greater conspiracy than what was revealed, masterminded by the unrepentant leaders of the defeated Confederacy.
  • Militant Republicans would use and exploit this fear relentlessly in the ensuing months.

Juneteenth Origins

Despite the measures taken to abolish slavery (Emancipation Proclamation and ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment) slavery endured for some time.

• News of the end of the Civil War, and the freedom of the enslaved people both travelled slowly and, in some cases, was deliberately withheld.
• When Major General Gordan Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, he announced the abolition of slavery, stating, “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.”
• The date, June 19, 1865, would go on to become the most popular annual celebration date of the end of slavery, also known as Juneteenth.
  • This order was met with resistance and intense opposition.
  • Some slaveholders decided to keep the news from enslaved people.
  • When people who learned about their emancipation decided to take advantage of their freedom, many were captured or killed.
  • Even with the abolition of slavery, discrimination and segregation were heavily present in society.

Andrew Johnson and the Battle over Reconstruction

Lincoln’s assassination elevated Vice President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, to the position of President of the United States.

Andrew Johnson Background:

• Born into extreme poverty in North Carolina
• Moved to Tennessee as a young man
  • In Tennessee, he gradually rose up the political ladder, earning a reputation for being a skillful stump speaker and a staunch defender of poor southerners.
• Elected to serve in the House of Representatives in the 1840s
• Became governor of Tennessee the decade after he was elected to the House of Representatives
• Elected as a United States senator just a few years before the country descended into war

Andrew Johnson during the Civil War:

• Remained loyal to the Union and stayed in the Senate even after Tennessee seceded
• Appointed as governor of the then-occupied state of Tennessee, where he served until being nominated by the Republicans to run for vice president on a Lincoln ticket

The nomination of Johnson, a Democrat and a slaveholding southerner, was a pragmatic decision made by concerned Republicans; it was important for them to show that the party supported all loyal men, regardless of their origin or political persuasion.

Why was Andrew Johnson seen as an ideal choice for the Lincoln ticket?

• His nomination would bring the support of both pro-Southern elements and the War Democrats who rejected the conciliatory (peacemaking) stance of the Copperheads
  • Copperheads: northern Democrats who opposed the Civil War

After Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson assumed the role of the Presidency, and was now tasked with administering the restoration of a destroyed South.

Like his predecessor, Johnson wanted to quickly reincorporate the South back into the Union on lenient terms and heal the wounds of the nation.

• This, however, angered many in his own party.

Additionally, President Johnson disappointed Radical Republicans when he rejected the idea of providing voting rights for formerly enslaved people.

• The initial disagreements between the president and the Radical Republicans over how best to deal with the defeated South set the stage for further conflict.

President Johnson’s Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction

• Enactment date: May 1865
• Provided sweeping “amnesty and pardon” to rebellious Southerners
• Returned Southerners’ property, with the notable exception of the people they had enslaved
• Asked only that they affirm their support for the Constitution of the United States
• Southerners exempted from this amnesty:
  • Confederate political leadership
  • High-ranking military officers
  • People with taxable property worth more than $20,000
  • This satisfied Johnson’s desire to exact vengeance on a class of people he had fought politically for much of his life; for this class of wealthy Southerners to regain their rights, they would have to request a personal pardon from Johnson himself.

Eventually, even despite the outcries of Republicans in Congress, by early 1866, Johnson proclaimed that all former Confederate states had satisfied the necessary requirements; the Union had finally been restored.

Radical Republicans in Congress did not agree with Johnson’s position.

• They greatly resented his lenient treatment of the former Confederate states.
• They refused to acknowledge the southern state governments he allowed.
  • As a result, they would not permit senators and representatives from the former Confederate states to take their places in Congress.
  • Instead, the Radical Republicans created a joint committee of representatives and senators to oversee Reconstruction.
    • In the 1866 congressional elections, they gained control of the House, and continued to push for the complete Reconstruction of the South.
    • This effort put them squarely at odds with President Johnson, who remained unwilling to compromise with Congress - this set the stage for a series of crashes and conflicts.