Johnson Clashes with Congress

• President Johnson vetoed a bill extending the controversial Freedmen’s Bureau (which was later re-passed) in February of 1866 and Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill in March of 1866 as a response which gave blacks the privilege of American citizenship and struck at the Black Codes

• Congress overruled the President's veto for the Freedmen’s Bureau bill

• Fearing that the Southerners might end up repealing the Civil Rights Law someday, Congress passed the 14th Amendment in 1866 which gave civil rights, including citizenship to the freedmen, reduced the representation of a state in Congress and the Electoral College if it denied blacks the right to vote, disqualified from federal and state offices former Confederates who as federal officeholders, had once sworn to support the Constitution of the United States, and guaranteed federal debt while the Union assumed all Confederate debts

• Congress began to develop into the dominant role in controlling government with its ability to overrule a presidential veto

• All Republicans agreed that no state should be welcomed back into the Union without ratifying the 14th Amendment

Swinging 'Round the Circle with Johnson

• President Johnson went on a tour of giving speeches, denouncing the radical Republicans in Congress

• Over ⅔ of the ballots that were cast in the congressional elections of 1866 went to the Republicans

Republicans Principles and Programs

• Charles Sumner led the Republican radicals in the Senate to black freedom and racial equality

• Thaddeus Stevens led the radicals in the House of Representatives

• Moderate Republicans, preferred policies that restrained the states from cutting citizens’ rights, rather than policies that directly involved the federal government in individual lives

Reconstruction by the Sword

• Congress passed the Reconstruction Act on March 2, 1867 which divided the South into 5 military districts, each commanded by a Union general and policed by Union soldiers, and required that states wanting to be re-admitted into the Union, had to ratify the 14th Amendment and that the states’ constittions allow for former adult male slaves to vote

• In 1869, the 15th Amendment was passed in Congress with it granting black men the right to vote

• Military Reconstruction of the South took control of certain functions of the president and set up a military rule of the South

• The last federal troops were removed from the South in 1877

No Women Voters

• Feminists were angered that the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments gave rights to black males but not to women

The Realities of Radical Reconstruction in the South

• Blacks began to organize politically after gaining the right to vote from the 15th Amendment with them being strong participants in the Union League which was originally a pro-Union organization

• Freedmen turned the Union League into a network of political clubs that educated members and campaigned for republican candidates

  • The League built black churches and schools, represented black grievances before local employers and governments, and recruited militias to protect black communities from white retaliation

• Blacks began to hold major offices in government from 1868 to 1876

The Ku Klux Klan

• The Ku Klux Klan was known as the “Invisible Empire of the South” with it being founded in Tennessee in 1866

  • The Ku Klux Klan, also known as the KKK, was formed by white Southerners that were angered by the success of black legislators with it working through intimidation

• Congress passed the Force Acts of 1870 and 1871 in response to murders that the Klan had committed

  • The Force Acts of 1870 enabled Federal troops to stop the cruelty of the Ku Klux Klan

• The Force Acts came too late as the Klan had already intimidated many people
  

Johnson Walks the Impeachment Plank

• Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867 which required president to secure the consent of the Senate before he could remove his cabinet members once they’d been approved by the Senate with the purpose being to keep the secretary of war in the president's cabinet

A Not-Guilty Verdict for Johnson

• House of Representatives prosecuted the president with the Senate serving as the court to try Johnson on charges of impeachment

• Johnson argued that the Tenure of Office Act was unconstitutional and that he fired Stanton to challenge the Act before the Supreme Court

• The Senate voted the president was “not guilty” by a margin of one vote on May 16, 1868

  • Radical Republicans failed to gain the necessary ⅔ majority vote in the Senate, which was required to remove the president

The Purchase of Alaska

• Secretary of State William Seward signed a treaty with Russia in 1867 that gave Alaska to the U.S. for $7.2 million

  • Russia sold Alaska to the U.S. because it felt that it was over-expanding in North America

  • Russia wanted to strengthen the U.S. as a barrier against its enemy, Britain

• Although Americans were focused on Reconstruction and anti-expansion, they supported the purchase of Alaska cause they didn’t want to offend Russia who had helped them during the Civil War with not all Americans being in support, with some referring to it as Sweard’s Folly

The Heritage of Reconstruction

• Many white Southerners felt Reconstruction to be more painful than the war itself

• Republican Party wanted to protect the freed slaves and promote the fortunes of the Republican Party during Reconstruction with these principles removing the party from the South for almost 100 years

  • Despite the Republicans’ good intentions, Reconstruction didn’t really change the way that the South treated or viewed blacks