Reconstruction and the New South Amendment and Impeachment

Reconstruction, Phase 2

Andrew Johnson’s Plan

Reconstruction Plan

·         Pardons for loyalty oath

·         No pardons for the Confederate leaders and owned 20,000 dollars taxable property

·         Confederate states with appointed governors and the state legislature had written down voting procedures.

·         States must abolish slavery and secession clauses from state constitutions.

Result

·         Quick readmission of former Confederate states

·         Election of former Confederate officials

i.                    Senator Alexander Stephens (D-GA)

Black Codes

-Based on pervious slave codes

-Designed primarily to limit economic opportunity for blacks

Provisions

·         Sign annual labor contracts

·         Only allowed occupations of farmer or servant unless paid a tax

·         Restricted movement; vagrancy laws (criminalizes your ability to move around)

·         Limited types of property to own

Civil Rights Act of 1866

·         Congress overturns black codes

·         Johnson vetoes the bill

i.                    Congress overrode it

Mid Term Elections of 1866

-Radical republicans go back to home states, looking at Andrew Johnsons record. Launch massive electoral campaign in response to his vetoes.

-Johnson’s Swing around the Circle

Republican Supermajorities in both houses

·         175 in House

i.                    Need 113 for majority

·         39 in senate

i.                    Need 34 for majority

Congressional/Radical Reconstruction Phase 3

Reconstruction Acts of 1867-1868

-Former confederate states are now under military control

States divided under U.S. control in military districts

·         The military enforced martial law to protect blacks, supervise elections and protect office holders.

Register all eligible voters, including whites and free blacks

·         Didn’t include former confederates until approved by Congress

Call new state constitutional conventions

·         Congress must approve new state constitutions

·         State constitutions must include black suffrage

-Must ratify Fourteenth Amendment

Fourteenth Amendment

-Civil Rights Act of 1866

Citizenship Clause:

·         All persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States and of the state where they’re born.

Privileges and Immunities Clause

·         No state shall make or enforce any law which can go against immunities of citizens of the U.S.

Due Process Clause

·         No state can deprive anyone of life, liberty or property without due process of law

Equal Protection Clause

·         Nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Fifteenth Amendment

The Voting Amendment

-voting rights

Reconstruction Amendments – 13^th ending slavery unless punishment for crime, 14^th civil rights amendment

Women and the Fifteenth Amendment

American Equal Rights Association (AERA)(1866)

·         Splits into 2 separate organizations

·         Splits over disagreement on Fifteenth Amendment

National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA)(1869)

·         Opposed 15^TH Amendment

·         Susan B. Anthony

·         Elizabeth Cady Stanton

·         The Revolution

American Women Suffrage Association (AWSA)(1869)

·         Supported Fifteenth Amendment

·         Lucy Stone

·         The Women’s Journal

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

-Vetoes of Civil Rights Act of 1866 and Freedmen’s Bureau

Tenure of Office

·         Passed to prevent Johnson from firing people:  Secretary of War Edwin Stanton

·         Often sided with Radical Republicans

·         Johnson removes him anyway

-House Passed 11 Impeachment Articles

Senate Trial

·         Vote for only three Articles of Impeachment (allow for prosecution of crimes for high-ranking officials)

·         Needed 2/3 majority to convict him (36 senators)

·         Each article vote: 35-19

·         Edmund G. Ross (R-KS) was deciding vote