Reconstruction Era Notes

The Battle Over Reconstruction

Lincoln's Plan vs. Congress's Response

  • Lincoln advocated for a moderate approach to Reconstruction, aiming for quick reintegration of the South.
  • Congress, particularly Radical Republicans, favored harsher terms and greater protection for freedmen.
Learning Objectives
  • Differentiate between Lincoln's and Congress's Reconstruction approaches.
Key Points
  • Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (10 Percent Plan):
    • Sought to reintegrate Confederate states.
    • Granted presidential pardons to most Southerners who swore allegiance to the Union (excluding political leaders).
    • A state could be reintegrated when 10 percent of its 1860 voters took an oath of allegiance and pledged to abide by emancipation.
    • States could then elect a government.
    • States had to abolish slavery forever.
    • Lincoln would then recognize the reconstructed government.
  • Radical Republicans and the Wade-Davis Bill (1864):
    • Rejected Lincoln's leniency.
    • Required 50 percent of a state's voters to take a loyalty oath for readmission, making readmission more difficult.
    • Lincoln pocket vetoed the Wade-Davis Bill.
  • Freedmen's Bureau (established March 1865):
    • Provided food, shelter, medical aid, employment assistance, and education to blacks and poor whites.
    • Largest federal aid relief plan at the time; the first large-scale governmental welfare program.
  • President Andrew Johnson's Obstruction:
    • Johnson proved an obstacle to Radical Republicans' aims to overhaul the Southern government and economy.
    • Johnson attempted to continue Lincoln's vision for Reconstruction.
    • He vetoed two important congressional bills in 1866.
    • Congress responded by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment, granting African Americans full citizenship.
Key Terms
  • 10 Percent Plan:
    • Lincoln's model for Southern states' reinstatement (December 1863).
    • Required 10 percent of a state's 1860 voters to swear allegiance to the U.S. and pledge to abide by emancipation.
  • Radical Reconstruction:
    • Congressional plan that imposed harsh standards on Southern states.
    • Supported freedmen's political, economic, and social opportunities.
    • Included three constitutional amendments protecting freedmen's rights.
  • Freedmen's Bureau:
    • A U.S. federal agency (1865–1869) that aided distressed freed slaves during Reconstruction.
  • Wade-Davis Bill:
    • A congressional bill (1864) with strict requirements for Southern states' reintegration.
    • Authored by Radical Republicans Senator Benjamin Wade and Representative Henry Winter Davis.

Lincoln's Reconstruction Plan (1863)

  • Lincoln favored a moderate approach for quick and easy reintegration of the South.
  • Radical Republicans in Congress opposed Lincoln's leniency and sought to upgrade freedmen's rights.
  • The moderate position prevailed until the 1866 election, after which Radicals controlled policy, removed former Confederates, and enfranchised freedmen.
  • A Republican coalition aimed to transform Southern society with a free-labor economy, supported by the army and Freedmen's Bureau.
  • The 10 Percent Plan decreed that a state could be reintegrated when 10 percent of its 1860 voters swore allegiance to the United States and pledged to abide by emancipation.
  • All Southerners, except high-ranking Confederate officers, would be pardoned.
  • Lincoln guaranteed protection of private property (but not slaves).
  • Louisiana, Tennessee, and Arkansas established functioning Unionist governments by 1864.
  • Policy aimed to shorten the war by offering a moderate peace plan and to further Lincoln's emancipation policy.
  • Lincoln feared that compelling enforcement of the proclamation could lead to the defeat of the Republican Party in the election of 1864, and that popular Democrats could overturn his proclamation.
  • Lincoln's plan successfully began the Reconstruction process of ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment in all states.

Congress's Response to Lincoln's Plan

  • Moderate Republicans generally supported Lincoln's proposal for a swift end to the war.
  • Some Republicans feared the restoration of the planter aristocracy and re-enslavement of blacks.
  • Radical Republicans opposed Lincoln's plan for being too lenient.
  • Radical Republicans wanted to punish the South for starting the war.
  • Radical Republicans hoped to control the Reconstruction process.

Congress's Reconstruction Bills

  • Aimed to transform Southern society, disband the planter aristocracy, redistribute land, develop industry, and guarantee civil liberties for former slaves.
  • Radical Republicans managed to sway many moderates and dominate Congress in later sessions.
  • In 1864, they passed the Wade-Davis Bill to counter Lincoln's plan, making readmission more difficult by requiring a majority loyalty oath rather than just ten percent.
  • Lincoln pocket vetoed the Wade-Davis Bill.

Freedmen's Bureau

  • Created in March 1865 to provide food, shelter, medical aid, employment aid, education, and other needs for blacks and poor whites.
  • Oversaw new relations between freedmen and former masters in a free-labor market.
  • The Freedmen's Bureau was the largest federal aid relief plan at the time, and it was the first large scale governmental welfare program.
  • Helped recently freed slaves begin voting, forming political parties, and assuming control of labor.
  • Initiated a power shift in the South that drew national attention.
  • Congress continued to pass more radical legislation, bolstered by the 1866 election.
  • The Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery was ratified in 1865.
  • The Fourteenth Amendment, proposed in 1866 and ratified in 1868, guaranteed U.S. citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and granted them federal civil rights.
  • The Fifteenth Amendment, proposed in late February 1869 and passed in early February 1870, decreed that the right to vote could not be denied because of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
  • Congress also passed the Reconstruction Acts, initially vetoed by Johnson but overridden by Congress.
  • The first Reconstruction Act placed 10 Confederate states under military control, grouping them into five military districts that would serve as the acting government for the region.
  • The major purpose of the act was to recognize and protect the right of African Americans to vote.
  • Under martial law, the military supervised local government, elections, and the administration of justice.
  • Blacks were enrolled as voters and former Confederate leaders were excluded for a limited period.
  • The Reconstruction Acts denied the right to vote for men who had sworn to uphold the Constitution and then rebelled against the federal government.
  • Each state was required to draft a new constitution (approved by Congress), ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, and grant voting rights to black men.

Conclusion on Lincoln

  • Lincoln is portrayed as moderate, opposing Radical positions.
  • There is debate over how well Lincoln would have handled Congress during Reconstruction.
  • One view is that his flexibility and political skills would have eased Reconstruction.
  • Another view is that Radicals would have attempted to impeach Lincoln, as they did Johnson.

Johnson's Plan

  • Andrew Johnson favored punishment for Confederates initially but softened his policies as president.
Learning Objectives
  • Evaluate President Johnson's approach to Reconstruction.
Key Takeaways
  • The Black Codes were laws passed in the Southern states in the aftermath of the Civil War; they lowered the status of freedmen.
  • The Confiscation Acts were passed by Congress in 1861 and 1862; allowed for the confiscation of land owned by Confederates, and for this land to be redistributed to freedmen; Johnson ordered that the land be given back to the pardoned owners instead.
  • The Freedmen's Bureau administered basic relief to newly freed slaves and poor whites, including the provision of food and medicine, as well as limited legal and employment aid.
  • The Civil Rights Act of 1866 gave freedmen full legal equality, with the exception of the right to vote; it was vetoed by Johnson, but his veto was overridden by Congress.
Key Points
  • The Joint Committee on Reconstruction was a 15-member panel created to devise Reconstruction requirements for Southern states to be restored to the Union.
  • The Fourteenth Amendment was designed to put the key provisions of the Civil Rights Act into the Constitution, but it went much further.
  • It extended citizenship to everyone born in the United States except visitors and American Indians.
  • It penalized states that did not give the vote to freedmen and created new federal civil rights that could be protected by federal courts.
Key Terms
  • Black codes: Laws passed after the Civil War that limited the basic human rights and civil liberties of blacks.
  • Andrew Johnson: The seventeenth president of the United States. He became president after Lincoln's assassination and battled with the Radical Republicans in Congress over control and stringency of the Reconstruction. He was eventually impeached ostensibly for violating the Tenure of Office Act and was acquitted by one vote.
  • Lyman Trumbull: A U.S. Senator from Illinois during the American Civil War and coauthor of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Johnson's Battle with Congress

  • Northern anger over Lincoln's assassination and Civil War casualties led to demands for harsh policies in the South.
  • Johnson initially spoke of hanging rebel Confederates but later took a softer line, pardoning many.
  • Only Captain Henry Wirz was executed for war crimes.
  • Johnson sought speedy restoration of states, believing they never truly left the Union.
  • Unlike Radical Republicans, Johnson didn't seek to make Southerners accountable for the war but wanted to reintegrate them easily.
  • Johnson viewed African-American suffrage as a delay and a state responsibility.
  • Without focusing on legal equality for freed slaves, Johnson overlooked white Southerners' actions and blocked Congress.
  • Johnson's conservative view of Reconstruction excluded former slaves from government.
  • He ignored Northern concerns when Southern legislatures implemented Black Codes.
  • Johnson's presidency is known for lax enforcement and defiance of Reconstruction laws.

Freedmen and the Enactment of Black Codes

  • Many former Confederates resisted social changes.
  • The conservative planter elite were partly reassured by Johnson's stance against land redistribution.
  • Johnson ordered that land forfeited under the Confiscation Acts of 1861 and 1862 be returned to pardoned owners.
  • Southern governments enacted restrictive Black Codes, granting limited second-class civil rights to freedmen but denying voting rights or citizenship.
  • The Black Codes outraged Northerners and were overthrown by the Civil Rights Act of 1866, giving freedmen full legal equality (except voting rights).
  • This led to sharecropping, giving freedmen greater economic independence but forcing them to produce cash crops for landowners due to lack of capital.
  • Widespread poverty and falling cotton prices led to indebtedness among freedmen and poverty among planters.
  • Northern officials reported varying conditions in the South.
  • Carl Schurz documented extra-judicial killings.
  • Major J.P. Houston noted that whites who killed 12 African Americans in his district never came to trial.
  • Black women were particularly vulnerable, with sexual assaults often unpunished due to racist views.
  • Black men were construed as being extremely sexually aggressive, and their supposed threats to white women often were used as a pretext for lynching and castrations.

Moderate Responses

  • In autumn 1865, Radical Republicans blocked the readmission of former rebellious states due to Black Codes.
  • Johnson pushed to readmit Confederate states if they adopted the Thirteenth Amendment, believing Reconstruction was over after ratification on December 6, 1865.
  • The Radical-controlled Congress rejected Johnson's moderate Reconstruction and organized the Joint Committee on Reconstruction.
  • Johnson vetoed the renewal of the Freedmen's Bureau Bill in February 1866, opposing federal assistance.
  • An attempt to override the veto failed.
  • The Senate and House passed a joint resolution disallowing congressional seat admittance until Congress declared Reconstruction finished.
  • Illinois senator Lyman Trumbull proposed the first Civil Rights Law, passed quickly by Congress.

Johnson's Impeachment

  • Johnson was impeached for undermining congressional policy, the culmination of a political battle between him and Radical Republicans.
  • He was acquitted by one vote.
  • Johnson was impeached on February 24, 1868, on 11 articles of impeachment detailing his "high crimes and misdemeanors."
  • The primary charge was violating the Tenure of Office Act by removing Edwin M. Stanton from office.
  • The House agreed to the articles on March 2, 1868.
  • The trial began in the Senate with Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presiding.
  • The first vote on one of the 11 impeachment articles concluded on May 16 with a failure to convict Johnson which required a two-thirds majority.
  • The 35-to-19 votes were one short of the required two-thirds majority needed for conviction.

The Reconstruction Amendments

  • The Fourteenth Amendment provided the foundation of equal rights for all U.S. citizens, including African Americans.
Learning Objectives
  • Define the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments
Key Takeaways
  • The Republican Congress during and after the Civil War passed three constitutional amendments, called the "Reconstruction Amendments," that ended slavery and extended many civil rights to black Americans.
  • The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery in the United States, extending the effect of the Emancipation Proclamation.
  • The Fourteenth Amendment, adopted on July 9, 1868, was the second of three Reconstruction Amendments. The three main clauses of amendment are the "Citizenship" clause, the "Due Process" clause, and the "Equal Protection" clause.
  • The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified February 3, 1870, gave suffrage to black males.
  • Black Codes were laws the Southern states had passed in the wake of the abolishment of slavery. They attempted to return former slaves to a subservient legal and political status.
Key Terms
  • black codes: The Black Codes were laws in the United States after the Civil War that limited the civil rights and civil liberties of black people.
  • Civil Rights Act: A U.S. federal law (14 Stat. 2714\ Stat.\ 27) enacted April 9, 1866, that was mainly intended to protect the civil rights of African Americans in the wake of the American Civil War.
  • The Fourteenth Amendment: A constitutional amendment that provided the basis for equal protection under the law for all citizens, including newly freed slaves.
  • The Thirteenth Amendment: A constitutional amendment that abolished slavery in the United States.
  • The Fifteenth Amendment: A constitutional amendment that gave suffrage to male freedmen.
  • During and immediately after the Civil War, the U.S. Congress passed three constitutional amendments that provided political and social equality for African Americans.
  • They were termed the "Reconstruction Amendments" and were spearheaded by the Radical Republicans in Congress.
  • The Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery was ratified in 1865.
  • The Fourteenth Amendment, proposed in 1866 and ratified in 1868, guaranteed U.S. citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and granted them federal civil rights.
  • The Fifteenth Amendment, proposed in late February 1869 and passed in early February 1870, decreed that the right to vote could not be denied because of, "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
  • The amendments were directed at ending slavery and providing full citizenship to freedmen.
  • Northern congressmen believed that providing black men with the right to vote would be the most rapid means of political education and training.

The Thirteenth Amendment

  • The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.
  • In Congress, it was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, and by the House on January 31, 1865.
  • The amendment was ratified by the required number of states on December 6, 1865.
  • Slavery had been tacitly enshrined in the original Constitution through provisions such as Article I, Section 2, Clause 3, commonly known as the " Three-Fifths Compromise," which detailed how each state's total slave population would be factored into its total population count for the purposes of apportioning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and direct taxes among the states.
  • Though many slaves had been declared free by President Abraham Lincoln 's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, their postwar status was uncertain.
  • Though the amendment formally abolished slavery throughout the United States, factors such as Black Codes, white supremacist violence, and selective enforcement of statutes continued to subject some black Americans to involuntary labor, particularly in the South.
  • When the Thirteenth Amendment became operational, the scope of Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation was widened to include the entire nation.
  • Although the majority of Kentucky's slaves had been emancipated, 65,00065,000 to 100,000100,000 people remained to be legally freed when the amendment went into effect on December 18.
  • In Delaware, where a large number of escaped slaves had settled during the war, 900900 people became legally free.
  • In addition to abolishing slavery and prohibiting involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, the Thirteenth Amendment also nullified the Fugitive Slave Clause and the Three-Fifths Compromise.

The Fourteenth Amendment

  • The Fourteenth Amendment, adopted on July 9, 1868, was the second of three Reconstruction Amendments.
  • The amendment provided the foundation for equal rights for all U.S. citizens, including African Americans, and a framework for their implementation in the former Confederate states.
  • The three main clauses of the amendment are the "Citizenship" clause, the "Due Process" clause, and the "Equal Protection" clause.
  • The "Citizenship" clause overruled the Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling that blacks could not be citizens of the United States.
  • The "Due Process" clause prohibits state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness.
  • The "Equal Protection" clause requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction.
  • This clause was the basis for the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that led to the desegregation of U.S. schools.
  • The Civil Rights Act of 1866 had previously granted U.S. citizenship to all persons born in the United States.
  • The framers of the Fourteenth Amendment added this amendment to the Constitution for two reasons: to prevent the Supreme Court from ruling the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to be unconstitutional, and to prevent a future Congress from altering it by a mere majority vote.
  • The amendment was also in response to the Black Codes that Southern states had passed in the wake of the abolishment of slavery restricting African Americans from movement, forced them to enter into year-long labor contracts, prohibiting them from owning firearms, and by preventing them from suing or testifying in court.

The Fifteenth Amendment

  • The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's, "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
  • It was ratified on February 3, 1870, as the third and last of the Reconstruction Amendments.
  • In the final years of the American Civil War and the Reconstruction that followed, Congress repeatedly debated the rights of the millions of black former slaves.
  • By 1869, amendments had been passed to abolish slavery and provide citizenship and equal protection under the laws, but the election of Ulysses S. Grant to the presidency in 1868 convinced a majority of Republicans that protecting the franchise of black voters was important for the party's future.
  • After rejecting more sweeping versions of a suffrage amendment, Congress proposed a compromise amendment banning franchise restrictions on the basis of race, color, or previous servitude on February 26, 1869.
  • The amendment survived a difficult ratification fight and was adopted on March 30, 1870.
  • U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the late nineteenth century interpreted the amendment narrowly.
  • From 1890 to 1910, most black voters in the South were effectively disenfranchised by new state constitutions and state laws incorporating such obstacles as poll taxes and discriminatory literacy tests, from which white voters were exempted by grandfather clauses.
  • A system of whites-only primaries and violent intimidation by white groups also suppressed black participation.