Reconstruction

1865-1877

Main Ideas

1) The Reconstruction era had three different types of Reconstruction: Wartime Reconstruction, Presidential Reconstruction, and Radical Reconstruction

2) There was also different views by Presidents Lincoln, who wanted Reconstruction, and Johnson who wanted Restoration.

Wartime Reconstruction

Lincoln was eager to repair the Union quickly his goal was to restore southern representation in Congress. In 1863 Lincoln announced his 10 percent plan and 1864 lincoln vetoed the Wade-Davis Bill which would have established much stricter standards that would have required 50 percent of the southern states to take an oath of allegiance to the United States. 1865 was Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address he announced that he wanted to reunite the country “with malice toward none; with charity for all”. It was consistent with him wanting to end the war as soon as possible, but sadly President Lincoln was assassinated less than a month after his second inauguration.

Presidential ReconstructionAfter Lincoln’s assassination, Vice President Andrew Johnson took office.

Johnson did not leave his seat in the Senate when his native Tennessee declared secession in 1861. Johnson broke apart with the planter class in the South it was clear that he had no likeness for the Republican Party or emancipation and equality for African Americans. Johnson continued with the reconstruction idea that Lincoln had mapped out. Johnson quickly recognized the new southern state governments as legal after they rejected secession and ratified the 13 amendment banning slavery. In the South many members of the old South were now back in power. They tried to copy the conditions of the old South, which included passing a series of restrictive laws known as the black codes. Postwar conditions were similar to prewar conditions that many northerners wondered if they had won the war, but lost the peace. The Reconstruction Era ended with the election of President Hayes in 1877.

Congress & Presidential clash over Reconstruction

Tensions rose in 1866 between the president and Congressional Republicans.President Johnson had vetoed two measures passed by Congress it was an extension of the Freedman's Bureau and Civil Rights Act designed to overturn the Black Codes that the Southern States had put into effect. Congress overrode both of the vetoes. The biggest issue was the 14 Amendment which made all people born in the United States, citizens. By doing this it undid the Dred Scott decision that said that African Americans were not citizens of the United States. The amendment guaranteed all citizens “ equal protection under the law” and stoped states from denying any citizen “ life, liberty, or property without due process of law”. The amendment did not extend voting guarantees. It did allow congress to reduce the representation of states that withheld the vote from African American males. In this section of the Constitution it mentions the word “males” for the first time.

Radical Reconstruction

Johnson tried to move the doubtful white voters against the 14 Amendment in the 1866 midterm elections. His plan backfired when the Republicans won in the 1866 election.

Role of the Southern State and African American involvement

The role of African American’s in politics during Reconstruction was that many served in state and local politics. 14 black men served in the House of Representatives between 1869 and 1877, 6 served as lieutenant governors and more than 600 served in Southern state legislatures. In 1870 Hiram Revels became the first African American to serve in congress.

Southern state governments now had to face that the African Americans were no longer enslaved and could hold political office and had power because they outnumbered the whites. Thus creating the KKK to prevent the blacks from exercising their political power.

During and after the Reconstruction, African Americans in the South created their own schools and colleges. The most famous was Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute.

IBs

Wade-Davis Act: It was were congress responded to Lincoln’s Plan(vetoed). State could only be readmitted if majority of the male population voted and they took the loyalty oath. They would have to adopted to the new constitution, abolishing slavery and disenfranchising confederate officers and government officials.

Black Code: It was to limit the right of black and set of regulations limited movement by blacks, prohibited interracial marriage, insisted that blacks obtain special certificates to hold certain job. Passed by the southerners.

Civil Rights Act:(1866) It was passed by radical congress for Blacks to be citizens. It authorize the federal government to use force to enforce it in the 14th Amendment that gave equal rights.

IBs

Jim Crow Laws: Any of the laws legalizing racial segregation of blacks and whites that were enacted in Southern states beginning in the 1880s and enforced through the 1950s.

Thaddeus Stevens: A Congressman who was a member of the Republican Party who believed in and fought for the emancipation of slaves. He served on the House committee that recommended Johnson’s impeachment.

10 Percent Plan:(1863) It was were that state had taken the oath of allegiance to the U.S. They pledged to be given the opportunity to swear allegiance to the government and the state legislature could write a new constitution but it also had to abolish slavery forever, if all processed Lincoln would recognize the reconstructed government

IBs

Compromise of 1877: An unwritten deal that settled the presidential elections of 1876 between Rutherford Hayes and Samuel Tilden. Due to this agreement he received the electoral votes from the three disputed states and became president in exchange for agreeing to name a southerner to his cabinet, removing the last federal troops from the South, and giving federal aid to Southern railroad construction.

Ku Klux Klan: It was created in 1866 and was a white terrorist group that resisted Reconstruction by tormenting black Americans.

Pros & Cons of Reconstruction

Pros ●13,14, and 15th Amendment ●Reunification of the Union●expansion of the South & North’s economy ●Education for everyone ●Freedom for blacks●Built hospitals that served African American communities●rewrote constitutions ●undated penal codes ●began physical rebuilding of the war-torn South

Cons ●Corrupt people in political offices, for example Ulysses S. Grants entire cabinet was completely corrupt and money hungry●KKK terrorises down south●whiskey ring and black friday●number of lynchings and black hate crimes down in the south●poverty ●industrialization in the South was slow●taxes

AP Question

In order to end the impasse over the 1876 presidential elections, the Republicans agreed to

A) pardon all the Confederate officersB) let the Democrats choose the new secretaries of war and state

C) extend money to help the South rebuildD) end the Reconstruction by withdrawing all Union troops from the South

E) suspend the 14 and 15 Amendment

Answer

D) The disputed election of 1876 led an agreement between the Democrats and the Republicans. The Democrats would let the Republicans have the White House if the Republicans agreed to withdraw the last federal troops from the South and end Reconstruction.

AP Question

Which of the following was NOT a result of Reconstruction?

(A) An increase in membership in the Ku Klux Klan(B) The passage of three Constitutional Amendments(C) The election of black senators and representatives(D) The emergence of two distinct factions within the Republican Party

(E) Government grants of forty acres and a mule to each freedman

Answer

E) All of the above were results of Reconstruction except (E), which was suggested but never implemented.

The end

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