Reconstruction aimed to reunite the nation after the Civil War by bringing the Confederate states back into the Union, rebuilding the South, and protecting the rights of freed black people. There were differing views on how to achieve this, ranging from Lincoln's lenient 10% Plan to the Radical Republican desire to treat the South as conquered territory and empower freedmen. Ultimately, the North grew weary and compromise in 1877 restored home rule to the white South, effectively ending Congressional Reconstruction and protections for black civil rights.

1. Reconstruction

2. Key Questions
1. How do we
bring the South
back into the
Union?
2. How do we
rebuild the
South after its
destruction
during the war?
3. How do we
integrate and
protect newly-
emancipated
black freedmen?
4. What branch
of government
should control
the process of
Reconstruction?

3. Differing Views of Reconstruction
1865-1877
1. Wartime/10%: (Lincoln) – Lenient
2. Presidential: (Johnson) – Semi-lenient; punish
Confederate elite only
3. Congressional/Radical Reconstruction:
(Thaddeus Stevens and Rad. Rep.) – harsh;
treat South as conquered territory; empower blacks
and poor whites

5. With malice toward none, with charity for
all, with firmness in the right as God
gives us to see the right, let us strive on to
finish the work we are in, to bind up the
nation's wounds, to care for him who
shall have borne the battle and for his
widow and his orphan, to do all which
may achieve and cherish a just and
lasting peace . . .
- Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865

6. President Lincoln’s Plan
10% Plan
* Goal: restore Union ASAP
* Establish “loyal rule” in S
* Pardon all but highest ranking Confederates
* Recognition when 10% of 1860 voting pop.
took loyalty oath and est. new gov’t.
* Didn’t consult Congress
* Died before plan was enacted.

8. 1864  “Lincoln
Governments” formed in
LA, TN, AR
* Weak and
dependent on the
Northern army for
their survival.

9. Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
 50% of 1860 voters to take
an “iron clad” oath of
allegiance (swearing they had
never aided the rebellion).
 State constitutional
convention before the
election of state officials.
 Enacted specific safeguards
of freedmen’s liberties.
 Pocket vetoed by Lincoln.
Senator
Benjamin
Wade
(R-OH)
Congressman
Henry
W. Davis
(R-MD)

10. 13th Amendment
 Ratified in December, 1865.
 Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or
any place subject to their jurisdiction.
 Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.

11. Freedmen’s Bureau (1865)
 Former N. abolitionists
risked their lives to help
southern freedmen.
 Called “carpetbaggers” by
white southern Democrat
 “Scalawags” – white
southerners who joined Rep.
Party

12. Freedmen’s Bureau School

14. Establishment of Historically
Black Colleges in the South

16. President Andrew Johnson
 Jacksonian Democrat.
 Anti-Aristocrat.
 White Supremacist.
 Agreed with Lincoln
that states had never
legally left the Union.
“Damn the negroes! I am fighting these
traitorous aristocrats, their masters!”

17. President Johnson’s Plan (10%+)
 Simple loyalty oath for all except Confederate officers and those
worth more than $20,000 (they could apply directly to Johnson)
 New constitutions must repudiate slavery, secession and state debts.
 Named provisional governors in Confederate states and called them
to oversee elections for constitutional conventions.
EFFECTS?
1. Disenfranchised certain leading Confederates.
2. Pardoned planter aristocrats brought them back
to political power to control state organizations.
3. Republicans were outraged that planter elite
were back in power in the South!

18. Growing Northern Alarm!
 Many Southern state constitutions fell
short of minimum requirements.
 Johnson granted 13,500 special
pardons.
 Revival of southern defiance.
BLACK CODES

19. Black Codes
 Purpose:
* Guarantee labor now that
blacks were emancipated.
* Restore pre-emancipation
race relations.
 Forced many blacks to become
sharecroppers

20. Sharecropping: Give land to a
poor white/ex-slave and portion of
the crop goes to landowner; creates
unbroken debt cycle
Tenant Farming: farmer
rents land, keeps all harvest;
few farmers made it to this

21. Sharecropping

22. Congress Breaks with the President
 Congress bars Southern
Congressional delegates.
 Joint Committee on
Reconstruction created.
 February, 1866  President
vetoed the Freedmen’s
Bureau bill.
 March, 1866  Johnson
vetoed the 1866 Civil Rights Act.
 Congress passed both bills over
Johnson’s vetoes  1st in
U. S. history!!

24. 14th Amendment
 Ratified in July, 1868.
* Provide a constitutional guarantee of the rights and
security of freed people.
* Insure against neo-Confederate political power.
 Southern states would be punished for denying
the right to vote to black citizens!

25. The Balance of Power in Congress
State White Citizens Freedmen
SC 291,000 411,000
MS 353,000 436,000
LA 357,000 350,000
GA 591,000 465,000
AL 596,000 437,000
VA 719,000 533,000
NC 631,000 331,000

26. The 1866 Bi-Election
Johnson’s “Swing around the Circle”
 Referendum on Rad Recon.
 Johnson tour alienates voters and backfires.
 Republicans won
3-1 majority in
Congress!

27. Radical Plan for Readmission
 Civil authorities in South subject to military
supervision.
 Required new state constitutions, including
black suffrage and ratification of the 13th and 14th
Amendments.

28. Military Reconstruction Act of 1867
 Restart Reconstruction in 10 states that refuse to ratify 14th Amendment;
divided into 5 military districts.

29. Tenure of Office Act of 1867
Tenure of Office Act -
President can’t remove any
officials w/o Senate’s consent if
the position originally required
Senate approval
Edwin Stanton

30. President Johnson’s Impeachment
 Johnson removed Stanton in 1868.
 House impeached 126 – 47

31. The Senate Trial
11 week trial.
Johnson acquitted
35-19 (one short of
required 2/3s).

33. The 1868 Republican Ticket

34. 1868 Presidential Election

35. The Election of 1868

36. 1872 Presidential Election

37. The Election of 1872

38. Grant Administration
Scandals
 Era of unprecedented
growth and corruption.

39. William “Boss” Tweed, NYC -
Tammany Hall’s political machine)
[Thomas Nast  crusading cartoonist/reporter]

40. And They Say He Wants a Third Term

42. Blacks in Southern Politics
 Core voters were black veterans.
 Blacks politically unprepared.
 Blacks could register and vote in states since 1867.
 The 15th
Amendment
guaranteed
federal voting.

43. 15th Amendment
 Ratified in 1870.
 The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on
account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
 The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.
 Women’s rights groups were furious that they were
not granted the vote!

45. Colored Rule
in the South?

46. Supreme Court Interpretation
U.S. v. Cruikshank:
14th Amendment does not involve
people discriminating against
people; only the government
discriminating
U.S. v. Reese:
ruled 15th Amendment didn’t give
right to vote, simply listed
grounds on which states could not
deny right to vote

47. Ku Klux Klan:
the “Invisible Empire of the South”

48. The Failure of Federal Enforcement
 Enforcement Acts of 1870 & 1871 [also
known as the KKK Act].
 “The Lost Cause.”
 Redeemers (prewar
Democrats and
Union Whigs).

49. The Civil Rights Act of 1875
 Crime for any individual to deny full & equal use
of public conveyances and public places.
 Prohibited discrimination in jury selection.
 Shortcoming  no strong enforcement
 No new civil rights act was attempted for 90 years!

51. Northern Support Wanes
 Changes within the
Republican Party:
 ‘Scalawags’ not committed
to protecting African-
Americans
 The party splits over
corruption
 Panic of 1873 [6-year
depression].
 Concern over westward
expansion and Indian wars

52. 1876 Presidential Tickets

53. 1876 Presidential Election

54. The Political Crisis of 1877
 “Corrupt Bargain”
Part II?

55. Hayes Prevails

56. Alas, the Woes of Childhood…
Sammy Tilden—Boo-Hoo! Ruthy Hayes’s got my Presidency, and he won’t give it to me!

57. A Political Crisis: The “Compromise”
of 1877

58. Compromise of
1877
• Hayes became president
• Federal troops will leave the
South
• Result: “Redemption” –
White Southerners regain
control of the South
• Home Rule Restored

61. Reconstruction:
Success or Failure?

62. Recap: