RESTORING THE SOUTH TO THE UNION

RECONSTRUCTION

CHAPTER 5

Lincoln wanted to bring the south back into the Union.  He had begun his plan for this in 1863 with the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction.

It basically was compromised of 2 parts:  (1) It offered a full pardon to all southerners who would take an oath of allegiance to the union and accept all federal laws and proclamations dealing with slavery and (2) States could draw up new constitutions, elect new officials, and return to the Union on a basis of full equality with all other states when it met certain conditions.

There were some exceptions to this plan of Lincoln’s.  Not included were:

There was a great deal of political opposition to Lincoln’s plan of “Reconstruction”.  Many Republicans felt ex-Confederates would not be loyal to the Union or permit African-Americans to enjoy legal and political rights.  This group of Republicans was referred to as “Radical Republicans”.

Senator Charles Sumner wanted to guarantee political and legal equality for African-Americans and educate them.

Representative Thaddeus Stevens wanted to punish the south for the injustices and discriminations that African-American southerners had suffered under white rule.  Also, he wanted African-Americans to have economic independence.

Although most Republican leaders eventually lined up with Lincoln’s reconstruction policies, most agreed that the president had gone beyond his Constitutional powers and it was for Congress to say what rules would be used in restoring the southern states to the Union.

Many Republicans were worried about the return of the southern Democrats, and their ruining of the Republican platform calling for: 

In order to keep the Democrats from gaining power, the Republicans gave voting right to former slaves, and kept former Confederate leaders from voting or holding public office.

The Wade-Davis Bill opposed Lincoln’s plan of reconstruction.  It gave political power to southerners who had remained loyal to the Union.  Southern constitutions would provide freedom for African American southerners.  It also tried to ensure that Confederate war debts be repudiated (not paid).

President Lincoln never saw the south ”reconstructed”.  On April 14, 1865, he was shot and killed while attending the play Our American Cousin with his wife at Ford’s Theater, in Washington, DC, by John Wilkes Booth.

Vice-president Andrew Johnson became our 17th president.  Andrew Johnson was not like Lincoln.  He wasn’t even of the same political party.  Lincoln had chosen him as a running mate in hopes of bringing more voters out to support him.

Johnson insisted on the “rightness” of his own point of view and was not patient, tactful, or a great political leader.

One of Johnson’s first acts as president was to offer rewards for the arrest of the confederate President Jefferson Davis.  He also made it clear he intended to follow Lincoln’s plans for reconstruction.  But follow it is anything but what President Johnson did.

Johnson did not believe that reconstruction should provide civil or political equality for both races.

By 1865, all the states making up the Confederacy were back in the Union, except Texas.

The United States entered one of the most difficult periods in its history.

There were still a great many problems facing the southern states:

The Freedman’s Bureau was established to look after “refugees”, freed slaves, and abandoned lands.  The bureau was headed by General Oliver Otis Howard and was the first federal attempt to give support to needy and underprivileged people.

In order to re-establish the southern way of life, southern states adopted laws to regulate the conduct of freed slaves.  “Black Codes” forbid African American southerners from owning firearms unless licensed, assembling unless a White was present, established curfews, and set up white control over African American labor.

Congress also refused to admit the southern senators and representatives into the legislature.  The reasons were:

With Johnson’s insistence on his plan, the Radical Republicans took control of Congress.

Congress immediately passed the Civil Rights Act, which gave African Americans full citizenship and guaranteed them complete equality of treatment.

President Johnson vetoed the bill on the grounds it was unconstitutional.  It was passed over his veto.

Johnson’s veto had two immediate results:

The Fourteenth Amendment made African Americans citizens of the United States and the states in which they lived.  It also gave African Americans equal protection under the law.

Race riots in the south followed and convinced many that the Radical Republicans were correct in insisting that African Americans needed more protection.

Reconstruction became a five-point plan:

·        The south was divided up into 10 military districts, one for each state not ratifying the 14th Amendment.

·        Confederate leaders could not vote or hold office.

·        Freed slaves were given the right to vote and hold office.

·        States could re-write their constitutions and guarantee freed slaves the right to vote.

·        Congress required states to ratify the 14th Amendment.

By 1870 all Confederate states were returned to the Union, and Congress now set out to get rid of, or impeach, President Johnson.  Their reasons were:

Under the Constitution the President may be impeached on the grounds of treason, bribery, or high crimes and misdemeanors.  The charges brought against President Johnson were questionable, legally, but a trial proceeded anyway.

The final vote (35 to 19) stood one vote short of the total needed to impeach Johnson, but his presidential power was finished.

Radicals began to lose power because the moderates would not support them and public opinion turned against them.

In the election of 1868 the Republicans ran Ulysses S. Grant (a war hero) against Horatio Seymour.  Economics (the Greenback Issue) was the primary issue in the election, which was barely won by Grant.

The fifteenth amendment said citizens of the United States could not be denied the right to vote based on race, religion, color, or condition of previous servitude.  Women were not included in either the 14th or the 15th amendments.

The Radical Republicans control in the south lasted almost 10 years.  During this period of time, the primary concern of the federal government was restoration of the Union.

During this time, the Freedmen’s Bureau was severely limited by lack of money and opposition by both northerners and southerners.

Carpetbaggers (northerners) were individuals who moved into the south and took positions of authority.  White southerners disliked them.

Scalawags (southerners) were individuals who cooperated with northern authorities.  They, too, wanted positions of authority.  Southerners hated these individuals more than the carpetbaggers.

Both Carpetbaggers and scalawags controlled the southern state governments during the radical reconstruction period.

Carpetbaggers held more political power in the south after the war.

Freed African Americans were occasionally elected into the southern “carpetbag” governments, but few played major roles in these governments.  Among those who did were Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce, both who represented Mississippi in the Senate.

There was a plus side to the reconstruction governments:

Reconstruction government’s negative side:

Regardless of their merits, most White southerners resented the reconstruction governments.  In order to fight back against the carpetbaggers and scalawags and politically active African American southerners, secret societies were formed.

The Knights of the White Camellia and the Ku Klux Klan were secret organizations that tried to frighten African American southerners and their White leaders into staying out of politics.  They dressed in white “ghost-like” costumes representing the ghosts of the confederate war-dead.

Overall, the reconstruction to the south was not severe.

By the middle of the 1870’s, many northerners had begun to lose interest in the affairs of the south.  Northerners began to feel as if southern African Americans did not need supervision.  Also, there was the belief that former southern (Confederate) leaders should be allowed to return to power.

Reconstruction began to come to an end.  By the time Rutherford B. Hayes took office in 1877, the military was gone from the south and reconstruction was over.

One major result of the Civil War was the creation of the “solid south”.  Since so many southerners were Democrats and disliked the “Radical Republicans”, a growing movement developed where the Democratic Party held most of the power in the south.  It is still true, basically, today.