The Crises of Reconstruction

1
Chapter 16

• The Crises of Reconstruction
• 1865-1877

2
Introduction

• The ending of the Civil War and the
  Reconstruction period that followed constituted a
  crucial turning point in American history
• Between 1865 and 1877
• Vital problems had to be solved
• How and under what conditions the South should be
  readmitted to the Union
• What the rights and status of the 3.5 million
  freedmen should be

3
Introduction (cont.)

• 1.) How did the Radical Republicans gain control
  over reconstructing the South, and what was the
  impact of their program on the ex-Confederates,
  other white southerners, and black southerners?
• 2.) How did freed blacks remake their lives after
  emancipation?
• 3.) What political and economic developments
  occurred in the North during the Reconstruction
  Era?

4
Introduction (cont.)

• 4.) What brought about the end of Reconstruction?

5
Reconstruction Politics, 1865-1868

• Lincolns Plan
• Differences between President Lincoln and
  Congress on reconstruction of the Confederate
  states began as early as 1863
• Would allow the formation of a new state govt.
  when as few as 10 of the states voters took an
  oath of loyalty to the Union
• Also had to recognize the end of slavery
• This plan said nothing about votes for freedmen
• Lincoln hoped to win over southern Unionists and
  draw them into the Rep. Party

6
Lincolns Plan (cont.)

• Wade-Davis Bill
• Passed by Congress
• Republicans who disagreed with Lincolns plan
• Required at least 50 of the voters take an oath
  of allegiance
• It excluded from participation in govt. all those
  who had cooperated with the Confederacy
• Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill
• At the time of his death, he and Congress were at
  an impasse

7
Pres. Reconstruction Under Johnson

• President Andrew Johnson announced his
  Reconstruction Plan in May 1865
• Unconcerned about the blacks but wished to
  promote the interests of the poorer whites in the
  South
• Johnson required whites to take an oath of
  allegiance to the Union
• After which they could set up new state govts.
• These had to proclaim secession illegal,
  repudiate Confederate debts, and ratify the 13th
  Amendment (abolished slavery)

8
Pres. Reconstruction Under Johnson (cont.)

• Whites who had held high office under the
  Confederacy and all those with taxable property
  of 20,000 or more could NOT vote or hold office
• They had to apply for and receive a special
  pardon from the Pres.
• During the summer of 1865
• Johnson undermined his own policy of excluding
  planters from leadership by handing out pardons
  to them wholesale

9
Pres. Reconstruction Under Johnson (cont.)

• The new govts. created under Johnsons plan were
  soon dominated by former Confederate leaders and
  large landowners
• Some of the Johnson govts. refused to ratify the
  13th Amend.
• And all showed their intention of making black
  freedom only nominal by enacting black codes

10
Pres. Reconstruction Under Johnson (cont.)

• Horrified by such evidence of continued southern
  defiance in Dec. 1865
• Republican-dominated Congress refused to
  recognize these govts. or to seat the men they
  sent to the House and the Senate

11
Congress vs. Johnson

• Radical Republicans were in a minority in 1866
• They wished to give black men the vote
• Transform the South into a biracial democracy
• Moderate Republicans were in the majority
• Wanted to get rid of the black codes
• And protect the basic civil rights of blacks

12
Congress vs. Johnson (cont.)

• The moderates attempted to accomplish these
  limited goals by continuing the Freedmens Bureau
  and passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866
• Johnson vetoed both of these measures
• This drove the moderates into an alliance with
  the Radicals
• Together they overrode his vetoes
• This alliance would create the 14th Amendment

13
14th Amendment, 1866

• For the 1st time, the federal govt. defined
  citizenship and intervened to protect person from
  state govts.
• It stated that all persons born in the U.S.A. or
  naturalized were citizens
• No state could deny any persons rights without
  due process of law or deny equal protection of
  the law

14
14th Amendment, 1866 (cont.)

• States that refused black men the vote could have
  their representation in Congress reduced
• Former Confederate officials were excluded from
  voting and office-holding until pardoned by 2/3s
  vote of Congress

15
14th Amendment, 1866 (cont.)

• The southern states (except for TN), refused to
  ratify the amendment
• Pres. Johnson denounced it
• In the Congressional elections of 1866, the
  Republicans won huge majorities
• This gave them a mandate to force ratification of
  the 14th Amendment
• Also it allowed to proceed with congressional
  Reconstruction of the South
• 14th Amendment

16
Congressional Reconstruction, 1866-1868

• Congress enacted its Reconstruction program over
  Johnsons vetoes
• The earlier Johnson govts., black codes, and all
  other laws the southern states had passed were
  invalidated
• TN had been readmitted
• All other former Confederate states were divided
  into districts under the temporary rule of the
  military

17
Congressional Reconstruction, 1866-1868 (cont.)

• Each state was required to write a new
  constitution enfranchising black men
• And they had to ratify the 14th Amendment
• When these things were done, Congress could
  readmit the state to the Union

18
Congressional Reconstruction, 1866-1868 (cont.)

• Congressional Reconstruction was more radical
  than Lincolns or Johnsons
• It enfranchised blacks and temporarily
  disfranchised many whites
• It did not go as far as the Radicals wanted
• It failed to confiscate southern land and
  redistribute it to blacks and poor whites

19
Congressional Reconstruction, 1866-1868 (cont.)

• Johnson dragged his feet in enforcing
  congressional Reconstruction

20
The Impeachment Crisis, 1867-1868

• Tenure of Office Act
• Passed by Congress
• March 1867
• Aimed at reducing the presidents power
• Tenure of Office Act
• Johnson violated it by firing Sec. of War Edwin
  Stanton
• Republicans in Congress began impeachment
  proceedings

21
The Impeachment Crisis, 1867-1868 (cont.)

• Some Republicans wavered
• Feared that removal of Johnson would upset the
  constitutional balance of power
• The vote to convict and remove President Johnson
  fell 1 vote short of the necessary 2/3s of the
  Senate
• Impeachment Trial

22
The 15th Amendment and the Question Of Woman
Suffrage

• Congress passed a final amend. To complete its
  Reconstruction program
• 15th Amendment stated that the right to vote
  could not be denied because of race, color, or
  previous condition of servitude
• 15th Amendment

23
(No Transcript)
24
The 15th Amendment and the Question Of Woman
Suffrage (cont.)

• The Republicans hoped with this amendment to
• protect southern blacks
• extend suffrage to northern blacks
• gain many new voters for their party
• When Congress refused to include woman suffrage,
  some feminists denounced the amendment and its
  Republicans sponsors

25
The 15th Amendment and the Question Of Woman
Suffrage (cont.)

• The 3 new amendments
• Ending slavery
• Guaranteeing the rights of citizens
• Enfranchising black men
• By 1870
• these new amendments were a part of the
  Constitution
• Congress had readmitted all the former
  Confederate states
• Thereafter congressional efforts at
  Reconstruction weakened

26
Reconstruction Governments

• The Reconstruction laws of 1867-1868 created a
  new electorate in the South by enfranchising
  blacks
• Also they temporarily disfranchised 10-15 of the
  whites
• This new electorate put in power Republican
  govts. what were made up of a coalition of
  carpetbaggers, scalawags, and blacks

27
Reconstruction Governments (cont.)

• Carpetbaggersnortherners who had come south for
  a variety of reasons
• Scalawagscooperating southern whites

28
Republican Rule

• The Republican Reconstruction govts. democratized
  southern politics by
• abolishing property and racial qualifications for
  voting and office-holding
• redistricting state legislatures
• making formerly appointive offices elective
• They undertook extensive public works, offered
  increased public services, and established the
  Souths first public schools

29
Republican Rule (cont.)

• All of this cost moneytaxes rose
• Southern landowners bitterly resented the
  increased taxes
• accused the state govts. of corruption and waste
• Some of their charges were true
• But many were exaggerated
• In no state was the land of ex-Confederate
  planters confiscated and redistributed to
  freedmen

30
Counterattacks

• White southern Democrats refused to accept black
  voting and office-holding
• Launched a counterattack to drive Republican
  govts. from power
• White vigilante groups began a campaign of
  violence and intimidation against blacks,
  Freedmens Bureau officials, and white
  Republicans

31
Counterattacks (cont.)

• Congress investigated this reign of terror
• Congress attempted to suppress it with the
  Enforcement Acts
• But only a large military presence in the South
  could have protected black rights and preserve
  the black electorate

32
Counterattacks (cont.)

• By the 1870s, Congress and President Grant were
  no longer willing to use military force to remake
  the South

33
The Impact of Emancipation

• Confronting Freedom
• Freedmen left the plantations where they had been
  enslaved
• Usually lacked property, tools, capital, and
  literacy
• Often searched for family members from whom they
  had been separated
• Once reunited, many took the 1st opportunity to
  legalize their marriages
• Raise their children and live as an independent
  family

34
African-American Institutions

• The desire to be free of white control led blacks
  to establish their own institutions
• Most important were the black churches
• Played major religious, social, and political
  roles
• Many black schools were started with the help of
  the Freedmens Bureau and northern
  philanthropists
• Howard, Fisk, Grambling, Southern

35
African-American Institutions (cont.)

• Segregation of all facilities in the South became
  a way of life
• Charles Sumners Civil Rights Act of 1875
• It promised that all persons, regardless of race,
  color, or previous condition, was entitled to
  full and equal employment of accommodation in
  "inns, public conveyances on land or water,
  theaters, and other places of public amusement."
• In 1883 the Supreme Court declared it
  unconstitutional
• Congress did not have the power to regulate the
  conduct and transactions of individuals

36
Land, Labor, and Sharecropping

• Above all, freedmen wanted to become landowning,
  independent farmers
• Few did because the Republicans believed that
  property rights were too sacred to be violated by
  confiscation and redistribution of the white
  planters lands
• Also, blacks did not have the capital to buy land
  and agricultural tools

37
Land, Labor, and Sharecropping (cont.)

• Landless laborers and landholding planters
  developed sharecropping
• A tenant farmer who farms land for the owner and
  is paid a share of the value of the yielded crop
• Many white small farmers also lost their land and
  became sharecropping tenants
• By 1880, 80 of the land in the cotton states was
  worked by landless tenants

38
Toward a Crop-Lien Economy

• Rural merchants often sold supplies to
  sharecroppers on credit
• A lien on the tenants share of the crop as
  collateral
• Sharecroppers fell deeper and deeper into debt
• Interest rates were exorbitant, cotton prices
  low, and merchants often dishonest

39
Toward a Crop-Lien Economy (cont.)

• Southern law prohibited their leaving the land
  until they had fully repaid their debt
• Sharecroppers were locked into poverty and
  indebtedness

40
New Concerns in the North, 1868-1876

• Grantism
• Ulysses S. Grant won the presidency in 1868
• Republican
• Popular war hero

41
Grantism (cont.)

• His administration was marred by rampant
  corruption
• Many state and local govts. of the time also had
  corruption
• In 1872, some Republicans broke from Grant and
  formed the Liberal Republican Party
• Disgusted with the scandals

42
The Liberals Revolt

• In 1872, the Liberal Republicans nominated Horace
  Greely for president
• The Democrats endorsed him as well
• The regular Republicans renominated Grant
• Grant won the election
• The split in the Republican ranks seriously
  weakened Republican efforts to remake the South

43
The Panic of 1873

• During Grants 2nd term, the nation suffered a
  financial panic and a severe economic depression
• business failures
• mass unemployment
• heightened labor-management conflict
• disputes over the countrys currency system
• All these issues further divided Republican
  attention from Reconstruction

44
Reconstruction and the Constitution

• The Supreme Court in the last quarter of the
  1800s also undermined Republican Reconstruction
• In a series of decisions, the Supreme Court
  interpreted the 14th and 15th Amendments in a way
  that made them all but useless for protecting
  black citizens
• It declared the Civil Rights and Enforcement Acts
  unconstitutional and upheld state segregation
  laws

45
Republicans in Retreat

• By the 1870s, the Republicans were abandoning
  their Reconstruction policy
• Most of them were more interested in economic
  growth than in protecting black rights
• The Radicals who were committed to biracial
  democracy in the South were dead or had been
  defeated in elections

46
Republicans in Retreat (cont.)

• Many northerners wanted to normalize relations
  with the white South
• They shared the racial belief that blacks were
  inferior to whites, and the federal govt. could
  not force equality

47
Reconstruction Abandoned, 1876-1877

• Redeeming the South
• After 1872, congressional pardons restored voting
  and office-holding rights to all ex-Confederates
• The Democratic Party attempted to redeem the
  South from Republican rule
• These men pardoned and the Souths rising class
  of business entrepreneurs

48
Redeeming the South (cont.)

• By 1876, the Democrats had regained control of
  all the southern states but SC, FL, and LA
• Used economic pressure, intimidation, and
  violence
• Once in power the Democrats
• Cut taxes and public works and services
• passed laws favoring landlords over tenants

49
Redeeming the South (cont.)

• Some blacks responded to the deteriorating
  situation by migrating from the South
• Most were trapped where they were
• Debt and poverty

50
The Election of 1876

• RepublicansRutherford Hayes
• DemocratsSamuel Tilden
• Tilden won the popular vote
• But because of fraud and intimidation at the
  polls, the electoral votes in 4 states were
  disputed

51
The Election of 1876 (cont.)

• A special congressional electoral commission
  awarded all the disputed votes to Hayes
• Commission was stacked in favor of the
  Republicans
• The Democrats refused to accept the finding until
  a compromise deal was worked out by Southern
  Democrats and Republican supporters of Hayes

52
The Election of 1876 (cont.)

• In exchange for southern acceptance of Hayes as
  president, the Republicans promised
• 1.) to let Democrats take over the last
  Republican Reconstruction govts. in LA and SC
• 2.) to remove the remaining troops from the South
• 3.) to give more federal patronage to southern
  Democrats
• 4.) to provide federal aid for building railroads
  and for other internal improvements in the South

53
The Election of 1876 (cont.)

• This so-called Compromise of 1877 struck the
  final blow to Radical Reconstruction
• Also it ended all federal protection for the
  freedmen
• Compromise of 1877--summary and map

54
Conclusion

• By the end of the Reconstruction era the
  Republicans had firm support in the Northeast and
  Midwest
• The Democrats were solidly entrenched in the
  South
• Would remain so for nearly a century

55
Conclusion (cont.)

• Many historians today look back on Reconstruction
  as a democratic experiment that failed
• Partly because Congress did not redistribute land
  to freedmen
• without any property freedmen were too
  economically vulnerable to hold on to their
  political rights

56
Conclusion (cont.)

• Also, it failed because the Republicans were
  unwilling to continue using military force to
  protect blacks and remake southern society
• Reconstruction did leave as a lasting legacy of
  the 14th and 15th Amendments

57
Conclusion (cont.)

• During the brief Reconstruction Era, southern
  blacks
• reunited their families
• created their own institutions
• for the first time participated in govt.