CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION

1
CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION

• Chapter 13 Section 2

2
Moderates vs. Radicals

• Radicals were led by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles
  Sumner
• Main issue that divided Republicans was African
  American suffrage
• Frederick Douglass was important supporter of
  freed slaves rights, African American suffrage
  he was also a former slave

3
Congress vs. Johnson

• Moderate Republicans and Radical Republicans
  joined forces against Johnson
• They extended the Freedmans Bureau that was set
  up to aid millions of homeless and hungry
  Southerners after the Civil War
• Civil Rights Act of 1866 guaranteed that
  everyone born in the U.S. was a citizen with full
  civil rights but not voting rights
• 14th Amendment equal citizenship to all people
  born or naturalized in U.S. and prohibited
  states from denying anyone life, liberty, or
  property without due process of the law also
  promised equal protection of the law

4
Radicals Come to Power

• Elections of 1866 gave Radicals control of
  Congress and control of Reconstruction
• Reconstruction Acts of 1866 divided South into
  5 military districts with Union troops stationed
  in each district to enforce order required
  states to ratify 14th Amendment for re-admission

5
Johnson Impeached

• To protect Reconstruction policies, Tenure of
  Office Act, which required Senate approval before
  the President could remove an appointed official
• Johnson thought the Act was unconstitutional and
  tested it by removing Secretary of War Edwin
  Stanton
• House of Representatives then voted to impeach
  Johnson, but failed to prove charges the Senate
  voted to acquit Johnson

6
Election of 1868

• Republicans nominated Ulysses S. Grant for
  President and he was elected he lacked political
  experience but was a popular war hero
• Election was significant because African American
  voters had decidedly swung the election in favor
  of the Republicans

7
15th Amendment

• Now in power, the Republicans drafted the 15th
  Amendment
• It gave the right to vote to all citizens
• Passed in 1869, ratified in 1870
• Failed to guarantee African Americans the right
  to hold public office and protect them from
  discriminatory voting requirements
• Also failed to the right to vote to women