The Crisis of Reconstruction

1
The Crisis of Reconstruction

• Chapter 16
• 1865-1877

2
Introduction

• How did the Radical Republicans gain control over
  reconstructing the South and what was the impact
  of their program on the ex-Confederates, o0ther
  white southerners and southern blacks?
• How did freed blacks remake their lives after
  emancipation?
• What brought about an end to Reconstruction?
  Should it be considered a success or failure? Why?

3
Lincolns Plan

• Differences began to emerge as early as 1863
  between Congressional Reconstruction and
  Lincolns plan
• December 1863 Lincoln issued a plan that would
  allow a state to re-enter the Union with 10 of
  the voting population taking an oath of loyalty
  to the Union and a recognition of the end of
  slavery
• Lincoln hoped that this plan would draw southern
  Unionists into the Republican party and stir
  sentiment against the war in the South
• Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill that required
  50 of voters to take the oath of loyalty and
  excluded those from participation that had
  supported the Confederacy
• Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill and he and
  Congress were still at an impasse at the time of
  Lincolns death

4
Presidential Reconstruction Under Johnson

• President Andrew Johnson announced his
  Reconstruction Plan in May of 1865
• Southern whites had to take an oath of
  allegiance, proclaim secession illegal, repudiate
  Confederate debt and ratify the 13th Amendment.
• Whites who held office in the Confederacy or who
  owned a taxable property of 20,000 plus had to
  apply for a Presidential Pardon
• By the summer of 1865 Johnson had handed out
  pardons wholesale and many of the new governments
  created by Johnsons plan were in reality the
  same governments that existed in the South before
  and during the war.
• Southern governments quickly passed legislation
  to limit freedmen called Black Codes
• Republican congress refused to recognize the new
  state governments

5
Congress versus Johnson

• Radical Republicans wanted to punish the South
  for the war, and create a biracial South
• The majority of Republicans were moderates who
  only wanted to protect the basic rights of blacks
• Moderates passed the Freedmens Bureau and Civil
  Rights Act of 1866 which were vetoed by President
  Johnson
• Moderates and Radicals joined together to
  override the Presidential veto

6
The 14th Amendment

• The Amendment stated that all persons born in the
  US were naturalized citizens.
• No one could deny a persons rights without due
  process of law
• States that refused the rights of black men could
  see their representation in Congress reduced
• Former Confederate officials were denied the
  right to participate unless pardoned by a 2/3
  volte of Congress
• The Southern States with exception of Tennessee
  refused to ratify the Amendment and Johnson
  denounced it. 1866 Republicans won a huge
  majority in Congress allowing them to force
  passage of the amendment and proceed with
  Congressional Reconstruction

7
Congressional Reconstruction

• 1867-1868 Congress enacts a Reconstruction Plan
  over the veto of president Johnson
• All state governments that had been restored by
  Johnson were invalidated
• The Southern states minus Tennessee were divided
  into military districts
• Each southern state was required to write a new
  Constitution enfranchising black men and
  ratifying the 14th Amendment
• When these things were done, a state could
  reapply for statehood
• Radicals also wanted to confiscate southern land
  and redistribute it to freedmen
• President Johnson drug his feet as Commander in
  Chief of the military and Congress determined
  that it must do something to deal with him.

8
The Impeachment Crisis, 1867-1868

• In March of 1867 Congress passed the Tenure of
  Office Act to limit Presidential authority
• President Johnson violated the Act by firing
  Secretary of War Stanton
• Republicans began impeachment proceedings
• The vote to removed the President fell one short
  in the Senate

9
The 15th Amendment and the Question of Womens
Suffrage, 1869-1870

• The Amendment said that the right to vote could
  not be denied based upon race, color or previous
  condition of servitude
• The Republicans hoped that this would protect
  southern blacks, extend voting rights to northern
  blacks and gain new voters to the Party
• Congress refused to include women in the
  amendment which angered feminists
• By 1877 all three amendments had be ratified and
  all of the southern states had re-entered the
  Union.

10
A New Electorate

• The new laws temporarily enfranchised black males
  and disenfranchised about 15 of white males
• The new electorate put Republican government in
  power in the South made up of carpetbaggers,
  scalawags and blacks

11
Republican Rule

• Property and Racial qualifications were abolished
  for voting and office holding
• State legislatures were re-districted
• Public works, public schools were established
• Taxes rose to pay for new public projects
• Southern landowners bitterly opposed these
  measures

12
Counterattacks

• Southern Democrats bitterly opposed and refused
  to cooperate with the Republican governments
• Vigilante groups began to form and used violence
  and threats to intimidate blacks, Freedmens
  Bureau officials and white Republicans
• Congress passed the Enforcement Acts to suppress
  the Democrats
• By the 1870s President Grant and the Congress
  were no longer willing to use military force in
  the South

13
Confronting Freedom

• Freedmen, usually lacking land, tools, money or
  literacy searched for family members
• Many legitimized their marriages and raised their
  families as best they could
• Many returned to the plantations because they had
  no where else to go

14
Black Institutions

• Black churches, schools and social organizations
  were founded to help blacks
• Freedmens Bureau helped form Howard, Atlanta and
  Fisk Universities
• Charles Sumners Civil Rights Act of 1875 failed
  to end segregation and was later invalidated by
  the Supreme Court

15
Land, Labor, Sharecropping

• Moderate Republicans refused to take and
  redistribute land
• Planters cam up with a new system of labor that
  relied upon tenantry
• By 1880 80 of Southern lands were worked by
  landless tenants

16
Toward a Crop-Lien Economy

• Rural merchants sold supplies to sharecroppers on
  credit
• Tenants paid off debts by lien agreement
• The crop was collateral
• Interest rates were high, cotton prices were low,
  merchants were sometimes dishonest- sharecroppers
  typically fell deeper into debt
• Southern law prevented a person from leaving the
  land without paying their debt so sharecroppers
  were typically locked into a cycle of debt

17
Grantism

• Ulysses S. Grant won the Presidency in 1868 as a
  Republican
• His administration was marred with corruption as
  were many of the state and local governments as
  well
• In 1872 Republicans split over the issue of
  corruption and the Liberal Republican Party was
  formed

18
The Liberals Revolt

• Liberals nominate Horace Greeley for President
• Democrats endorse Greely as well
• Republicans nominate Grant for re-election
• Grants wins but Republican power is weakened

19
The Panic of 1873

• Nation suffers a financial crisis
• Financial Panic, mass unemployment dispute over
  the currency
• Republicans are further divided

20
Reconstruction and the Constitution

• Supreme Court made a series of rulings that
  undermined the Reconstruction Amendments
• Slaughterhouse Cases- National Citizenship and
  State Citizenship are not the same
• Supreme Court ruled Civil Rights Act of 1875 and
  Enforcement Acts as Unconstitutional

21
Republicans in Retreat

• Republicans more interested in the economy than
  equal rights
• Many northerners wanted to normalize relations
  with the South
• Corruption in Grants administration and state
  and local governments was attributed to the
  Republicans

22
Redeeming the South

• 1872 pardons restored voting and citizenship
  rights to ex-Confederates
• Souths ruling class rose to redeem the South
  from Republican rule
• Economic pressure, intimidation and violence were
  used to regain control of all of the Southern
  states but South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida
  by 1876
• Democrats cut taxes, public works and services
  and passed laws favoring landlords
• Some blacks migrated North

23
The Election of 1876

• Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes
• Democrats nominated Samuel Tilden
• Tilden won the popular vote but 4 states were
  disputed
• Republicans in Congress awarded all of disputed
  states to Hayes
• Compromise was worked out to
• Let Democrats take over governments in Louisiana,
  South Carolina and Florida
• Remaining troops removed from the South
• Federal Aid for internal improvements in the
  South