Reconstruction (pt. 1) (Presidential Reconstruction)

Reconstruction & the South

• Reconstruction

  • Period from 1865-1877 in the South, proved to be a time of testing for American values

• The Civil War secured liberty for black Americans

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Introduction

• Some Americans were determined to also give former slaves, or freedmen, equality and the opportunity to prosper.

• For Northerners, life after the war was not much different from life before the war

• Little Northern property had been damaged in the war

  • Soldiers could return to their farms or their jobs

• Immigration continued to add to the Northern population

• The situation in the South was different

  • The South had lost many of its young men and slavery no longer existed; its labor force was disrupted

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Reconstruction & The South

Reconstruction & the south

• The South also suffered severe property damage

  • The war left many Southern cities--including Atlanta, Columbia, and Richmond--in ruins

• The South's plantation system was dead

Reconstruction & the south

• Confederate money was worthless

• Black Southerners, numbering about four million, were now free

  • They faced challenges integrating

  • They had no money

Reconstruction & the south

• A number of laws limited the kind of work freed slaves could pursue

• They sought political & social equality, but often faced violence

• They South had to reestablish its state governments

• Officially, Reconstruction covered the twelve years from 1865 to 1877

• The period can be divided into 3 phases:

  • Presidential Reconstruction

  • Congressional Reconstruction

  • Bourbon Reconstruction

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Phases of Reconstruction

pHASE 1: Presidential Reconstruction

• The period during which Presidents Abraham Lincoln & Andrew Johnson directed the Reconstruction process was known as Presidential Reconstruction.

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Under Lincoln

Lincoln's Plan

10 Percent Plan

• December 1863

  • Lincoln formulated the Ten Percent Plan for restoring the South

    • Military governor was to reestablish a civilian government as soon as ten percent of those who had voted in the 1860 election took an oath of allegiance to the Union

  • Lincoln appointed a governor for each captured state

• The plan offered pardons to most former Confederates who would swear to support the Constitution and the Union

• Radical Republicans resisted Lincoln's plan

  • Influential minority in the Republican Party that believed those who led the South during the Civil War should not be allowed to return to power

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Radical Republicans Rejections

Radical Republican's Rejections

• The South would receive more votes in Congress than before the war because freed blacks would count as full persons

• Radical Republicans worried that the Southern Democrats would align with Northern Democrats and gain control of the national government

  • They wanted to secure political and civil rights for black Americans

• Radicals also opposed the increase of presidential powers

Radical Republican's Rejections

• 1864

  • Congress developed its own Reconstruction plan: the Wade-Davis Bill

  • Lincoln believed it was too harsh and vetoed the bill

Wade-Davis Bill

• Congressional plan for Reconstruction requiring more than 50% of white male citizens to take an oath of allegiance to the Union before a state would be allowed to reenter; plan requiring states to abandon slavery and any claims on the federal government to repay war debts; states had to agree that former Confederate military and political leaders would not be allowed to vote or hold office

• Johnson opposed Tennessee's vote to secede in 1861

• He was the only Southern Senator not to resign his Senate seat

• Lincoln named him military governor of the state of Tennessee

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Under Johnson

Johnson's Plan

• Johnson's plan was to first offer amnesty to Southerners who would swear loyalty to the Union

  • A group pardon

• Southerners with large properties had to apply to him personally for a pardon

• Unpardoned Southerners could not vote, hold office, or reclaim property

Johnson's Plan

• He planned to appoint temporary state governors to hold state conventions

• Those conventions would draft new state constitutions that would refuse to pay Confederate debt and would adopt the Thirteenth Amendment

  • Abolished slavery

• While following Johnson's plan, no Southern states gave voting rights to blacks

• They began instituting black codes

  • Restrictive laws passed in southern states that placed African Americans in an inferior position to white people

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​Black Codes

• Republicans believed Johnson's plan was flawed

• They insisted it did not address all the issues and noted its numerous shortcomings

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Radical Republicans React

Radical Republicans React

1. The Radical Republicans had long believed that black Americans should be not only freed from slavery but also given full rights of citizenship

2. Southern states would not have more power in national government

3. When Southern states held their elections in late 1865, most of them elected former confederates

• Congress refused to seat the newly elected Southern representatives

• The moderate and Radical Republicans formed their own committee on Reconstruction

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​Congressional Reconstruction

• His administration achieved some accomplishments in foreign affairs

• Most significant was Alaska

  • 1867 - William Seward secretly negotiated a treaty with Russia to purchase Alaska

  • Noted as "Seward's Folly" by news

• Seward also signed a treaty of friendship and commerce with China in 1868

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Johnson & Foreign Affairs

The Fourteenth Amendment

• Granted full citizenship to black Americans

The Fourteenth Amendment

1. All Americans are citizens of both the nation and the states where they reside

2. A state's representation would be based on its whole population

3. Those who had sworn an oath to support the Constitution and had broken that oath by supporting the Confederacy were barred from holding government offices

4. Congress would not pay any Confederate debts