I. The Struggle for National Reconstruction•Reconstruction questions:

▫ How should the South be readmitted?▫ Should leaders be punished?

•Presidential Approaches: From Lincoln to Johnson▫ Lincoln and Johnson had similar plans

Amnesty (pardon) to most Confederates States could be readmitted once 10% of voters in 1860 pledged loyalty and ratified

13th amendment Confederate states rejected

▫ Wade-Davis Bill – Congressional bill calling for a more strict 51% of loyalty No rebels in government and permanent disenfranchisement of CSA leaders Pocket-vetoed by Lincoln

▫ Johnson “Common man” from TN; loyal to Union during CW Offered amnesty to all who swore allegiance, except a few CSA leaders Used pardons heavily for former leaders like Lee and Stephens

▫ Congress stepped in to take control of Reconstruction when: South passed black codes - laws that restricted rights of free blacks Georgia elected Alexander Stephens as their senator

I. The Struggle for National Reconstruction• Congress vs. the President:

▫Freedmen’s Bureau - Provided food, education, and assistance to former slaves and poor whites Its biggest success was in education

▫Civil Rights Act of 1866 granted citizenship to blacks and equal protection

▫Both bills vetoed by AJ but overridden by Congress

▫Fourteenth Amendment – citizenship to all those born in US (made the Act of

1866 permanent)▫Radical Republicans –

Charles Sumner in the Senate, Thaddeus Stevens in the House

• Radical Reconstruction: Aimed to reform the South and increase federal power▫ Reconstruction Act of 1867 – divided the South into 5 districts▫ States must provide suffrage for blacks and deny it to ex-

Confederates▫ The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson:

Violated the Tenure of Office Act: President must get consent of Senate before removing

cabinet members House said he was “infringing on the powers of Congress”

Johnson is impeached, however, he is NOT removed from office

▫ Election of 1868 and the Fifteenth Amendment: Grant wins (war hero ) 15th – Suffrage could not be denied based on “race, color, or

previous condition of servitude” Left room for poll taxes and literacy tests.

I. The Struggle for National Reconstruction

Struggle for National Reconstruction

• Woman Suffrage Denied:▫ Most men opposed women’s suffrage0-even northern men▫ Abolitionists and women’s suffragists had been close allies

before 1865▫ 15th left out “sex”▫ Movement splits:

Lucy Stone and the American Women Suffrage Association hoped to achieve suffrage after Reconstruction

Stanton feared suffrage was not likely near, National Woman Suffrage Association advocated an amendment for women’s suffrage

II. The Meaning of Freedom

The Quest for LandFreed Slaves and Northerners: Conflicting Goals•Many Northerners believed that wage labor would overtake the South-that cotton should still be the primary export and African Americans should be wage workers on plantations. •Former slaves wanted land; most Republicans did not want to confiscate land, though former slaves felt entitled to it; few states developed opportunities for freedmen to purchase land; most were economically vulnerable to discrimination.

Quest for Land…▫Wage Labor and Sharecropping:

Many former slaves had to work for former slave owners since they had no land

**Sharecropping** Renting land and paying via crops If a drought or poor farming hit, tenants would

be in trouble Crop-Lien:

▫Receiving credit from a local store, usually at a HIGH rate (50-60%)

▫Usually led to debt for borrowers (former slaves)

II. The Meaning of Freedom

Republican Governments in the SouthRejoining the Union •All southern states rejoined the Union between 1868 and 1871; •Being protected by federal troops, Republican governments included African Americans•The Southern Republican Party included whites and blacks•In the late 1860s, African Americans made up the majority of voters in AL, FL, SC, and MS. •Union League- a secret organization to pressure Congress for freedmen’s causes; •Freedmen’s Bureau played key role in creating colleges for African Americans (Fisk, Tougaloo, and the Hampton Institute).

Scalawags and carpetbaggersRepublican Governments in the South, cont’d…Scalawags and carpetbaggers

▫ Scalawags: Southerners that favored Reconstruction (mostly for economic reasons)

▫ Carpetbaggers: Northerners that moved South during Reconstruction:

▫ Political opportunities for African Americans increased during Reconstruction: Robert Smalls – former slave, and Civil War hero,

became a Congressman Hiram Revels – 1st African American in the Senate

(Jefferson Davis’ seat)

II. The Meaning of Freedom

C. Building Black Communities1. Churches2. “Race uplift”

III. The Undoing of Reconstruction

Disillusioned Liberals –▫ Revolt emerged within Republican Party; led by “classical liberals” who advocated free trade, smaller government, and limited voting rights; formed the Liberal Republican Party in 1872;▫Leader-Horace Greeley

Progression of the neck beard…

Depression & Demands for Inflation• Panic of 1873

▫ Caused by unbridled capitalist expansion Produced too much – price goes down, businesses

collapse Banks – loans were not being repaid

▫ 15,000 businesses went bankrupt; including the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company ;black Americans lost some $7 million in savings.

▫ Many argued for inflationary policies to make it easier to pay off debts.

Corruption in Grant Adm.

• Credit Mobilier Scandal – 1872▫ Railroad construction

company formed by Union Pacific

▫ Over paid themselves▫ Paid off members of

congress▫ Exposed by NY newspaper

2 congressmen censured VP accepted stock

• Whiskey Ring – 1875▫ Robbed treasury of

millions in excise tax▫ Grant’s private sec

was involved• Sec of War William

Belknap – 1876▫ Pocketed money from

suppliers to Indian resrvations.

III. The Undoing of Reconstruction•Counterrevolution in the South:

Redeemer” governments: Local and state governments that ousted Republican governments Often done through violence and intimidation

KKK terrorized blacks and Republicans▫Enforcement Acts: 1870-1871

Response to the KKK Federal government could intervene to suppress terrorist activities. President could use the military to protect individual rights

III. The Undoing of Reconstruction•Reconstruction Rolled Back

▫Democrats gained control of the House in 1874

▫Most of the country (including the Grant administration) was no longer concerned with the South

▫The Supreme Court Rejects Equal Rights: US v. Cruikshank – court ruled that only state

violations of individual rights were a concern, not individual rights

Civil Rights Cases - 14th Amendment did not prevent private discrimination, only government discrimination

▫The Political Crisis of 1877: Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) v. Samuel Tilden (Democrat)

Tilden received 184 electoral votes to Hays 165; 185 needed to win 20 votes were in dispute

Eventually, all 20 were given to Hayes

Importance of the Compromise of 1877? RECONSTRUCTION ENDS!, The

military is withdrawn from the South

Constitution & Votes •Specifies that the electoral returns

shall be sent to Congress & opened by president of the Senate▫Who should count the votes? Constitution

doesn’t say

Results of the Compromise•Officially ended Reconstruction •Violence was averted by sacrificing

the black freedmen in the South▫Republicans abandoned its commitment

to black equality•Civil Rights Act of 1875 – last try by

Republicans▫Supposedly guaranteed equal

accommodations in public places & prohibited racial discrimination in jury selection

Supreme Court•Declared Civil Rights Act of 1875

unconstitutional in 1883. •Declared that the 14th Amendment

prohibited only government violations of civil rights, not the denial of civil rights by individuals

The Democratic South•Suppressed blacks

▫Blacks who tried to vote faced unemployment, eviction, & physical harm

•1890s – required literacy test, voter registration laws, & poll taxes

•Blacks became economically dependant▫Sharecropping & tenant farming

Compromise of 1877•Created to solve the election deadlock•Electoral Count Act - passed by Congress

▫Set up electoral commission consisting of 15 men selected from the Senate, the House, & the Supreme Court

▫Not successful in solving the problem because there were 8 –R and 7-D

•Democrats agreed to elect Hayes in exchange for:▫Removal of all federal troops in the South▫Subsidizing of a southern transcontinental

railroad line – not kept