Reconstruction

ReconstructionRobert E. Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia – 1865 brought an end to the Civil War.

Reconstruction was the federal government’s plan to rebuild and re-establish the states of the former Confederacy. In short, Reconstruction was the period when the federal government tried to rebuild the South and restore the Union after the Civil War.

"Reconstruction of the South." In this idealized portrait of the free soil and free labor America of the north, Federal generals lead the way toward peace. George Thomas beats swords into plows while Philip Sheridan holds a scythe ready for the harvest. Other generals work a bellows, turn a cannon into water piping to run a mill, and offer jobs to skilled laborers. The freedmen run to educator George Peabody and the white children at his feet who proclaim "Come here and learn to be a citizen." The South would be reconstructed in the mold of this modern America; the patriarchal, agricultural South was to be no more. 1867 lithograph by John Smith of Philadelphia.

ReconstructionThe Civil War and Reconstruction resulted in:

1) Southern white resentment (irritation) toward both Northerners and Southern African-Americans.

2) Reconstruction ultimately led to the political, economic, and social control of the South by whites.

3) Unfortunately, the economic and political gains of former slaves were temporary.

"We Accept the Situation." A Reconstruction political cartoon which depicts the freedman going to cast his vote while the disenfranchised former Confederate glumly looks on. Many southern whites bitterly resented the transfer of political power to their former slaves. Thomas Nast cartoon.

Lincoln’s PlanLincoln believed that since secession was illegal, Confederate governments in the Southern states were illegitimate (not legal governments) and the states had never really left the Union. As a result, Lincoln believed that Reconstruction in the Southern states was a matter of quickly restoring legitimate state governments that were loyal to the Union.

A Thomas Nast cartoon regarding Reconstruction. Here, Columbia is replacing the seceded states in the Union. She has laid down her sword and shield and now proclaims "Let us have peace." She advances under the banner "Equal Rights, With Malice Towards None And Charity To All." This was the symbolic picture of the U.S. now that the war was over and Reconstruction begun.

Lincoln’s PlanLincoln also believed that once the war was over, the federal government should not punish the South. Instead, it should reunify the nation as quickly as possible. In his second inaugural address President Lincoln outlined how he believed the United States government should act during Reconstruction.

President Abraham Lincoln entering Richmond on April 4, 1865, one day after Federal troops had captured the city. Touring the still smoldering ruins of the Confederate capital, Lincoln first visited the Richmond home of Jefferson Davis and sat at his desk. Then, with an escort of only ten sailors, he walked the streets of Richmond, where he was soon surrounded by a crowd of former slaves shouting "Glory to God! Glory! Glory! Glory!" Some reached out to touch Lincoln to make sure he was real. Engraving by J. C. Buttre.

Lincoln’s PlanLincoln said, “With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Lincoln’s AssassinationJust a few days after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.

The executions of Lewis Paine, George Atzerodt, David Herold, and Mary Surratt for their roles in the conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln. A military tribunal was set up to try eight people accused of being Booth's accomplices. All eight were found guilty of having participated in the plot to varying degrees. Three were given life sentences in prison and a fourth was sentenced to six years.

The other four (including Mrs. Surratt, who was probably innocent) were sentenced to die by hanging. Their sentence was carried out on July 7, 1865. The others convicted (with the exception of one who had died in prison) were pardoned by President Andrew Johnson in 1869. Accused conspirator John Surratt was extradited from Egypt in 1866, but was acquitted.

Andrew Johnson Succeeds Lincoln

Vice President Andrew Johnson succeeded

Lincoln as president. Johnson Clashed with the Radical Republicans were members of the Republican party, who wanted to punish the former Confederate states for causing the Civil War.

Radical Republicans believed congress had the constitutional right to control Reconstruction.They gained control of congress and passed policy that included the military occupation of the South, and insistence on civil rights for African Americans

Military ReconstructionThe Military Reconstruction Act of 1867 divided the former Confederate states into five military districts. The occupation forces were to guarantee that Federal Reconstruction policies were followed. This legislation also turned out the

sitting state governments which had very closely resembled the southern state governments of 1861. New elections were scheduled and new state constitutions were to be drawn up, incorporating the 13th and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution and giving freedmen the vote, before the states could be readmitted to the Union.

A southern legislature during the "Carpetbagger" days. An engraving from a drawing by A. Bertall.

Military ReconstructionThe Radical Republicans refused to allow the Confederate states to reenter the Union until they had undergone a period of military occupation.

In other words, the former Confederate states under the rule of a general in the U.S. Army, and American military troops remained stationed in the South.

Civil Rights for African Americans

The Radical Republicans, who controlled Congress, repeatedly clashed with President Johnson over the issue of civil rights for freedmen (freed slaves). Johnson, who had succeeded Lincoln as president, was a native of Tennessee, racially prejudiced, and unwilling to extend citizenship rights to former slaves.

The Provost Guard in New Orleans rounding up vagrant former slaves, 1864. What alarmed many Radical Republicans about the state governments created under Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction plans was their treatment of newly freed African Americans. Such persons' freedom was sharply curtailed in states like Louisiana by codes and vagrancy laws that were designed to keep freedmen under tight control, working primarily as unskilled laborers.

Johnson’s ImpeachmentThe Radical Republicans became so frustrated with Johnson’s efforts to prevent their program on behalf of freedmen that the House of Representatives impeached him. However, the United States Senate failed by one vote to remove President Johnson from office.

ImpeachmentImpeachment - bringing an official to trial for misconduct Under the Constitution – the act of Impeachment means bringing formal charges it is not a convictionImpeachment is one of the checks the Legislative branch has over the executive branch.Only the House or Representatives brings formal charges (impeaches)Only the Senate can remove the President because it sits as the jury at the President’s impeachment. If two-thirds of the senators vote to convict the president, then he is removed from office.Radical Republicans fail to remove Andrew Johnson from office by a single vote.

Impeachment Results

Weakens Johnson’s PresidencyEnables Radical Republicans to pass most of their Reconstruction into law

Included the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the US Constitution

Note – The 13th Amendment was passed before Lincoln was assassinated, but is included as part of the Radical Republican Agenda

Civil War AmendmentsTo carry out their program to help African-Americans the Radical Republicans added three amendments to the United States Constitution. These three amendments, known as the “Civil War Amendments”, were a major political result of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Thirteenth AmendmentThe Thirteenth Amendment permanently abolished (ended) African-American slavery in the United States.

House of Representatives on January 31, 1865, voted for the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery.

Ratified by three-fourths of the states on December 18, 1865, removing any lingering doubt about the legality of emancipation.

President Andrew Johnson, who had succeeded Lincoln as president, reluctantly agreed to include ratification of this amendment as a requirement for readmission of the former Confederate states to the Union as part of his reconstruction plan.

Fourteenth Amendment

In other words, the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited the states from denying any American equal rights under the law.

The Fourteenth Amendment granted American citizenship to all African-Americans and said no state could “deny…any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

A New York City African-American parade in support of the 15th Amendment, April 1870.

Fifteenth AmendmentThe Fifteenth Amendment gave African-American males the right to vote by guaranteeing voting rights regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” (slavery).

Civil Rights for African Americans

Second, the Radical Republicans also believed in aggressively guaranteeing voting and other civil rights to African-Americans.

A primary school for freedmen at Vicksburg, Mississippi. An important part of Radical Reconstruction was the passage of the Freedmen's Bureau Bill. Established on March 3, 1865, this Bureau played an important role in helping the former slaves adjust to their new lives.

Civil War/ReconstructionSocial and Economic Results

First, the Southern states were left devastated during the Civil War. Farms, railroads, and factories had been destroyed throughout the SouthConfederate money was worthlessCities of Richmond and Atlanta lay in ruins.

Civil War/ReconstructionSocial and Economic Results

Labor force in the South changed. Many land owners died during the war and slavery ended South would remain the poorest section for decades. This 1884 scene on a Mississippi cotton plantation reflected southern agricultural practices and a society that had changed little since before the war.

Civil War/ReconstructionSocial and Economic Results

SecondBecause manufacturing necessary to

support the Northern war machine, the North and Midwest had developed strong industrial economies

Growth in industry contributedto the industrialization of the entire nation, except the South By the 20th century, the US becomes a global economic

power

Third,First Transcontinental

Railroad completed at Promontory, Utah. (Transcontinental – across the continent)

Linked the Atlantic and Pacific coasts

Encouraged the westward movement of settlers into the states between the Mississippi River and

Atlantic Ocean

Civil War/ReconstructionSocial and Economic Results

A Union Pacific Railroad advertisement for the grand opening of the first transcontinental railroad, May 10, 1869. The railroad barons' race to complete a transcontinental rail passage was interrupted by the Civil War, but resumed almost immediately after Appomattox.

Important Figures During Reconstruction

Grant LeeGrant Urged Radical

Republicans not to be harsh with former Confederates

Grant elected President in 1868 and served during most of the Reconstruction Period

He supported civil and voting rights for the freedmen and opposed payback for the defeated South

Encouraged South to reconcile with the North.

President of Washington College (Now Washington & Lee University)

Emphasized the importance of education

Both Robert E Lee and Ulysses S. Grant urged reconciliation between the North and South

Important Figures During Reconstruction

Became leading spokesperson for African Americans

Argued for full equality and adoption of the 14th and 15th amendments.

Encouraged federal government actions to protect rights of freedmen in the South

Served as ambassador to HaitiHeld other jobs in the federal civil

service (Civil Service jobs are Government jobs)

Frederick

Douglass

Electoral College Under the Constitution, the electoral college is the group of people who cast the official votes that elect the President and Vice President. A candidate must win a majority of electoral votes to win.A state’s number of electoral votes equals its total representation in Congress, which is its number of members in the House of Representatives plus two for its U.S. senators.Electoral votes are the official votes for President.

A map of the votes in the 1876 election. The election was extremely close, resting on the contested election returns from four states.

Election of 1876The Reconstruction period ended following the extremely close presidential election of 1876. In return for support in the electoral vote from Southern Democrats, the Republicans agreed to end the military occupation of the South.

Rutherford B. Hayes

Compromise of 1877Because the election was contested, a group of

Southern Congressmen made a deal with Republican leaders

Known as the Compromise of 1877, Southern Democrats agreed to accept Rutherford B. Hayes as elected (Republican) President in return to end of Reconstruction in the South

This political deal returned former Confederates who controlled the Democratic party to power in the Southern states. This forms the “Solid South” which will from then on vote for Democratic candidates in their

elections.

Jim Crow EraThe end of Reconstruction opened the door to the “Jim Crow Era,” the period in which Southern states required racial segregation (separation) of blacks and whites in public schools, transportation, and other public facilities.

This sharecropper plowing his field in 1901 would have been disenfranchised by poll taxes and "grandfather clauses," and rigidly segregated by "Jim Crow" laws in schools, hotels, hospitals, and other public facilities.

Jim Crow EraDuring the era of Jim Crow, African-Americans in the South lost most of the political gains they had made during Reconstruction, including the right to vote and sit on juries. In short, Reconstruction’s end marked the beginning of a long period in which African-Americans in the South were denied the full rights of American citizenship.

Established in 1866 as a social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, the Klan soon took on a more sinister role as the terror arm of the Democratic party in the South. Made up of white men from all classes of southern society, its members disguised themselves, in robes and hoods, intimidating and killing African Americans and white members of the Republican party. The Klan's goal was to reestablish white supremacy by overthrowing the Reconstruction governments.