Reconstruction Fall 2009

A PEOPLE & A NATION EIGHTH EDITION Chapter 16: Reconstruction: An Unfinished Revolution, 1865–1877

Q. What was the most important political question facing the nation immediately after the War Between The States? • A. How to bring the southern states back into the nation • Q. What was the most important social question facing the nation immediately after the War Between The States? • A. How to assimilate four million former slaves into freedom and citizenship

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Ch.16: Reconstruction, 1865– 1877 • Dramatic social/political/legal changes • President & Congress clash over process and nature of Reconstruction • New amendments to the Constitution • Yet, key developments block full potential of Reconstruction • Return of Democratic control to South, thwarted efforts to bring equality to freedmen, & eventual northern indifference

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Sections of this Lecture • 1. Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan: 1863–1865 • 2. Presidential Reconstruction: 1865– 1867 • 3. Radical Reconstruction: 1867–1877 • 4. The Postwar South and the Black Codes: 1865–1877 • 5. Grant’s Presidency: 1869–1876 • 6. The End of Reconstruction: 1873–1877 4

Section 1

Lincoln’s 10 Percent Plan, 18631865 5

The North after the War • Lost = 360,000 • Gained – Republican party ascendancy o o o o o

Protective Tariff National Bank, 1862 Government Loans to Industry Homestead Act, 1862 Transcontinental Railroad, 1862-1869

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The South after the War • Lost = 258,000 / proportionally higher losses than North • Cities burned • Fields laid waste or too late to plant • The war destroyed 1/2 the region’s farm equipment, 1/3 of its draft animals • Slavery ended and new labor relations were needed • The South was technically at the mercy of the other states. Political suicide? Conquered territory? 7

Richmond in Ruins, 1865

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Richmond 1865

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Competing Plans (1863) • Debate on restoring Union begin during war • Fearing guerrilla war after South’s defeat, Lincoln favor leniency with swift process • Lincoln announces lenient policy in 1863 • Congress resents Lincoln’s effort to control • Congressmen seek to condition readmission to Union on black suffrage • Congress mistrusts white Southerners 10

The President Versus Congress • The North split on reconstructing the South • White House seeks speedy Reconstruction with minimum changes in the South • Congress seeks slower Reconstruction, demands protection for freedmen

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Lincoln’s 10 % Plan • 10 percent of southern voters in 1860 take an oath of allegiance to the U.S. • States vote to end slavery • All but a few Confederate leaders and military leaders able to hold office; simple loyalty oath • No African American participation • Not accepted by Congress • Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau, March 3, 1865. It lasted until 1870. 12

Rep. Thaddeus Stevens believed in the conquered province theory

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Wade-Davis Bill • Majority of southern voters take an oath of allegiance. • Southern states repudiate war debts • No one who supported the Confederacy could vote or hold office • End slavery but no provision for black voters • Pocket vetoed by President Lincoln 14

Lincoln’s 10 % Plan, 1863-65 • Events o 1863 Lincoln issues Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction o 1864 Congress passes Wade-Davis Bill; Lincoln pocket-vetoes it o 1865 Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse o Congress creates Freedmen’s Bureau o Lincoln is assassinated; Johnson becomes president 15

13th Amendment • Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. • Section 2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 16

AMA missionary teaching in a Freedmen’s Bureau school, 1866

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Lincoln’s funeral procession Pennsylvania Avenue, April 1865.

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Section 2

Presidential Reconstruction, 1865-1867 19

Andrew Johnson at the Helm

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Johnson’s Restoration Plan • Excluded voters worth more than $20,000 • Gave pardons to excluded individuals • Restored property rights to white land owners • States must ratify 13th Amendment • Recommended limited suffrage for black voters

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Johnson’s Racism, Leniency, & Pardons (1865) • Rejecting black suffrage, Johnson refuses to force southern states to extend the vote • Initially bars planters from voting/politics • But when planters take control of new state conventions, Johnson accepts them • Pardons planters & restores their land • Johnson wants their support for 1866 elections • Declares Reconstruction over (Dec. 1865) 22

Congress vs. Johnson (1866) • Johnson’s refusal to compromise pushes conservatives & moderates toward Radicals • Numerous attacks on blacks (riots in Memphis, New Orleans) also influence Congress • Congress overrides vetoes to continue Freedman’s Bureau & pass Civil Rights Act of 1866, first civil rights act • Congress also drafts new amendment • A compromise between different Republicans

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XIVth Amendment • Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 24

XIVth Amendment • Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty25 one years of age in such State.

XIVth Amendment • Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of twothirds of each House, remove such disability. 26

XIVth Amendment • Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. • Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. 27

Presidential Reconstruction, 1865-67 • Events o o o o o o

1865 Lincoln is assassinated; Johnson becomes president Congress establishes Joint Committee on Reconstruction 1866 Johnson vetoes renewal of Freedmen’s Bureau charter Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1866 over Johnson’s veto Congress drafts Fourteenth Amendment Johnson delivers “Swing Around the Circle” speeches 28

Johnson Breaks with Republicans • Republicans pass Fourteenth Amendment • Johnson’s National Union party runs against Republican congressmen in elections • Elections of 1866 strengthen Republicans

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Section 3

Radical Reconstruction, 1867-1877 30

Radical Reconstruction, 1867-1877 • Events o 1867 Congress passes First and Second Reconstruction Acts Congress passes Tenure of Office Act o 1868 House of Representatives impeaches Andrew Johnson Senate acquits Johnson Fourteenth Amendment is ratified Ulysses S. Grant is elected president o 1870 Fifteenth Amendment is ratified 31

Radical Reconstruction, 1867-1877 • Key People o Andrew Johnson - 17th U.S. president; impeached by the House of Representatives in 1868 but later acquitted by the Senate o Edwin M. Stanton - Secretary of War under Lincoln and Johnson; was dismissed by Johnson, prompting House Republicans to impeach Johnson o Ulysses S. Grant - 18th U.S. president; formerly a Union general and, briefly, secretary of war under Johnson 32

Congressional Reconstruction Plan • Despite divisions, Congress asserts its authority to shape Reconstruction policy • Northern Democrats support Johnson • Conservative Republicans favor action, but not extensive activism pushed by Radicals • Radicals (a minority) want to help former slaves (vote/land) and democratize South • Moderate Republicans in between

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Congress Takes the Initiative • Congress insists on black suffrage • Mixed motives o o o

Republicans expect to get black vote Ideological commitment to equal rights Fear that South would fall under great planter control without black suffrage

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Johnson (1866) & Reconstruction Act of 1867 • President tour North to argue against 14th • Northerners reject him; re-elect moderates & radicals with mandate to continue activity

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Congressional Reconstruction Plan Enacted • Reconstruction Acts passed • South under military rule until black suffrage fully secured • Split over duration of federal protection o o

Radicals saw need for long period Most wish military occupation to be short

• Assumption: black suffrage sufficient to empower freedmen to protect themselves

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Radical Reconstruction, 1867-1877 • 1867 Act replaces “Johnson governments” • Under military supervision, black men gain suffrage; Confederate leaders not allowed in politics; & South must accept 14th • Radicals unable to confiscate planter land

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Land Redistribution; Constitutional Crisis • Radicals recognize land necessary for former slaves to be truly independent • Moderates & conservatives reject taking private property from planters • Severely limit independence of ex-slaves • Congress pass controversial laws to restrict Johnson’s interference • Limit power over army, Tenure of Office Act 38

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Impeachment of Johnson; Election of 1868 • Besides many vetoes, Johnson remove military officers who support Congress • For first time Congress try to remove a president for “high crimes”/abuses of power • Most senators vote to remove Johnson, but Radicals miss 2/3 majority by 1 vote • Grant (Republican) wins; Democrats conduct openly racist campaign 40

Section 4

The Postwar South and Black Codes, 1865-1877 41

The Postwar South and the Black Codes: 1865–1877 Events • 1865 Southern states begin to issue black codes • 1866 Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1866 Ku Klux Klan forms • 1867 Radical Reconstruction begins Congress passes First Reconstruction Act • 1868 Fourteenth Amendment is ratified • 1870 Fifteenth Amendment is ratified • 1871 Congress passes Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871

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Meanings of Freedom • • • • •

Ex-slaves celebrate freedom (Decoration Day) Act with caution because of white hostility/ power Most end up working for former masters But relocate homes & try to control their labor Tremendous efforts to reunite families and to live together as family & community • Create all-black settlements to avoid white interference & allow personal freedom

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Freedpeople’s Desire for Land & Education • • • •

Recognize land necessary for independence Most whites reject land redistribution Johnson return much land to planters US Gov’t sell some coastal lands (SC & GA), but lots too big for ex-slaves to afford • Ex-slaves devote time & money to education • Freedman’s Bureau & northern reformers help • Start black schools & colleges in South

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Black Churches • Secret slave churches move into open; other congregations begin when blacks organize their own congregations • Become central to black communities • Most become either Methodist or Baptist • Establish independent branches

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Faith Memorial Church, Hagley Landing, South Carolina • Churches became a center of African American life, both social and political, during and after Reconstruction. Churches large and small, like this one, Faith Memorial Church in Hagley Landing, South Carolina, became the first black-owned institutions for the postfreedom generation. 46 Aunt Phebe, Uncle Tom and Others: Character Studies Among the Old Slaves of the South Fifty Years After by Essie Collins Matthews

Sharecropping • Lack of black land ownership & white refusal to rent land, push freedpeople to sharecropping • An ex-slave provides labor to raise crop • Landowner usually provides land, house, tools, seed, and credit at “commissary” • At harvest split/share crop with land owner • Crop-lien system & cycle of debt 47

The Debt Spiral of Sharecropping • Many white yeomen become sharecroppers because loss of land through debt • Ex-slave use his part of crop to pay for earlier loans from landlord/merchant • Ever-increasing debt develops for ex-slave as his portion of crop fails to pay for loans (or through poor money skills) • Southern farmers, incl. sharecroppers, grow cotton, but cotton prices decline (late 1800s) sharecropper would still be liable for cost of seed & credit extended (and owner would be out the cost as well) 48

Plantation Commissary & Ledger Book, Mississippi, 1868

• Sharecropping became an oppressive system in the postwar South. At plantation stores like this one, photographed in Mississippi in 1868, merchants recorded in their ledger books debts that few sharecroppers were able to repay.

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Amistad Center for Art & Culture, Hartford, Connecticut, Simpson Collection

Carpetbaggers, Scalawags, Corruption • Southerners attack Republicans w/ label “Carpetbaggers” for migrants from North • Ignore that most migrants want to help South • Discredit southern white Republicans as “Scalawags” • Most = yeoman farmers pursuing class interests, not racial equality • Both parties engage in corruption, but Democrats tar Republicans with it

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Ku Klux Klan (start in TN, 1866) • Rapid spread of terrorist organization = deathblow to Reconstruction in South • Attack Republican leaders (white & black) • Harassment, beatings, rape, arson, murder • Planters organize KKK units to regain power with return of Democratic Party control

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Nathan Bedford Forrest, the KKK, and the End of Reconstruction

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Klu Klux Klan Lynching, 1868-1871 • During Reconstruction, especially the years 1868– 1871, the Ku Klux Klan, and other groups like them, terrorized and murdered blacks as well as white unionists or Republicans. Their goals were to destroy black community development and Republican political power.

53 Harper’s Weekly, March 23, 1867

Black Codes • North is upset by return of planter control and their defiance (slow to repudiate secession) • Northern frustration grows when southern governments merely revise old slave laws • Place numerous restrictions on ex-slaves • To North, South seems unrepentant • Congress refuses to recognize southern governments & challenge Johnson’s leniency

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Triumph of Republican Governments • New southern constitutions (1869–70) more democratic w/ reforms (public education) • Republicans, including some blacks, win election to new governments in South • Republicans, esp. blacks, advocate leniency to ex-Confederates • Realize whites = majority & planters own best land • Not disfranchise planters or take their land

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The South’s New Leadership in 1867 • • • • •

¼ of the South’s males were ineligible to vote Who could vote? Black Republicans White Unionists of the South (Scalawags) White northerners who came to the South (Carpetbaggers) • By 1872 most all white males could vote due to Congressional amnesty to former Confederates

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Political Reconstruction in the South • 1867--Southern Republican party organized o o o

Businesspeople want government aid White farmers want protection from creditors Blacks form majority of party, want social and political equality

• Republican coalition unstable • Republicans break up when whites leave

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Republican Policies; The Myth of “Negro Rule” • • • • •

Promote industry with loans, tax exemptions Establish public schools White Republicans reject integration Debate among African American Republicans White southerners claim blacks dominate new governments; claim = myth • 400 participate, but blacks do not hold office in proportion to share of populace

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Southern Republican Rule • Republicans improve public education, welfare, and transportation • Republican state legislatures corrupt Whites control most Radical state governments o African-Americans given blame for corruption o

• Most significant mistake of Republicans in DC and in South = no land programs

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Blanche Bruce

Hiram Revels Two U.S. Senators from Mississippi

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The New South • Southern "Redeemers" favor commerce, manufacturing over agriculture • Gain power by doctrine of white supremacy • Redeemers seek to make South a modern, industrial society

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Redeemer Regimes • Welcome Northern investment, control of the Southern economy • Neglect problems of small farmers • Begin process of legal segregation • Work to deny voting rights to blacks

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Section 5

Grant’s Presidency, 1869-1877

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Grant’s Presidency, 1869-1877

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Grant’s Presidency: 1869-1877 • Events o 1868 Ulysses S. Grant is elected president o 1869 Fisk-Gould Gold scheme evolves o 1871 Tweed Ring is exposed o 1872 Liberal Republican Party emerges Grant is reelected Crédit Mobilier scandal is exposed o 1873 Depression of 1873 hits o 1874 Whiskey Ring scandal occurs o 1875 Congress passes Resumption Act

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Grant’s Presidency: 1869-1877 • Key People o o o

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Ulysses S. Grant - 18th U.S. president; served two terms marred by corruption and scandal Horatio Seymour - Former governor of New York; 1868 Democratic presidential nominee William “Boss” Tweed - Corrupt Democratic politician from New York who took advantage of immigrants and the poor, promising improved public works in exchange for votes Samuel J. Tilden - Famous New York prosecutor who brought down “Boss” Tweed in 1871 on corruption charges; later ran for president in 1876 Horace Greeley - Former New York Tribune editor; Democratic and Liberal Republican nominee for president in 1872

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President Grant; 15th Amendment (1869–1870) • Vacillates in supporting Reconstruction • At times uses troops to quell white violence • Demobilization leaves few troops in South (“military rule” = myth) • Radicals push 15th to protect black male suffrage, but it does not guarantee right to vote • North want ability to deny suffrage to women & other groups (Chinese) 67

XVth Amendment • Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. • Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 68

Spoilsmen Versus Reformers • Rumors of corruption during Grant's first term discredit Republicans • 1872--Grant wins reelection over Liberal Republican, Democrat Horace Greeley • Grant’s second term rocked by scandal

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Rise of the Money Question • Grant elected 1868, 1872 as war hero • Panic of 1873 raises “the money question” Debtors seek inflationary monetary policy by continuing circulation of "greenbacks" o Creditors, intellectuals support hard money o

• 1875--government commits to hard money • 1876--Greenback party formed, makes gains in congressional races

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Liberal Republican Revolt (1872) • Oppose continued US intervention in South • Bolt party w/ their own nominee (Greeley) • Grant wins, but his tepid support for Reconstruction decline • Congress pardons most ex-confederates (Amnesty Act, 1872) • Corruption scandals also weaken Grant and Republicans; Democrats take House (1874)

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Section 6

The End of Reconstruction, 1873-1877 72

The End of Reconstruction, 1873-1877 Events

• 1873 Depression of 1873 hits • Supreme Court hears Slaughterhouse Cases • 1874 Democrats become majority party in House of Representatives • 1875 Civil Rights Act of 1875 passed • 1876 Samuel J. Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes both claim victory in presidential election • 1877 Congress passes Electoral Count Act • Hayes becomes president • Hayes removes remaining troops from the South to end Reconstruction 73

The End of Reconstruction 1873-1877 • Key People Rutherford B. Hayes - Ohio governor chosen to run against Democrat Samuel J. Tilden in the presidential election of 1876; received fewer popular and electoral votes than Tilden but became president after Compromise of 1877 o Samuel J. Tilden - Famous New York prosecutor; ran for president on Democratic ticket against Rutherford B. Hayes in election of 1876; fell one electoral vote shy of becoming president o

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Shift in Northern Attention away from South • Rapid industrialization & immigration monopolize Northern concerns • Panic of 1873 starts 5 years of contraction • Accelerate class tensions (debtor vs. creditor) • In West, whites use violence & discriminate against Indians, Hispanics, & other non-whites • Nationwide, greater focus on race • North also debate further territorial expansion (Alaska & Midway Islands, 1867)

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Retreat from Reconstruction • North loses interest in Reconstruction (1870s) as undergo rapid industrialization, etc. • Always more interested in suppressing rebellion than helping blacks • Democrats “redeem” southern governments with KKK violence and grow stronger in North • Congress passes KKK laws; little enforcement • Northerners reject idea US Government should protect civil rights

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Judicial Retreat from Reconstruction • Inactive after Dred Scott & during war, Supreme Court reasserts itself post-1865 • Slaughter-House (1873) deny that 14th makes US Gov’t protector of civil rights • Narrows 14th with stress on state power • Bradwell (1873) dismisses claim that 14th outlaw gender discrimination • Court later upholds restrictions on suffrage • Civil Rights Act of 1875 77

Disputed Election of 1876; Compromise of 1877 • Tilden (Democrat) wins slightly more popular votes, but needs 1 more electoral vote to win • 19 votes in dispute (fraud) • Voting by party, congressional commission gives 19 votes to Hayes (Republican) • Democrats accept outcome in return for promise of federal aid & troop removal • African Americans anxious about future

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The Compromise of 1877 • Special Congressional commission gives disputed vote to Rutherford B. Hayes • Southern Democrats accept on two conditions o o

Guarantee of federal aid to the South Removal of all remaining federal troops

• Hayes’ agreement ends Reconstruction

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Presidential Election of 1876 and the Compromise of 1877 In 1876 a combination of solid southern support and Democratic gains in the North gave Samuel Tilden the majority of popular votes, but Rutherford B. Hayes won the disputed election in the electoral college, after a deal satisfied Democratic wishes for an end to Reconstruction. 80

Rutherford B. Hayes and the Compromise of 1877

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The Cost of Sectional Reunion • Redeemer Democrats systematically exclude black voters • Lynching—187 blacks lynched yearly 1889-1899 • U.S. Supreme Court decisions gut Reconstruction Amendments 1875-1896 • “Reunion” accomplished as North tacitly acquiesces in Southern discrimination 82

Benefits of Reconstruction • • • •

Universal manhood suffrage Repair and rebuilding of the South Industrialization Social reforms o No debtors’ prison o Married women’s property rights o Taxes overhauled o End apprenticing of black children to former masters o Money for benevolent institutions • Education– 4,300 schools for freedpeople

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Summary: Discuss Links to the World & Legacy • Global response to Grants’ Tour (1877-79) • Grant as celebrity & symbol of USA on world stage • Grant’s motive? • How “Lost Cause” a legacy of Reconstruction? • How did southern whites (e.g., exConfederates, UDC) seek to shape historical memory? • Downplay slavery; emphasize states rights 84