The Gilded and progressive eras

Reconstruction

Triumph of Race, Politics, and

Redeemers, 1863-1877

Books to Read

• William C. Harris,

With Charity for All

• Eric Foner,

Reconstruction,

America’s Unfinished

Revolution

Frederick Douglass, 1866

• The arm of the Federal government is long, but it is far too short to protect the rights of individuals in the interior of distant States. They must have the power to protect themselves, or they will go unprotected, in spite of all the laws the Federal government can put upon the national statute-book.

Reconstruction Began as War

Measure

• First Emancipation Proclamation

• Lincoln’s 10% Plan

• Goal was an easy peace to shorten war

Who Should Control

Reconstruction—Congress or

President?

• Wade-Davis Bill

• Lincoln Pocket Veto

• Assassination of Lincoln left question

unresolved when Andrew Johnson became

president.

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural

With malice toward 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.

Freedman’s Bureau

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Land, often

referred to as the Freedmen's Bureau, was established in the

War Department on March 3, 1865. The Bureau supervised all

relief and educational activities relating to refugees and

freedmen, including issuing rations, clothing and medicine. The

Bureau also assumed custody of confiscated lands or property

in the former Confederate States, border states, District of

Columbia, and Indian Territory.

Built Schools—many of whom were forerunners of the “Historically

Black Colleges” in the South.

Freedman’s Bureau Schools

Andrew Johnson

• Rags to Riches Story

• “Treason must be made odious”

• Initially a darling of and later a

disappointment to Radical Republicans

• Reconstruction Plan (Proclamation of

Amnesty—May 1865) similar to Lincoln’s

Andrew Johnson

Radical Republicans: Thaddeus

Stevens, Charles Sumner, Ben

Wade

Southerners Don’t Get It

• Elect ex-CSA leaders to Congress,

including Alexander Stephens

• Black Codes

• Race Riots

Radicals Respond

• Barely failed to override Johnson’s Veto of Bill to

Extend Life of Freedman’s Bureau

• Overrode Johnson’s Veto of CRA of 1866

• Enacted a new Freedman’s Bureau

• Sent 14th Amendment to States—ratified by them

in 1868

• Radical’s insisted on Civil Rights for former

slaves and a federal enforcement mechanism

Radicals on a Roll—March 2,

1867

• Military Reconstruction Act

• Command of the Army Act

• Tenure of Office Act

Military Reconstruction Act--

1867

• Divided South into Military District

• Southern States—Tn. Excepted—would write new constitutions w/ Universal Adult Male Suffrage

• States had to ratify 14th amendment

• Subsequent legislation gave Army power to register voters and to disqualify “disloyal persons” from registering.

South Readmitted

• By 1870, Southern states were readmitted

• Some had to ratify 15th amendment too

• Reconstruction Constitutions were most LIBERAL—yes, that’s a mighty fine word, look it up—in history of Southern States.

• Legal means to overturn Reconstruction often culminated with rewriting these Reconstruction Constitutions.

Johnson Impeached

• Vote to remove was 35 to 18, one shy of the

2/3rds needed

• Radicals didn’t need to remove Johnson; by

the time of his trial it was 1868, an election

year; he could simply be ignored.

Major Achievements of

Reconstruction

• 14th and 15th Amendments

• African American Participation in Public

Life

• Readmission of Southern States

14th Amendment

• National Definitions of Citizenship

• Equal Protection Clause

• Due Process Clause

• High Confederate Official banned from

national office

• Confederate debt repudiated

15th Amendment

• “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.”

Failure of Reconstruction

• Southern whites were violently opposed to

black rights; many in north were indifferent

• Rise of KKK

• Where army was present, KKK leaders

were apprehended and imprisoned

• Land Reform—blacks (and poor whites) left

to farm tenancy

“Boy, You ain’t a votin’ here”!

WHITE SUPREMACY

Freedmen’s World

• Independent Churches

• Political Participation—600 African

Americans served in southern state

legislatures down to the 1890s.

• Dunningite myth still cloud’s African

American achievements during

Reconstruction

Grant Presidency

• Did attempt to enforce Reconstruction

• Presidency clouded by scandals

• Republican party divided between Stalwart

and Liberal Republicans—little energy left

to devote to Reconstruction.

President Grant

1876 Presidential Election

• Disputed results between Hayes and Tilden

• Democrats accept result of Wormsley Hotel

Conference

• Southerner named to cabinet, army

withdrawn from south, southern pacific

railway