Class Notes

1. Reconstruction (define for class)

• bringing the South back into the Union
• rebuilding the southern economy
• rebuilding the southern social structure
• rebuilding the South's political structure
• attempt to keep power by a minority party (explain in detail for the class)

1. Review of important American I concepts and terms

• Mudsill theory
• 3/5 compromise and representation
• constitutional rights protecting property (Dred Scott)
• Fighting for the Union in 1861

1. Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

• Signed after battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg)
• Slaves in the "areas still in rebellion" on 01 Jan 1863 declared free
• Did not free any slaves in border states, DC, or areas already taken by Union armies
• Did not free any slaves
• Issued for two reasons
• Attempt to sway English support (Manchester Riots of 1862)
• Makes the war a moral crusade -- important in the face of Union losses and huge numbers of casualties.

Presidential Reconstruction (1865 to 1866)

1. Lincoln wanted to bring the southern states back in quickly and peacefully -- "With malice toward none"
2. Many northerners by 1865 wanted revenge for over 360,000 Union deaths
3. 10 percent plan -- Lincoln came up with this plan in 1863

• when 10% of the 1860 voters took an oath of allegiance and pledged to abide by emancipation, the state could rejoin the Union with all the privileges of the other states

1. Wade - Davis Bill

• Bill passed by Congress in 1864, but "pocket vetoed" by Lincoln and thus never became a law
• Called for 50% oath of allegiance and stronger safeguards on emancipation

1. Two factions within the Republican Party quickly emerged

• Moderate Republicans -- supported Lincoln's ideas, at least on principle
• Radical Republicans -- believed the South should suffer

1. Lincoln never got the chance to implement his plan.
2. 14 Apr 1865 (Good Friday) -- At Ford's Theatre in Washington DC, Lincoln was shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth (an actor and a fanatical Confederate sympathizer)
3. Booth's action actually hurt the South -- Lincoln's death at the hands of such a fanatic gave Radicals just the martyr they needed to punish the South.

Andrew Johnson (1865 to 1869)

1. Ex-Democratic senator from Tennessee who refused to follow his state into secession
2. Champion of poor white southerners over the slave owners
3. Never attended school -- taught himself to read and write and do simple math (guess that wouldn't meet standards. I'd probably give him a 2.5 summary overview at best.)
4. Excelled as a speaker in front of crowds
5. Added to the "Union" ticket with Lincoln in 1864 -- explain why in class
6. Unpolished, but devoted to duty and honorable
7. Problem -- Not really a friend to either section of the country nor party

• Republicans saw him as a Democrat and a man of the South
• Democrats saw him as a traitor and a puppet of the North

1. First vice president to assume office due to assassination
2. Wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
3. Wanted to continue Lincoln's ideas on Reconstruction, but the Radicals wouldn't let him

Johnson's Reconstruction Plan (issued 29 May 1865)

• Disfranchised most ex-confederates from the Planter Class -- though they could petition him personally for pardons (he could watch his old enemies grovel)
• Called for special state conventions
• Repeal ordinances of secession
• Ratify the new 13^th Amendment (freedom for all slaves)
• If the states complied with these simple provisions, they could rejoin the Union swiftly and easily.

1. States all over the South realized that the terms were easy and tried to be admitted quickly in 1865 and reestablish state governments
2. Republicans -- both Moderates and Radicals -- were furious
3. The new state governments being set up were similar to the ones from the antebellum South.
4. Johnson issued pardon after pardon, some to high ranking ex-Confederate officials, such as Alexander Stephens (Confederate Vice President from Georgia)
5. Dec 1865 -- New southern congressmen and senators show up in Washington DC, ready to take their seats -- many ex-confederates among them, including Stephens
6. States all over the South passed a series of "Black Codes" that were designed to mirror slavery in condition.
7. To many northerners, it seemed as though the South lost the war, but won the peace.

Black Codes

1. First passed by Mississippi in November 1865, but other southern states quickly followed suit
2. Designed to ensure a stable labor supply in an agricultural society
3. Example -- blacks required to sign a labor contract with white plantation owners (who didn't pay much). Vagrant blacks could be caught, tried and fined. They would work off their fine by being hired out to plantation owners.
4. Worse than slavery -- review for class idea of Southern Paternalism vs. Black Codes
5. Sharecropper System -- starts mainly black, but eventually both races -- Mudsill Theory was right -- poor whites suffered from this system

• Farmers would contract their labor out to planters
• Economic system that often lasted for generations
• Story for class -- Joey's great, great Grandmother in Mississippi (still alive)

Ku Klux Klan

1. Organization of Ex-Confederate soldiers founded in 1866 to terrorize blacks and used by white political leaders as "muscle" in their attempt to retake control of the South by "convincing" blacks to avoid the polls or vote a certain way.
2. Founded by Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest
3. Spread a wave of violence across the South
4. When scare tactics failed, the Klan resorted to murder.
5. Southern law enforcement officials supported much of the "Invisible Empire" of the South, sometimes openly, as many sheriffs and deputies were found among the Klan's member rolls.

Freedmen's Bureau

1. created by Congress in 1865 to be sort of a "welfare agency" for freed slaves and poor whites of the South
2. Responsible for the education of over 200,000 blacks, mostly by women school teachers from New England. -- Class issue: what would this have done for women's rights -- these schoolteachers were independent, educated women who now traveled throughout the South.
3. Education wasn't just for children, but for all -- remind the class that poor whites had never received much education before the Civil War. Even after the Reform Movements of the 1830s, education reform didn't come to the South.
4. Southern white leaders resented the Bureau for trying to change society
5. Charter expired in 1872 and was not renewed

Radical Reconstruction (1867 to 1877)

1. period where Congress, and not the president controlled Reconstruction -- after the congressional elections of 18666, the Radicals had enough support to override any veto
2. Congress controlled by the Radical Republicans
3. Radical Republican Concerns

• Set up a new social system for the South
• Punish the traitors
• Keep the Republican Party in power politically (Remember -- they were a minority party in 1860)

1. The South was broken up into 5 military districts -- 20,000 Union troops
2. Conditions for readmission

• RATIFY 14^TH AMENDMENT -- GIVES FORMER SLAVES RIGHTS AS CITIZENS
• New state constitutions that gave full voting rights to black males

1. Problem -- once the states were readmitted, those states were no longer under the control of the federal government -- if conservative whites ever took control of the states, they could always change the state constitutions
2. By 1870 -- all ex-Confederate states brought back into the Union -- federal troops remained until permanent state governments were fully in place
3. Educated blacks, many from the North, quickly took up positions in these new Republican governments and in South Carolina they formed a majority of the Lower House

13^th Amendment (1865) -- abolished slavery

14^th Amendment (1868)

1. established citizenship for blacks
2. every citizen accorded due process under the law and equal protection of the law
3. abolished 3/5 rule
4. leading ex-Confederates denied office, even at the state level

15^th Amendment (1870)

1. states shall not deny citizens the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude

Seward's Icebox

In 1867, while the rest of the country was preoccupied with Reconstruction and the South, Secretary of State William H. Seward (an old Radical anti-slavery radical Republican who remained loyal to the president), completed a deal whereby the United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire. The purchase, considered a "fool folly" at the time, later proved to be one of the best deals the US government ever made, once oil and gas deposits were found.

Johnson and Impeachment

1. Once the Radical Republicans were in power, they tried to remove the president, a man who they neither trusted nor respected.
2. Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867 -- the President now must get the approval of the Senate to dismiss his cabinet officers (under the theory that these same officers had to be approved by the Senate according to the Constitution
3. Johnson felt that the law was unconstitutional (it had been passed over his veto), and he was determined to challenge it in the courts.
4. Early 1868 -- Johnson fires Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
5. The House of Representatives (led by Radicals) invoked its authority -- Constitution (Article III Section IV) -- and brought Johnson up on impeachment charges for committing a crime.
6. The charges were ridiculous
7. The House has the power to impeach the president, and the Senate tries him.
8. Johnson never expected to be tried for impeachment, but the Supreme Court refused to interfere.
9. The Senate held an impeachment trial. According to the rules, the members of the House stood as the prosecutors. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was the Judge and the Senate was the Jury.
10. The Radicals figured they had the case made -- Republicans controlled the Senate by a wide majority -- the southern states were still not Reconstructed
11. 16 May 1868 -- Vote to convict fails by one vote -- 2/3 required to convict -- 7 Republicans voted "not guilty" and the crisis was over
12. Johnson was finished as a politician, but remained in office until the end of his term in March 1869.
13. What if Johnson had been convicted? A very bad precedent would have been set -- Congress would forever control the government -- president would become a figurehead -- any time he disagreed with Congress, they would try to impeach him.
14. Johnson violated an unconstitutional law
15. The Radicals lost, but Congress would control the American government for about 30 years, until Teddy Roosevelt dared to do his job.

Scalawags and Carpetbaggers

1. Scalawags -- southerners who cooperated with northerners in reconstructing the South -- after all the duty of every TRUE SOUTHERNER was to fight the Northern Oppression (talk about the "Lost Cause" of the South in class and mention Longstreet)
2. Carpetbaggers -- northerners who came to the South after the Civil War. They go their name from the bags they carried, often made of carpet. Southerners saw these brightly colored bags coming a mile away. These men were often corrupt, and looked to take advantage of the South.

Grant, Corruption and the Bloody Shirt (1868 to 1876)

1. Election of 1868

• Republicans -- US Grant -- 214 electoral votes
• Democrats -- Horatio Seymour -- 80 electoral votes

1. Grant was exactly the kind of president the Radical Republicans of Congress wanted -- he didn't want to do much on his own and thus let them run the country
2. Period from 1868 to 1896 -- Congress much more powerful than the presidency
3. By 1868 -- most northerners growing weary of Reconstruction -- ready to return to their own concerns
4. As northerners turned away from the South, Redeemers began to take over in every state -- Blacks were doomed.
5. Grant's two terms (1869 to 1877)

• The general, never a politician, surrounded himself with his old friends, many of whom were not of the highest moral character.
• Important fact -- Grant himself was a HEAVY drinker who had failed at everything he ever tried, EXCEPT BEING A SOLDIER.
• Grant was seen as the hero who saved the Union, and Republicans made sure to bring that fact up all the time.
• Both of his terms were rocked by scandal and corruption -- many of Grant's "friends" were out to defraud the government.

1. Meanwhile, in the South during the period, Redeemers gained more and more power, often by using the Klan to intimidate blacks.
2. May 1872 -- Congress restores the right to vote for most ex-confederates
3. Problem for the Radicals -- most Americans by the early 1870s were more concerned with the growth of the American economy, settling the West, and the new age of imperialism (subjects we will discuss in the next unit).
4. It didn't help that many of the Republican State governments in the South were as corrupt, if not more so, than Grant's administration.
5. Even the Supreme Court finally chimed in and declared parts of Radical Reconstruction as unconstitutional

• 1873 -- Slaughterhouse Cases -- Court decided that the 14 ^th amendment only protected federal rights, thus civil rights given to people by states were off limits. This decision basically meant that the federal government couldn't protect black rights.
• 1876 -- United States v. Cruikshank -- Court decided that the reconstruction amendments (13, 14, 15) gave Congress the power to legislate only against discrimination BY STATES, NOT BY INDIVIDUALS. This decision opened the door to widespread civil rights violations by individuals. If states decided not to prosecute individuals for these crimes, too bad.

1. Throughout Reconstruction, the Democratic Party stood with the South, as is had since 1824. Thus, most Democratic leaders declared every Reconstruction act as unconstitutional.
2. By the early 1870s, Democratic leaders concentrated on the race issue in the South, making it almost impossible for any white southerner to support the Republicans, else they would face retribution from the Klan.
3. By 1876 -- the "Solid South" developing -- Solidly Democratic -- blacks losing the right to vote through literacy tests, violence and poll taxes
4. 1874 Congressional Elections -- Democrats take control of the House
5. Democratic leaders eagerly looked to 1876 in the hope of recapturing the White House for the first time in 20 years (1856 -- Buchannan)
6. Republicans were scrambling towards 1876

• Grant's scandals hurt the party's image
• Northerners tired of Reconstruction
• Redeemer governments were taking over the South and disfranchising blacks, making the Republican party a sectional party again.

Election of 1876 and the End of Reconstruction

1. Election of 1876

• Republicans -- Rutherford B. Hayes (Ohio) -- campaigns on the "bloody shirt", but privately ready to end Reconstruction and reestablish "home rule"
• Democrats -- Samuel J. Tilden (NY) -- reformer and governor of New York -- attacks Republicans on scandal and corruption -- trying to sway enough northern votes to win with the Solid South
• Election Day -- Popular Vote (remind students how the electoral college works)

• Tilden -- 4,284,020 (51%) -- 170 electoral votes
• Hayes -- 4,036,572 (48%) -- 184 electoral votes
• Problem -- there were 369 total electoral votes -- 185 needed to win

• Problem -- both parties claimed disputed electoral votes from the three remaining Republican states of the South (SC, LA and FL) - total of 15 electoral votes
• Each party charged the other with corruption in the three states. Both were right. Democrats used the Klan to intimidate, while Republicans voted "early and often"

1. According to the Constitution (Amendment #12), when the Electoral College can choose no presidential candidate, Congress must choose.
2. Congress created a special electoral commission to determine the winner.
3. The commission was composed of 7 Democrats, 7 Republicans and 1 Independent. Five of the men were from the House, five from the Senate and five from the Supreme Court.
4. The Independent, a Supreme Court justice, was appointed to the Senate from Illinois. His replacement was a Republican.
5. The final vote was 8-7 (strait party lines) to award all 15 electoral votes to Hayes, thus giving him the election 185-184.
6. Compromise of 1877

• Hayes agreed to remove all remaining Federal troops from the South
• Democrats promised to deal "fairly" with the freedmen
• South was to receive federal money for internal improvements (roads, bridges, etc.)

1. Once Hayes removed the federal troops, the last Republican state governments quickly fell and were replaced by home rule

Legacy of Reconstruction

1. Reconstruction Amendments -- end of slavery
2. Ku Klux Klan

• White farmers -- reestablishment of a type of "mudsill"
• Legacy of violence and hatred

1. Establishment of a Democratic "Solid South"

• Whites voting Democratic
• Blacks bared the right to vote by state laws dealing with literacy, poll taxes and such

1. Redeemer governments back in place by 1877 -- the South still "unreconstructed"
2. Sharecroppers -- tenant farmers (black and white) keep the South poor and ignorant well into the 20^th century.
3. In many ways, blacks were worse off after Reconstruction then before the Civil War

• No more Southern Paternalism -- even if it was only a rouse -- after Reconstruction, white southerners never even pretended to care for their "black children"
• Many white southerners felt that northern carpetbaggers and soldiers had forced integration on them. As a result, a system of racist segregation (separate, but equal) would seek to hold blacks down for another 100 years.

1. South remained agricultural (due to sharecropper system). Southern money was invested into an economic system that always sought to bring back the past.
2. In an effort to keep blacks down, southern white leaders refused to bring educational reforms to their states, opting instead to send their children to private schools, even after desegregation. As late as 1990, no southern state ranked above 31^st nationally in SAT scores.
3. The "Lost Cause" became an integral part of Southern Nationalism -- it remains so today. This idea says that the South lost the war only because it didn't have the industry and manpower of the North, thus southern soldiers and officers are still seen as heroes, and worship of these men sometimes borders on fanaticism, especially that of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.
4. The imagery of the South for the next 100 years will be one that constantly looks back to its antebellum past, to a more "aristocratic" and "refined" society, whereas the North will take the lead in looking towards the future in industry and expansion.