Ch 22: The Ordeal of Reconstruction (1865-1867)
How would South be rebuilt? What is to be done with free blacks? How would the states be reintegrated? Who would direct Reconstruction?
A) Bleak Prospects of Painlessly Binding Up the Republic’s Wounds
B) Freedmen Define Freedom
1. Complex responses to emancipation, tho all masters eventually forced to recognize slaves’ freedom
3. Freedmen’s Bureau: Govt welfare agency for free blacks created in Mar 3, 1865, expired in 1872
C) Presidential Reconstruction
1. Johnson, the Misfit: Dem who refused to secede w. state, S’er who didn’t understand N, TNan w. distrust of S, Dem who had never been accepted by Reps
2. Lincoln’s 10% Reconstruction Plan (1864-1865) based on belief that S states had never legally left
D) Baleful Black Codes--> Congressional Reconstruction: Had the North Really Won?
1. S govts passed strict Black Codes (like pre-war slave statues) to regulate affairs of freedmen. Aims:
4. Reps in Cong further infuriated when S states elected former Confed leaders.
E) Johnson Clashes with Congress & Republican Majority
1. Bills which Cong passed, Johnson vetoed, but Cong repassed:
(2) reduced proportionately rep of state in Cong & Elec College if it denied blacks ballot,
(3) disqualified from office, Confeds who as fed officeholders had once sworn to protect Const
(4) guaranteed federal debt, while repudiating all Confed debts
2. Tho trying to win votes for S in Cong elec 1866, AJohn’s inept speeches à Reps win 2/3 + majority
3. Policies adopted showed influence of both mods & rads, tho mods (majority faction) had upper hand
F) Reconstruction by the Sword
1. Military Reconstruction Act 1867 passed in response to bloody race riots that erupted in S cities
G) Blacks in Office--> Ku Klux Klan
1. After being enfranchised, blacks organized politically--> Union League: educated its members, campaigned for Rep, built black churches/schools, rep’ed black grievances before gov, recruited militias
2. Blacks served as delegates to state const conventions & congressmen & in state govts
3. White s’ers lashed out w. particular fury at the freedmen’s white allies. Called them:
5. S openly flouted 14th & 15th Amd: disfranchised blacks by intimidation, fraud, trickery, literacy tests
H) Johnson Walks the Impeachment Plank
I) Purchase of Alaska—“Seward’s Folly”
1. Russia, feeling that it had overextended itself in N Am (àwar w. Brit), wanted to sell Alaska to US
2. Expansionist SecState William Seward signed treaty w. Russia that bought AK for $7.2mn
3. Ams, tho reluctant to buy, did not want to offend Russia (ally w. N during CW), so sanctioned purchase
J) Heritage of Reconstruction: Good intentions that produced bad outcomes
1. Rep party wanted to help blacks, but only extinguished itself in S for nearly 100 yrs
2. Deep-seated racism, Am resistance to tampering w. prop rts, loyalty to tenet of local self-gov, and spreading indiff in N to plight of blacksà radical reform for better not possible
3. Despite good intentions by Reps, the Old South was more resurrected than reconstructed.
A) Bleak Prospects of Painlessly Binding Up the Republic’s Wounds
- Econ: Collapse of slaveryà agriculture hopelessly crippled; runaway inflation, transportatn destroyed
- Beaten but unbent, many high-spirited white S’erners remained dangerously defiant
- President Johnson pardoned all rebel leaders in 1868, but Congress did not remove all remaining civil disabilities until 30 yrs later & only posthumously restored Davis’s citizenship 100+ yrs later.
B) Freedmen Define Freedom
1. Complex responses to emancipation, tho all masters eventually forced to recognize slaves’ freedom
- Some planters hanged slaves who tried to flee while others protested that slavery was legal
- Some loyal-to-master blacks resisted while others gladly joined U armies to punish master
- Strengthened black family & black communities provided protection & mutual assistance.
- The center of black community life, churches soon gave rise to other mutual aid societies.
- Blacks now had opportunity to read & write.
3. Freedmen’s Bureau: Govt welfare agency for free blacks created in Mar 3, 1865, expired in 1872
- Blacks unskilled, illiterate, w.o property/money-->Freedmen’s Bureau led by Oliver O. Howard
- Mission: to provide food, clothing, medical care, & education to both freedmen & white refugees
- Successes in education: taught 200,000 blacks how to read
- Hwvr, tho ~ authorized to settle blacks on land confiscated from Confeds, local administrators often worked w. planters in forcing them to sign labor contracts to work for former masters.
C) Presidential Reconstruction
1. Johnson, the Misfit: Dem who refused to secede w. state, S’er who didn’t understand N, TNan w. distrust of S, Dem who had never been accepted by Reps
2. Lincoln’s 10% Reconstruction Plan (1864-1865) based on belief that S states had never legally left
- 10% voters in 1860 pres elec swore allegiance to US & pledged to abide by EP, erect state govt.
- Hwvr, Cong believed that seceders could only be readmitted as “conquered provinces”
- Reps feared restoration of planter aristocracy--> Wade-Davis Bill 1864: 50% (aot 10), demanded stronger safeguards for emancipation at price of readmission-->Lincoln pocketvetoed
- This revealed diffs among Reps--> two factions: majority moderate & minority radical
- Disfranchised leading Confeds, including those w. taxable property worth more than $20k
- Called for state conventns to repeal ordinances of secessn, repudiate debts & ratify XIII Amendmt
D) Baleful Black Codes--> Congressional Reconstruction: Had the North Really Won?
1. S govts passed strict Black Codes (like pre-war slave statues) to regulate affairs of freedmen. Aims:
- To ensure stable & subservient labor force (to rebuild economy)
- To restore as much pre-emancipation system of race relations as possible
- Planters rent out some land to blacks; rent higher than return--> impossible to pay debts
- Bound by contract to work until debts paid-->à blacks “jumped” contracts--> punished by code
4. Reps in Cong further infuriated when S states elected former Confed leaders.
- Cong Reps had one-party rule, but now Dems came back & blacks=whole person-->S more power
- Reps shut door on new S delegates but Johnson announced that Union restored.
E) Johnson Clashes with Congress & Republican Majority
1. Bills which Cong passed, Johnson vetoed, but Cong repassed:
- Bill extending life of Freedmen’s Bureau
- Civil Rights Bill 1866: conferred citizenship on blacks & struck at Black Codes
- XIV Amendment (which states had to ratify to re-enter)
(2) reduced proportionately rep of state in Cong & Elec College if it denied blacks ballot,
(3) disqualified from office, Confeds who as fed officeholders had once sworn to protect Const
(4) guaranteed federal debt, while repudiating all Confed debts
2. Tho trying to win votes for S in Cong elec 1866, AJohn’s inept speeches à Reps win 2/3 + majority
3. Policies adopted showed influence of both mods & rads, tho mods (majority faction) had upper hand
- Radicals, led by Charles Sumner (Sen) & Thaddeus Stevens (Rep), wanted to keep S states out as long as possible & apply fed power to bring abt drastic socioecon transformatn in S
- Moderates, more attuned to time-honored values of states’ rts & self-govt, preferred policies that restrained states from abridging citizens’ rts aot ones that directly involved fedgov in ind’s lives
- Ntl, both agreed that by 1867, they needed to enfranchise black voters.
F) Reconstruction by the Sword
1. Military Reconstruction Act 1867 passed in response to bloody race riots that erupted in S cities
- Divided S into 5 mil dists, commanded by Union general & policed by Union soldiers (20,000+)
- Disfranchised tens of thousands of former Confeds
- Reps worried that states would remove black suffrage once admittedà XV Amd (black suffrage)
- Usurped certain functions of pres as Comm-in-chief
- Est mil gov tho Ex Parte Milligan ruled that mil tribunals can’t try civilians where civil cts open
G) Blacks in Office--> Ku Klux Klan
1. After being enfranchised, blacks organized politically--> Union League: educated its members, campaigned for Rep, built black churches/schools, rep’ed black grievances before gov, recruited militias
2. Blacks served as delegates to state const conventions & congressmen & in state govts
3. White s’ers lashed out w. particular fury at the freedmen’s white allies. Called them:
- Scalawags: S’ers accused of plundering treasuries of S states thru pol influence in radical govt
- Carpetbaggers: sleazy N’ers who went S to seek personal power & profit; most were actually former U soldiers & N businessmen/professionals who wanted to help modernize the new S
5. S openly flouted 14th & 15th Amd: disfranchised blacks by intimidation, fraud, trickery, literacy tests
H) Johnson Walks the Impeachment Plank
- Cong passed Tenure of Office Act 1867-pres must secure Sen’s consent bf he removed appointees
- Purpose: to keep SecWar Edwin Stanton (secret informer for rads) who Johnson fired
- Impeached by HR, Johnson argued that law unconst & he had fired Stanton to bring this to Sup Ct
- By a margin of one vote, radicals failed to muster 2/3rds majority for impeachmt. Factors:
- Opposition to abusing const mechanism of checks & balances
- Next in line to pres= not well-liked rad Rep Ben Wade
- Johnson indicated that he would stop obstructing Rep policies
I) Purchase of Alaska—“Seward’s Folly”
1. Russia, feeling that it had overextended itself in N Am (àwar w. Brit), wanted to sell Alaska to US
2. Expansionist SecState William Seward signed treaty w. Russia that bought AK for $7.2mn
3. Ams, tho reluctant to buy, did not want to offend Russia (ally w. N during CW), so sanctioned purchase
J) Heritage of Reconstruction: Good intentions that produced bad outcomes
1. Rep party wanted to help blacks, but only extinguished itself in S for nearly 100 yrs
2. Deep-seated racism, Am resistance to tampering w. prop rts, loyalty to tenet of local self-gov, and spreading indiff in N to plight of blacksà radical reform for better not possible
3. Despite good intentions by Reps, the Old South was more resurrected than reconstructed.
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