Reconstruction Timeline
1863
Proclamation of Amnesty & Reconstruction
1864
Wade-Davis Bill:
1865
Confederate surrender:
1866
Civil Rights Bill
1867 Military Reconstruction Act
1868
Impeachment Controversy
1869
Georgia & Virginia re-establish Democratic party control
1870
15th Amendment
1871
Force/Ku Klux Klan Acts
1872
Grant re-elected
1873
Credit Mobilier scandal
1874
Alabama & Arkansas re-establish Democratic control
1875
Civil Rights Act
1876
Hayes-Tilden election
1877
Compromise of 1877
Proclamation of Amnesty & Reconstruction
- Full presidential pardons granted to most southerners who (1) took oath of allegiance to Union & US Constitution and (2) accepted emancipation of slaves
- State gov could be reestablished & accepted as legitimate by US president as soon as at least 10% voters in state took loyalty oath
- Lincoln feared that if Democrats won 1864 election, they would overturn Emancipation Proclamation
1864
Wade-Davis Bill:
- radical Republican plan for reconstruction
- demanded 50% of a returning state’s voters take oath of allegiance to US
- provided stronger safeguards for emancipation
- pocket-vetoed by Lincoln
- Congress ready to reassert its powers after war
1865
Confederate surrender:
- Lee surrenders Confederate troops at Appomattox Court House in Virginia
- Grant allows Lee’s men to return home with horses
- Confederate sympathizer, John Wilkes Booth, shot Lincoln at Ford’s Theater
- Five days after Confederate surrender
- Andrew Johnson, white supremacist, becomes president
- Officially abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime
- First of reconstruction acts; many feared that Emancipation Proclamation would be seen as temporary, so this amendment guaranteed permanent abolition
- Government welfare agency to provide food, clothing, medical care to freedmen & white refugees
- Under leadership of Oliver O. Howard, established nearly 3,000 schools for freedmen
- Similar to pre-war slave statutes, which regulated racial relations
- Forbade black to serve on jury or testify against whites in court
- Established contract-labor system aimed at ensuring subservient labor force
- Prohibited blacks from either renting land or borrowing money to buy land
1866
Civil Rights Bill
- Passed over Johnson’s veto
- Conferred citizenship on blacks & struck at Black Codes
- Repudiated Dred Scott decision
- Republicans feared that law could be repealed if Democrats ever won control of Congress à 14th amendment
- Supreme Court ruled that Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus was legal
- However, it was unconstitutional even during times of war to try citizens in military courts when civilian courts were operating
- Sharecropping/tenant farming prevented poorer whites & blacks to purchase land
- Law enacted to break cycle of debt & lower prices of land, although often times, prices still too high
- Formed by ex-Confederate general, Nathaniel Bedford Forrest
- Secret society to intimidate free blacks & white reformers
1867 Military Reconstruction Act
- established radical Congressional reconstruction
- passed in response to bloody race riots that erupted in Southern cities
- divided South into 5 military districts, commanded by Union generals & policed by Union soldiers
- ex-Confederate state had to ratify 14th Amendment & place guarantees in constitution for granting franchise to all adult males, regardless of race
- President must secure Senate’s consent before removing appointees
- Aimed to keep Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, a secret informer for radicals, who Johnson fired
1868
Impeachment Controversy
- Johnson became 1st president to be impeached
- Johnson argued that Tenure law was unconstitutional & that he had fired Stanton to bring this to Supreme Court
- Radicals failed to muster 2/3 majority for impeachment by one vote
- States had to ratify to re-enter Union
- Conferred civil rights, excepting franchise, on freedmen
- Guarantees due process of law and equal protection under law
- Proportionately reduced a state’s representation in Congress and Electoral College if it denied blacks the ballot
- Barred from office, Confederates who as federal officeholders had once sworn to protect the Constitution
- Guaranteed federal debt while repudiating all Confederate debts
- War hero with no political experience
- 500,000 black votes gave Republican ticket its margin of victory
- Republicans realize that voting rights of freedmen needed federal protection
1869
Georgia & Virginia re-establish Democratic party control
1870
15th Amendment
- Guarantees that voting rights will not be denied on the basis of race (1868 election)
- End of Reconà racial oppression + rumors of the reinstitution of slaveryà freedmen seek new place to liveà Kansas (land of John Brown)
1871
Force/Ku Klux Klan Acts
- Sought to outlaw organizations aimed at denying African Americans their rights
- Gave power to federal authorities to stop Ku Klux Klan violence & protect civil rights of citizens in South
1872
Grant re-elected
- “Waving the bloody shirt” tactic worked again
- Liberal Republicans broke with party & together with Democrats, chose Horace Greeley as presidential candidate
- Removed last of restrictions on ex-Confederates, except for top leaders
- Allowed southern conservatives to vote for Democrats to retake control of state governments
1873
Credit Mobilier scandal
- Insiders gave stock to influential members of Congress to avoid investigation of profits they were making
- Overspeculation & overbuilding by industry/RR à widespread business failure
1874
Alabama & Arkansas re-establish Democratic control
1875
Civil Rights Act
- Guaranteed equal accommodations in public places
- Prohibited courts from excluding African Americans from juries
1876
Hayes-Tilden election
- Republicans wanted sbody untouched by corruption of Grant administration: OH governor Rutherford B. Hayes
- Democrats chose NY’s reform governor, Samuel J. Tilden, who fought Tweed Ring
- Tilden won popular vote, but needed one more electoral vote from contested returns of SC, FL, and LA à
- Special electoral commission created, with straight party vote of 8-7 to Hayes
1877
Compromise of 1877
- Hayes would become president on condition that
- he would immediately end federal support for Republicans in South &
- support building of southern transcontinental RR