History of USA Reconstruction 1865-1877 Brief Overview People & Qs
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Brief Overview
The Ten-Percent Plan
The process of reconstructing the Union began in 1863, two years before the Confederacy formally surrendered. After major Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Abraham Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in which he outlined his Ten-Percent Plan. The plan stipulated that each secessionist state had to redraft its constitution and could reenter the Union only after 10 percent of its eligible voters pledged an oath of allegiance to the United States.
The Wade-Davis Bill and the Freedmen’s Bureau
Many Radical Republicans believed that Lincoln’s plan was too lenient: they wanted to punish the South for secession from the Union, transform southern society, and safeguard the rights of former slaves. As an alternative to the Ten-Percent Plan, Radical Republicans and their moderate Republican allies passed the Wade-Davis Bill in 1864. Under the bill, states could be readmitted to the Union only after 50 percent of voters took an oath of allegiance to the Union. Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill, however, effectively killing it by refusing to sign it before Congress went into recess. Congress did successfully create the Freedmen’s Bureau, which helped distribute food, supplies, and land to the new population of freed slaves.
Presidential Reconstruction
On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., and Vice President Andrew Johnson became president. Presidential Reconstruction under Johnson readmitted the southern states using Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan and granted all southerners full pardons, including thousands of wealthy planters and former Confederate officials. Johnson also ordered the Freedmen’s Bureau to return all confiscated lands to their original owners. While Congress was in recess, Johnson approved new state constitutions for secessionist states—many written by ex-Confederate officials—and declared Reconstruction complete in December 1865.
Progressive Legislation for Blacks
Although Johnson vetoed Congress’s attempt to renew the charter of the Freedmen’s Bureau in 1866, Congress was successful in overriding Johnson’s veto on its second try, and the bureau’s charter was renewed. They also passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which granted newly emancipated blacks the right to sue, the right to serve on juries, and several other legal rights. Although Johnson vetoed this bill as well, Congress was able to muster enough votes to override it. The Radical Republicans also passed the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which made freed slaves U.S. citizens.
Johnson’s “Swing Around the Circle”
Many southerners reacted violently to the passage by Congress of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the two amendments. White supremacists in Tennessee formed the Ku Klux Klan, a secret organization meant to terrorize southern blacks and “keep them in their place.” Race riots and mass murders of former slaves occurred in Memphis and New Orleans that same year.
Johnson blamed Congress for the violence and went on what he called a “Swing Around the Circle,” touring the country to speak out against Republicans and encourage voters to elect Democrats to Congress. However, many of Johnson’s speeches were so abrasive—and even racist—that he ended up convincing more people to vote against his party in the midterm elections of 1866.
Radical Reconstruction
The Congress that convened in 1867, which was far more radical than the previous one, wasted no time executing its own plan for the Radical Reconstruction of the South. The First Reconstruction Act in 1867 divided the South into five conquered districts, each of which would be governed by the U.S. military until a new government was established. Republicans also specified that states would have to enfranchise former slaves before readmission to the Union. To enforce this order, Congress passed the Second Reconstruction Act, putting the military in charge of southern voter registration. They also passed the Fifteenth Amendment, giving all American men—including former slaves—the right to vote.
Johnson’s Impeachment
In an effort to limit Johnson’s executive powers, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867, which required the president to consult with the House and Senate before removing any congressionally appointed cabinet members. Radicals took this measure in an attempt to protect Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, a carryover from Lincoln’s cabinet and a crucial figure in military Reconstruction. When Johnson ignored the Tenure of Office Act and fired Stanton, Republicans in the House impeached him by a vote of 126–47. After a tense trial, the Senate voted to acquit the president by a margin of only one vote.
The Black Codes and Ku Klux Klan
Despite sweeping rights legislation by Radical Republicans in Congress, southern whites did everything in their power to limit the rights of their former slaves. During Presidential Reconstruction, white supremacist Congressmen passed a series of laws called the black codes, which denied blacks the right to make contracts, testify against whites, marry white women, be unemployed, and even loiter in public places. Violence by the Ku Klux Klan became so common that Congress had to pass the Ku Klux Klan Act in 1871 to authorize military protection for blacks.
Carpetbaggers, Scalawags, and Sharecroppers
Countless carpetbaggers (northerners who moved to the South after the war)and scalawags (white Unionists and Republicans in the South) flocked to the South during Reconstruction and exerted significant influence there. Although in many respects they achieved their goals of modernizing and Republicanizing the South, they eventually were driven out by Democratic state politicians in the mid-1870s.
Most former slaves in the South, meanwhile, became sharecroppers during the Reconstruction period, leasing plots of land from their former masters in exchange for a percentage of the crop yield. By 1880, more than 80 percent of southern blacks had become sharecroppers.
Grant’s Presidency
To the Radicals’ delight, Johnson finally left the White House in 1868, when Republican Ulysses S. Grant was elected president. Grant’s inexperience, however, proved to be a liability that ultimately ended Radical Reconstruction. Because Grant had difficulty saying no, many of his cabinet posts and appointments ended up being filled by corrupt, incompetent men who were no more than spoils-seekers.
As a result, scandal after scandal rocked Grant’s administration and damaged his reputation. In 1869, reporters uncovered a scheme by millionaires Jim Fisk and Jay Gould to corner the gold market by artificially inflating gold prices. Schuyler Colfax, vice president at the time, was forced to resign for his complicity in the Crédit Mobilier scandal in 1872. The president lost even more credibility during his second term, when his personal secretary helped embezzle millions of dollars from the U.S. Treasury as a member of the Whiskey Ring.
Liberal Republicans and the Election of 1872
The discovery of new scandals split the Republican Party in 1872, as reform-minded Liberal Republicans broke from the ranks of moderates and radicals. The Liberal Republicans wanted to institute reform, downsize the federal government, and bring a swift end to Reconstruction. They nominated New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley as their party’s presidential candidate (he agreed to run on the Democratic Party’s ticket as well). Though already marred by scandal, Grant easily defeated Greeley by more than 200 electoral votes and 700,000 popular votes.
The Depression of 1873
In 1873, the postwar economic bubble in the United States finally burst. Over-speculation in the railroad industry, manufacturing, and a flood of Americans taking out bad bank loans slid the economy into the worst depression in American history. Millions lost their jobs, and unemployment climbed as high as 15 percent. Many blacks, landless whites, and immigrants from both North and South suffered greatly, demanding relief from the federal government. Republicans, refusing to give in to demands to print more paper money, instead withdrew money from the economy by passing the Resumption Act of 1875 to curb skyrocketing inflation. This power play by Republicans prompted northerners to vote Democrat in the midterm elections of 1876, effectively ending Radical Reconstruction.
Striking Down Radical Reconstruction
By the mid-1870s, Democrats had retaken the South, reseating themselves in southern legislatures by driving blacks and white Unionists away from the polls and employing violence and other unethical tactics to win state elections. Most northerners looked the other way during this period, consumed by their own economic hardships.
In the late 1870s and early 1880s, a conservative Supreme Court also struck down much of the civil rights legislation that Radical Republicans had passed. In the 1873 Slaughterhouse Cases, the Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment safeguarded a person’s rights only at a federal level, not at a state level (in rulings ten years later, the court further stipulated that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited racial discrimination only by the U.S. government, not by individuals). In 1876, the Court ruled in United States v. Cruikshank that only states and their courts—not the federal government—could prosecute Ku Klux Klan members under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.
The Disputed Election of 1876
As the election of 1876 approached, Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden, a lawyer famous for busting corrupt New York City politician William “Boss” Tweed in 1871. Tilden campaigned for restoration of the Union and an end to government corruption. The Republican Party, on the other hand, chose the virtually unknown Rutherford B. Hayes. Many Northern voters, tired of Reconstruction and hoping for more federal relief because of the depression, voted Democrat. Ultimately, Tilden received 250,000 more popular votes than Hayes, and 184 of the 185 electoral votes needed to become president.
The Compromise of 1877
With the election result hanging in the balance, Congress passed the Electoral Count Act in early 1877, creating a fifteen-man commission—eight Republicans and seven Democrats—to recount disputed votes in South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida. Not surprisingly, the commission determined by an eight-to-seven vote that Republican Rutherford B. Hayes had carried all three states. Resentment and political deadlock threatened to divide the country, but both parties were able to avoid division and strike a deal with the Compromise of 1877. Democrats agreed to concede the presidency to the Republicans in exchange for the complete withdrawal of federal troops from the South. Hayes became president, withdrew the troops, and ended Reconstruction.
Key People
John Wilkes Booth
A well-known stage actor and fanatic supporter of the South who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, during a performance at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. After Lincoln’s death, Vice President Andrew Johnson became president.
Ulysses S. Grant
Union general and Civil War hero who went on to defeat Horatio Seymour in the presidential election of 1868. Nicknamed “Unconditional Surrender” due to his hard-nosed war tactics, Grant joined the Republican Party and entered politics during the Reconstruction years. He served briefly as secretary of war after Andrew Johnson fired Edwin M. Stanton but resigned after Congress forced Johnson to reinstate Stanton. Although Grant himself was an honest man, his cabinet was corrupt, and numerous scandals, such as the Fisk-Gould gold scheme, Crédit Mobilier, and the Whiskey Ring, marred his presidency. He retired after his second term.
Horace Greeley
Former New York Tribune editor who ran for president in the election of 1872. The Democrats and Liberal Republicans both nominated Horace Greeley for president that year because they both desired limited government, reform, and a swift end to Reconstruction. This political alliance, however, ultimately weakened the Liberal Republicans’ cause in the North, because most Americans still did not trust the Democratic Party. In the election, Ulysses S. Grant easily defeated Greeley.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Republican governor from Ohio and presidential nominee who ran against Democrat Samuel J. Tilden in the election of 1876. Republicans chose Hayes because he was virtually unknown in the political world, had no controversial opinions, and came from the politically important state of Ohio. In the wake of the scandals associated with Ulysses S. Grant’s presidency, Hayes’s clean political record made him a sound candidate. Although Hayes received fewer popular and electoral votes than Tilden in the election, he nonetheless became president after the Compromise of 1877.
Andrew Johnson
Former governor and senator from Tennessee who became president after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Lincoln chose Johnson as his running mate in the 1864 election in order to persuade the conservative border states to remain in the Union. Johnson, neither a friend of the southern aristocracy nor a proponent of securing rights for former slaves, fought Congress over passage of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights Bill of 1866. Johnson also believed that only he, not Congress, should be responsible for Reconstruction, recognizing new state governments according to the Ten-Percent Plan without Congress’s consent. The House of Representatives impeached Johnson in 1868 for violating the Tenure of Office Act, but the Senate later acquitted him.
Abraham Lincoln
Former lawyer from Illinois who became president in the election of 1860 and guided the Union through the Civil War. In 1863, after several significant Union victories, Lincoln proposed the Ten-Percent Plan for Reconstruction of the South. He was unable to carry out the plan, however, because he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.
Edwin M. Stanton
Secretary of war under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. A former Democrat, Stanton joined the Republicans and went on to support Radical Reconstruction in the South. Johnson and Stanton butted heads on Reconstruction policy, however—so much so that Radical Republicans in Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867, requiring Johnson to seek Congress’s permission before removing any congressionally appointed cabinet members. When Johnson ignored the act and fired Stanton, Republicans in the House countered by impeaching Johnson.
Samuel J. Tilden
A former New York prosecutor who ran for president against Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876. Tilden first became famous in 1871 when he brought down New York City politician William “Boss” Tweed on corruption charges. Although Tilden received more popular votes than Hayes in the election of 1876, he fell one electoral vote shy of becoming president, leaving the election outcome disputed and unresolved. Ultimately, Democrats and Republicans reached the Compromise of 1877, which stipulated that the Democrats concede the presidency to Hayes in exchange for a complete withdrawal of federal troops from the southern states.
William “Boss” Tweed
A corrupt New York Democrat who was exposed in 1872 by prominent lawyer and future presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden. “Boss” Tweed controlled most of New York City, promising improved public works to immigrants and the poor in exchange for their votes. Although Tweed was eventually prosecuted and died in prison, the Tweed Ring came to exemplify the widespread corruption and graft in northern politics during the Reconstruction era and the Gilded Age that followed.
Terms
Black Codes
Laws that were passed across the South in response to the Civil Rights Act of 1866, restricting blacks’ freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and legal rights, and outlawing unemployment, loitering, vagrancy, and interracial marriages. The codes were one of many techniques that southern whites used to keep blacks effectively enslaved for decades after the abolition of slavery. Some black codes appeared as early as 1865.
Carpetbaggers
A nickname for northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War, named for their tendency to carry their possessions with them in large carpetbags. Though some carpetbaggers migrated to strike it rich, most did so to promote modernization, education, and civil rights for former slaves in the South. Some carpetbaggers had influential roles in the new Republican state legislatures, much to the dismay of white southerners.
Civil Rights Act of 1866
A bill that guaranteed blacks the right to sue, serve on juries, testify as witnesses against whites, and enter into legal contracts. The act did not give blacks the right to vote, because most Radical Republicans in 1866 remained unconvinced that black suffrage was a necessity. When more Radicals were elected to Congress that autumn, however, they did consider making black suffrage a requirement for a state’s readmission into the Union. The act eventually led to the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
Civil Rights Act of 1875
A bill that forbade racial discrimination in all public places. The act was the Radical Republicans’ last legislative effort to protect the civil liberties of former slaves. Democrats in the House opposed the bill from the outset and consequently made sure it remained largely ineffectual.
Civil Rights Cases of 1883
A series of Supreme Court cases that countered Radical Republican legislation passed during Reconstruction and severely restricted blacks’ civil liberties. The Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1875was unconstitutional, citing the fact that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited racial discrimination by the U.S. government but not by individuals. The decision was used to justify racist policies in both the South and the North.
Compromise of 1877
A political agreement that made Rutherford B. Hayes president (rather than Samuel J. Tilden) in exchange for a complete withdrawal of federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction. When neither Hayes nor Tilden won enough electoral votes to become president, the election fell into dispute, and Congress passed the Electoral Count Act to recount popular votes in three contested states. The special counting committee determined by just one vote that Hayes had received more votes in the three states and was therefore the next president of the United States. Democrats accused the Republican-majority committee of bias, so the Compromise of 1877 was struck to resolve the political crisis.
Crédit Mobilier
A dummy construction company formed in the 1860s by corrupt Union Pacific Railroad officials who hired themselves as contractors at inflated rates to gain huge profits. The railroad executives also bribed dozens of congressmen and members of Ulysses S. Grant’s cabinet, including Vice President Schuyler Colfax. Eventually exposed in 1872, the affair forced many politicians to resign and became the worst scandal that occurred during Grant’s presidency.
Depression of 1873
An economic depression—caused by bad loans and overspeculation in railroads and manufacturing—that turned the North’s attention away from Reconstruction. Poor whites and blacks were hit hardest, and unemployment soared as high as 15 percent. The depression helped southern Democrats in their quest to regain political prominence in the South and diminished the reelection prospects for Republican candidates, who advocated hard-money policies and little immediate economic relief. Indeed, Democrats swept the congressional elections of 1874 and regained the majority in the House of Representatives for the first time since 1856, effectively ending Radical Reconstruction.
Fifteenth Amendment
A constitutional amendment, ratified in 1870, that gave all American men the right to vote, regardless of race or wealth. The amendment enfranchised blacks and poor landless whites who had never been able to vote. Radical Republicans required southern states to ratify the amendment in order to be readmitted into the Union. The amendment’s ratification angered many suffragettes who were fighting for a woman’s right to vote.
First Reconstruction Act
A bill, passed by Radical Republicans in Congress in 1867, that treated Southern states as divided territories. Sometimes called the Military Reconstruction Act or the Reconstruction Act, the First Reconstruction Act divided the South into five districts, each governed by martial law. It was the first of a series of harsher bills that the Radicals passed that year.
Fourteenth Amendment
A constitutional amendment, drafted by Radical Republicans in 1866 and ratified in 1868, that ensured that the liberties guaranteed to blacks in the Civil Rights Act of 1866 could not be taken away. Like the Civil Rights Act, the Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to all Americans regardless of race (except Native Americans, who did not gain full citizenship until the twentieth century). The amendment consequently reversed the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott v. Sanforddecision of 1857.
Freedmen’s Bureau
A government agency established by Congress in 1865 to distribute food, supplies, and confiscated land to former slaves. Although the bureau’s worth proved questionable because of corruption within the organization and external pressure from southern whites (including President Andrew Johnson), it successfully established schools for blacks throughout the South.
Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
A secret society formed in Tennessee in 1866 to terrorize blacks. Racist whites formed the KKK as a violent reaction to Congress’s passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Within a few years, the Klan had numerous branches in every southern state. Klansmen donned white sheets and threatened, beat, and even killed “upstart” blacks. Congress finally passed the Ku Klux Klan Act in 1871 to curb Klan activity and restore order in the South.
Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871
A congressional bill passed in response to widespread Ku Klux Klan violence throughout the South. The Klan had been intimidating, beating, and murdering blacks in every southern state since 1866, and many blacks, though newly enfranchised, avoided the polls out of fear for their lives. Although violence spiraled out of control by the late 1860s and early 1870s because state legislatures turned a blind eye, the Ku Klux Klan Act restored order in the South in time for the elections of 1872.
Liberal Republicans
A political party that was formed prior to the elections of 1872 by Republicans who disagreed with moderate and Radical Republican ideologies. The Liberal Republicans campaigned on a platform of government reform, reduced government spending, and anti-corruption measures. They also wanted to end military Reconstruction in the South and bring about a swift restoration of the Union.
Presidential Reconstruction
President Andrew Johnson’s plan for Reconstruction, which lasted from 1865–1867. Johnson, a Democrat from Tennessee, allowed southern states to reenter the Union, but only after 10 percent of the voting population took loyalty oaths to the United States. Johnson’s Presidential Reconstruction was similar to Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan, though Johnson pardoned thousands of high-ranking Confederate officials. Johnson was also a critic of the Freedmen’s Bureau and attempted to do away with the program. Presidential Reconstruction ended when Radical Republicans took control of Congress in 1867 in the wake of Johnson’s “Swing Around the Circle” speeches.
Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Reconstruction proposal to boost support for the war in the North and persuade the South to surrender. The proclamation outlined Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan, which declared that secessionist states could be readmitted into the Union after 10 percent of voters swore their allegiance to the U.S. government.
Radical Reconstruction
The period from 1867–1877 when Radical Republicans controlled the House of Representatives and the Senate, advocating for civil liberties and enfranchisement for former slaves. The party, known for its harsh policies toward the secessionist South, passed progressive legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the First and Second Reconstruction Acts, the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, the Civil Rights Act of 1875, and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments.
Radical Republicans
A Reconstruction-era political party known for its progressive legislation and harsh policies toward the South. The Radical Republicans passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the First Reconstruction Act, the Second Reconstruction Act, the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, the Civil Rights Act of 1875, and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. Radical Republicans in the House also impeached President Andrew Johnson in 1868 but were unable to secure enough votes for a conviction in the Senate.
Resumption Act
An act that was passed in 1875 to reduce the amount of currency circulating in the economy during the Depression of 1873. Although the Resumption Act proved beneficial in the long run, its short-term effects on many Americans were detrimental. Democrats used these hard times to gain votes: Samuel J. Tilden ended up receiving more popular votes than Rutherford B. Hayes in the disputed election of 1876.
Scalawags
White Unionist Republicans in the South who participated in efforts to modernize and transform the region after the Civil War. Though many scalawags had influential roles in the new state governments, southern whites deemed them traitors.
Second Reconstruction Act
An act passed by Radical Republicans in 1867 that put federal troops in charge of voter registration in the South.
Sharecropping
An agricultural production system in the South through which wealthy landowners leased individual plots of land on plantations to white and black sharecroppers in exchange for a percentage of the yearly yield of crops. Blacks preferred this system to wage labor because it gave them a sense of independence and responsibility. Ironically, though, sharecroppers had less autonomy than wage laborers, because high debts bound them to the land, and most former slaves worked on plots owned by their former masters. By 1880, most southern blacks had become sharecroppers.
Slaughterhouse Cases
A series of Supreme Court cases (involving a New Orleans slaughterhouse) that effectively rendered the Fourteenth Amendment useless. The justices ruled that the amendment protected citizens from rights infringements only on a federal level, not on a state level. This decision allowed state legislatures to suspend blacks’ legal and civil rights as outlined in the Constitution.
“Swing Around the Circle”
The name for a group of speeches in which President Andrew Johnson blamed Radical Republicans for the slowness of Reconstruction and race riots in the South after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Johnson traveled across the country, speaking out against Republicans, pro-war Democrats, blacks, and anyone else who challenged him. Consequently, his often-abrasive speeches further tarnished the Democratic Party’s already scarred reputation and persuaded many northerners to vote Republican in the congressional elections of 1866.
Ten-Percent Plan
Abraham Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction, under which secessionist states could be readmitted to the Union only after 10 percent of their voting population took a loyalty oath to the Union. Lincoln agreed to pardon most Confederates but made no provision for safeguarding the rights of former slaves. Many Radical Republicans believed his plan was too lenient.
Tenure of Office Act
A bill that Congress passed during Andrew Johnson’s presidency that required Johnson to consult Congress before dismissing any congressionally appointed government official. When Johnson ignored Congress and fired Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the Radical Republicans in the House impeached Johnson on the grounds that he had violated the Tenure of Office Act. Although Johnson technically did violate the act, the Radicals impeached him primarily out of revenge, angry that he had excluded Congress from the Reconstruction process. The Senate later acquitted Johnson, so he was not removed from office.
Thirteenth Amendment
A constitutional amendment, ratified in 1865, that abolished slavery in the United States. Southern states were required to acknowledge and ratify the amendment before they were readmitted to the Union.
United States v. Cruikshank
An 1876 Supreme Court case that severely restricted Congress’s ability to enforce the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. The Court ruled that only states, not the U.S. government, had the right to prosecute Klansmen under the law. Without the threat of federal prosecution, the Ku Klux Klan and other racist whites had free reign to terrorize blacks throughout the South.
Wade-Davis Bill
An 1864 bill that stipulated that southern states could reenter the Union only after 50 percent of their voters pledged allegiance to the United States. Radical Republicans passed the bill in response to Abraham Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan, which they believed was too lenient. Lincoln ultimately pocket-vetoed the bill, so it did not come into effect. The Wade-Davis Bill was the first of many clashes between the White House and Congress for control over the Reconstruction process.
Whiskey Ring
A group of government officials who embezzled millions of dollars of excise tax revenue from the U.S. Treasury. The Whiskey Ring scandal damaged President Ulysses S. Grant’s reputation and affected central figures in the White House—the president’s own personal secretary was indicted in the conspiracy but was acquitted after Grant testified to his innocence.
Study Questions
In what ways was Reconstruction a success? A failure? Explain.
Reconstruction was a success in that it restored the United States as a unified nation: by 1877, all of the former Confederate states had drafted new constitutions, acknowledged the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, and pledged their loyalty to the U.S. government. Reconstruction also finally settled the states’ rights vs. federalism debate that had been an issue since the 1790s.
However, Reconstruction failed by most other measures: Radical Republican legislation ultimately failed to protect former slaves from white persecution and failed to engender fundamental changes to the social fabric of the South. When President Rutherford B. Hayes removed federal troops from the South in 1877, former Confederate officials and slave owners almost immediately returned to power. With the support of a conservative Supreme Court, these newly empowered white southern politicians passed black codes, voter qualifications, and other anti-progressive legislation to reverse the rights that blacks had gained during Radical Reconstruction. The U.S. Supreme Court bolstered this anti-progressive movement with decisions in the Slaughterhouse Cases, the Civil Rights Cases, and United States v. Cruikshank that effectively repealed the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and the Civil Rights Act of 1875.
Meanwhile, the sharecropping system—essentially a legal form of slavery that kept blacks tied to land owned by rich white farmers—became widespread in the South. With little economic power, blacks ended up having to fight for civil rights on their own, as northern whites lost interest in Reconstruction by the mid-1870s. By 1877, northerners were tired of Reconstruction, scandals, radicals, and the fight for blacks’ rights. Reconstruction thus came to a close with many of its goals left unaccomplished.
Some historians have suggested that had Lincoln not been assassinated, Radical Republicans in the House might have impeached him instead of Andrew Johnson. Defend this argument.
Radical Republicans in Congress might have impeached President Lincoln after the Civil War, had he not been assassinated, because he and Congress had contrasting visions for handling postwar Reconstruction. Ultimately, however, Congress ended up impeaching President Andrew Johnson, who followed many parts of Lincoln’s blueprint for Reconstruction.
In 1863, Lincoln wanted to end the Civil War as quickly as possible. He feared that strong northern public support for the war would wane if the fighting continued and knew that the war was also taking an enormous toll on northern families and resources. Lincoln worried that if the war dragged on, a settlement would be reached that would leave the North and South as two separate nations. As it turned out, his fears were justified: by late 1863, an increasing number of Democrats were calling for a truce and peaceful resolution to the conflict.
As a result, in the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction of 1863, Lincoln drafted lenient specifications for secessionist states for readmission into the Union—an attempt to entice Unionists and those tired of fighting in the South to surrender. His Ten-Percent Plan, part of the proclamation, called for southern states to be readmitted into the Union after 10 percent of the voting public swore a loyalty oath to the United States. In addition, he offered to pardon all Confederate officials and pledged to protect southerners’ private property. Lincoln did not want Reconstruction to be a long, drawn-out process; rather, he wanted the states to draft new constitutions so that the Union could be quickly restored.
Radical Republicans, on the other hand, wanted the South to pay a price for secession and believed that Congress, not the president, should direct the process of Reconstruction. The Radical Republicans saw serious flaws in Civil War–era southern society and were adamant that the South needed full social rehabilitation to resemble the North. Many Republican Congressmen also aimed to improve education and labor conditions to benefit all of the oppressed classes in southern society, black and white. To quicken this transformation of the South, Congress passed a series of progressive legislation, including the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the First and Second Reconstruction Acts, the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, the Civil Rights Act of 1875, and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
In the end, Radical Republicans in the House impeached President Andrew Johnson in 1868 because he repeatedly blocked their attempt to pass radical legislation. For example, Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Freedmen’s Bureau charter, and the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, all of which were progressive, “radical” bills. Had Lincoln remained alive, he might have been in the same position himself: he wanted Reconstruction to end quickly and did not necessarily favor progressive legislation. Indeed, Lincoln had made it clear during the Civil War that he was fighting to restore the Union, not to emancipate slaves. It is likely that Lincoln thus would have battled with Congress over the control of Reconstruction, blocked key Reconstruction policies, and met as vindictive a House as Johnson did 1868.
Explain how three of the following shaped northern politics during Reconstruction: a) black codes b) the Depression of 1873 c) Crédit Mobilier d) the “Swing Around the Circle” speeches e) the Resumption Act of 1875
The Crédit Mobilier scandal, the Depression of 1873, and the Resumption Act of 1875 focused attention away from the South and onto political and economic woes in the North. All three thus played a role in ending Reconstruction.
In the 1860s, executives of the Union Pacific Railroad created a dummy construction company called Crédit Mobilier and then hired themselves out as contractors at high rates to earn large profits. The executives bribed dozens of Congressmen and cabinet members in Ulysses S. Grant’s administration, including Grant’s vice president, to allow the scam to work. The scheme was eventually exposed, and many politicians were forced to resign. Along with other scandals, such as the Fisk-Gould gold scandal and the Whiskey Ring, Crédit Mobilier distracted northern voters’ attention away from southern Reconstruction and toward corruption and graft problems in the North.
When the Depression of 1873 struck, northern voters became even less interested in pursuing Reconstruction efforts. Unemployment climbed to 15 percent, and hard currency became scarce. With pressing economic problems, northerners did not have time to worry about helping former slaves, punishing the Ku Klux Klan, or readmitting southern states into the Union.
Moreover, the Republican Party’s adherence to unpopular, strict monetary policies in response to the depression—such as the Resumption Act of 1875—opened the door for the Democratic Party to make large political gains, accelerating the end of Reconstruction. The Resumption Act reduced the amount of currency circulating in the economy in an effort to curb inflation caused by the depression. Although the act improved economic conditions in the long run, it made for harder times in both the North and South in the short run. The Act was Republican-sponsored, so Democrats were able to capitalize on its unpopularity to rally support for their party. This increased popularity translated into election victories that enabled Democrats to retake the South, bringing Reconstruction to a close.
