Chapter 22 - The Ordeal of Reconstruction 1865-1877

 

Chapter Outline

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The Problems of Peace

• After the war, many confederate war leaders were captured and a popular Northern song was "hang Jeff Davis" and even the children sang it. Davis was temporarily clapped into irons during the early days of his two-year imprisonment but he and his fellow conspirators were release because the odds were that no Virginia jury would convict them. All rebel leaders were pardoned by President Johnson as sort of a christmas present in 1868.
  • Although Congress did not remove all remaining civil disabilities until 30 years later and fully restored Davis's citizenship more than a century later.
• The South had collapsed because of the war economically and socially. The "Old" confident south had perished and the South needed to rebuild. Good looking cities such as charleston and Richmond had been reduced to rubble strewn and full of weeds. Inflation ruined local business. Banks and factories had been shut down and the transportation system had been broken down completely, Agriculture, the economic lifeblood of the south was hopelessly crippled, the fields were filled with weeds and livestock have been driven away by plundering yankees and the slave labor system had collapsed, the south was left in peril.
• Many southerners were angered shouting "damn Yankees" and spoke out against government. Southern aristocrats were humbled temporarily reduced from proud to poverty

Freedmen Define Freedom

• Emancipation took effect unevenly in different parts of the Confederacy.
• Many thought that African Americans were ‘incapable of accepting “freedom” in any sense’ because:
  1. Some slaves resisted the liberating Union armies due to their loyalty to their masters.
  2. Freed blacks had no idea what to do now since they’re free and all they know how to do is labor work causing whites to resume leadership/control.
• Education arose for the blacks due to the emancipation proclamation. Blacks were now able to learn to how to read and write.
• Church became the main focus of black community life; they formed their own churches pastured by their own ministers.
• Many ex-slaves: sought families, organized society around churches, sought education, as many remained poor.

The Freedman's Bureau

• Freedman's Bureau was created to help the newly freed slaves who were considered less experienced at life
• Kind of life welfare; provided clothing, food, medical care, edu.
• Greatest achievement was the education mostly cause blacks wanted to be closer to whites and read the word of God
• Bureau was week in other departments, little land was given to blacks that was promised, land was captured from Confederate

Johnson: The Tailor President

• Johnson was born into an extremely poor family and therefore never went to school. instead he became the apprentice to a tailor at ten. he taught himself how to read, and later his wife taught him how to write and do simple arithmetic.
• Johnson was a champion of the poor whites against planter aristocrats, although he did own a few slaves. elected to Congress, he became favored by the north when he refused to secede with his state. after Tennesse was partialy reclaimed by union soldiers, he was appointed war general.
• Johnson then moved into the vice presidency-->Lincoln's Union party in 1864 needed support from War Democrats and other pro-southern elements and Johnson seemed to be ideal. Unfortunately, he arrived at the vice-presidential inaugural ceremonies in a scandalous condition-->he had been recently afflicted with typhoid fever and had been urged by his friends to take a stiff bracer of whiskey, he did.
• "Old Andy" Johnson was intelligent, able, forceful, gifted with honesty, devoted to duty and people, dogmatic champion of states' rights and Constitution. However, he was a misfit-->Southerner did not understand the North, a Tennessean had earned distrust of the South, a Democrat who had never been accepted by Republicans, a president who had never been elected to the office, not at home in a republican white house. wrong man in wrong place at wrong time-->a Reconstruction policy would have failed in his hands.

The Baleful Black Codes

• The first of the new Southern regimes sanctioned by Johnson were the Black Codes.
• The Black Codes were designed to regulate the affairs of the emancipated blacks.
• Mississippi passed the first law like this in Nov 1865, with other states soon following.
• The Black Codes varied in severity from state to state, Mississippi being the harshest and Georgia the most lenient.
• The Black Codes were aimed to create a stable subservient labor force.
• Consequences for "jumped" labor contracts were usually one year service under the contract holder at pittance wages. Violators could be made to forgeit back wages, or could be dragged back to work by a paid "Negro-catcher".
• Blacks freedom was recognized, and they had the right to marry, but could not serve on a jury, and in a few stats could not rent or lease land. They could be punished for "idleness" by forced servitude on a chain-gang. They were not allowed the right to vote.

Congressional Reconstruction

• blacks could dismantle the economic program of the republican party by lowering tariffs, rerouting the transcontinental railroad, repealing the free farm homestead act, possibly even repudiating the national debt. President Johnson thus deeply disturbed the congressional republicans when he announced on December 6th, 1865, that the recently rebellious states had satisfied his conditions and that in his view the union was now restored.
• Among those who presented themselves at the Capitol in Dec 1865, there was four former Confederate generals, five colonels, and various members of the Richmond cabinet and Congress who tried reclaiming their seats.. The presence of these "whitewashed rebels" infuriated the Republicans in Congress.
• While the South had been "out" from 1861 to 1865 the Republicans in Congress had enjoyed a relatively free hand. They had passed much legislation that favored the North, such as the Morrill Tariff, the Pacific Railroad Act, and the Homestead Act.
• Before the war a black slave had counted as three-fifths of a person. Now the slave was five-fifths of a person. Because of this, a full counting of free blacks showed that the rebel states were entitled to twelve more votes in Congress and twelve more presidential electoral votes.

Johnson Clashes with Congress

• the clash came out into the open in february 1866 when Johnson vetoed a bill, extending the life of the Feedmen's Bureau.
• the Republicans, in March 1866, passed the civil rights Bill. this conferred on blacks the privilege of American citizenship and struck at the black codes.
• Johnson veteod this bill, but Congress ignored his veto, something they repeatedly did henceforth. Congress assumed the dominant role in running the government,
• Republicans now wanted to rivet the principles of the Civil Rights Bill into the constitution as the Fourteenth Amendment(they were afraid southerners might one day get control of Congress and repel the law), the amendment as approved by Congress and sent to the states in June 1866 (1)conferred civil rights, including citizenship but excluding the franchise, on the freedmen;(2)reduced proportionately the representation of a state in Congress and electoral college if it denied blacks the ballot;(3)disqualified from federal and state office former Confederates who as federal officeholders had sworn to support the Constituiton;(4)guaranteed the federal debt, while repudiating all Confederate debts
• radical faction disappointed that 14th didn't grant right to vote, but all republicans agreed no state should be welcomed back into Union without first ratifying the 14th
• president Johnson advised southern states to reject it, all except tennessee defiantly spurned amendment

Republican Principles and Programs

• Republicans now had a veto-proof Congress and unlimited control of the Reconstruction policy, but moderates and radicals still disagreed on the path to take.
• The radicals in senate were led by Charles Sumner; he fought for black freedom and radical equality.
• The most powerful radical in the house was Thaddeus Stevens, he was a strong supporter of black freedom and was known for defending runaway slaves in court without fee and even asked to be buried in a black cemetery when he died. He was a leading figure on the Joint Committee of Reconstruction.
• Radicals wanted to keep the south out for a time and use federal power to bring about aneconomic and social transformation in the South.
• Moderate republicans preferred policies that restrained states from abridging citizens’rights rather than policies that involved the federal government directly in individual lives.
• One thing both groups did agree on was the necessity to enfranchise black voters.

Reconstruction by the Sword

• Viscous and bloody race riots had erupted in many Southern cities. congress passed the reconstruction act on march 2nd 1867. supplemented by later measures, this drastic legislation divided the south into five military districts, each commanded by a union general and policed by blue-clad soldiers about twenty thousand
• Congress laid down stringent conditions for the readmission of the seceded states. the wayward states were required to ratify the fourteenth amendment which gave slaves their right to freedom.
• The only fear was that once the states had been readmitted into the Union they would take away suffrage from the black males so 1869, the fifteenth amendment was passed granting black suffrage and it was ratified by the required number of states in 1870.

No Women Voters

• The passage of the three reconstruction era amendments (thirteenth, fourteenth and the fifteenth) delighted former abolitionist but deeply disappointed Feminists. Although women played a huge role during the civil war, many were still discouraged. It was unfair for the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to give rights to black males, but not none to the women. The fight for black freedom and the fight for women's rights were one in the same in the eyes of many women.

 

The Realities of Radical Reconstruction in the South

The Ku Klux Klan

• southern whites resorted to savage measures against radical rule, many resented success and ability of black legislators
• founded in Tennessee in 1866, besheeted nightriders would approach cabins of an "upstart" black and attempt to scare them, if fright didn't produce desired effect, force was employed
• many ex-bondsmen and white carpetbaggers took the hint and shunned the polls, but others who persisted were flogged, mutilated, or murdered
• became a refuge for numerous bandits and cutthroats
• Congress, outraged, passed the harsh Force Acts of 1870 and 1871, federal troops able to stamp out much of the "lash law" but by this time the Invisible Empire had already done its work of intimidation
• many outlawed groups continued tactics in the guise of "dancing clubs", "missionary societies," and "rifle clubs"
• white resistance undermined attempts to empower blacks politically, south openly flouted 14th and 15th amendments, wholesale disfranchisement achieved by intimidation, fraud, and trickery
• literacy tests, unfairly administered by whites to advantage of illiterate whites-->justified by goal of white supremacy

Johnson Walks the Impeachment Plank

• Radicals annoyed by Johnson's obstructions, wanted to remove him by constitutional processes-->"Bluff Ben" Wade of Ohio would become president
• Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867 which required the president to secure the consent of the Senate before he could remove his cabinet members once they had been approved by the Senate.
• Its purpose was to keep the secretary of war, Edwin M. Stanton, in the president's cabinet.
• When Johnson dismissed Stanton in 1868, the House of Representatives voted 126 to 47 to impeach Johnson for "high crimes and misdemeanors," charging him with various violations of the Tenure of Office Act
• two additional articles in Constitution related to johnson's verbal assaults on the Congress

A Not-Guilty Verdict for Johnson

• The now radical-led Senate sat on a court to try Johnson on impeachment charges. The House conducted the prosecution.
• On May 16, 1868 the Senate voted with only one less than needed for a 2/3 vote, that Johnson should be not removed from office.
• Several factors shaped the outcome; fear of setting a precedent, and political considerations.
• Johnson tried remaining in office by stating, through his lawyer, that if allowed to remain in office, he would stop obstructing Republican policies.
• Radicals were furious for not being able to muster the 2/3rd vote required.

The Purchase of Alaska

• Johnson's administration, largely reduced to a figurehead, achieved it's most enduring success in the field of foreign relations; the purchase of Alaska from Russia.
• The Russians by 1867 were in a mood to sell the vast and chilly expanse of land, Alaska, because they were already overextended in North America. They preferred the United States to any other purchaser, primarily because they wanted to strengthen further the Republic as a barrier against their ancient enemy, Britain.
• In 1867 Secretary of State William Seward signed a treaty with Russia that transferred Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million. But Seward's enthusiasm for these frigid wastes was not shared by his ignorant or uninformed countrymen.
• It is speculated that America bought Alaska not for it's usefulness, but due to that fact that Russia and the tsar and been friendly during the Civil War, and they didn't want to turn their backs on that.

The Heritage of Reconstruction

• Many white Southeners saw reconstruction as worse than the war itself. they hated the upending of their social and racial system, political empowerment of blacks, and the federal intervention in their local affairs.
• republicans wanted to protect freed slaves and to promote the fortunes of the Republican party. their efforts actually backfired. reconstruction gave only fleeting benefits to the blacks and extinguished the Republican part in the south for one hundred years.

Varying Viewpoints: How Radical was Reconstruction?

• Reconstruction provoked sectional, racial, and constitutional questions about which people felt deeply about and remain deeply divided even today.
• In the early 1900s students of William A. Dunning, a Columbia University historian,published a series of histories of the recanstruction South. Dunning and his students were influenced by the turn-of-the-century spirit of sectional conciliation as well as by current theories about black racial inferiority. because of the racial attidues still present, they sided with white southeners, and called Reconstruction as a national disgrace. if the south had wronged the North by seceding, the North had wronged the south by reconstructing.