(Class 11) Reconstruction Flashcards
1
Q
Presidential Reconstruction
A
- Lincoln died April 15, 1865
- Andrew Johnson (Democrat) is sworn in as President
- Congress had adjourned in March
- Congress would not reconvene until December
- From April to December, with Congress recessed, Johnson draws up and executes plan of reconstruction without Congress
2
Q
Congressional Reconstruction/Military Reconstruction
A
- July 1864 - Wade-Davis Bill
- Congressman Henry Winter Davis of Maryland and Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio
- Proposal: At least ½ of state voters take oath of allegiance, Ex-confederates banned from drafting new state constitutions, Guarantee of equality of freedom for all
- Fourteenth Amendment
- March 1867 – Military Reconstruction Act easily and quickly passes Congress
- Congress overturns Presidential Reconstruction and the state legislatures in 10 states
- Initiates Military rule in 10 unreconstructed states (all but Tennessee)
- Divides the 10 states into 5 military districts
- Congress puts Union General in charge of each district
- Military rule and political reform begin in the south
- Military conducts voter registration of all males in each district
- Black Suffrage for all black males
- New state constitutions in reconstructed states
- Ratification of the 14th Amendment by all states
- But did not confiscate Confederate lands and plantations and distribute to ex-slaves
- The wish of Radical Thaddeus Stevens
- Most republicans however thought this was too radical
3
Q
Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
A
- Lincoln issued Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction – December 1863
- Full Pardon for most confederates – except highest ranking military leaders
- Restoration of property (not including slaves) to southerners
- Full political rights – to those renouncing secession and accepting emancipation
- Oath of allegiance by 10% of the state à would mean readmission into the Union
- Did not address political and social rights of ex-slaves
- AIM: A rapid and forgiving restoration
- Plan criticized by northern radicals who wanted greater overhaul of South
4
Q
Freedman’s Bureau
A
- January 1865 General Sherman was in South Carolina and he sets aside coastal South Carolina land for black settlement
- March 1865 Congress formally establishes Freedman’s Bureau (Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands) and Lincoln signs
- Distributes food and clothing to the destitute
- Eases transition of former slaves to free men
- Divided abandoned and confiscated land into 40-acre plots to rent/sell to freedmen
- By June 1865 – 10,000 black families were on a half million acres of abandoned formerly confederate land
5
Q
Black Codes
A
- Adopted by new state governments in the south
- Made travesty of black freedom
- Out right discrimination
- Illegal for black people to own gun
- Barred blacks from jury duty
- No state granted right to vote to former slaves/blacks
- Restrict black ownership of land
- Tried to limit blacks to only farm work or domestic service
- Meant to “restore all of slavery but its name”
6
Q
14th Amendment
A
- Passed by Congress in June 1866
- Took two years to ratify by the states
- A Complex amendment - Has 5 sections – one of our most important amendments
- Makes all native-born or naturalized persons American citizens
- If born here à automatically a U.S. citizen
- Overturns Dred Scott decision
- Prohibited states from abridging the “privileges and immunities” of citizens
- No one could be deprived of “life, liberty, or property without due process of law”
- All had “equal protection” under the laws
7
Q
Road to Johnson’s Impeachment
A
- Johnson tried in numerous ways to sabotage Congress
- Encouraged southern whites to resist
- Issued numerous pardons to Confederates
- Waged war against the Freedmen’s Bureau
- Replaced Union Generals eager to enforce military reconstruction with those who wanted to defeat it
- In the name of preserving the constitution he subverted Congress to try to protect southern whites
8
Q
Impeachment
A
- Johnson abused constitutional powers
- He failed to enforce the laws of Congress as mandated by the constitution
- But he did not violate any criminal statutes – did not actually break the law – so not impeachable according to moderates in Congress
- In August 1867 Johnson suspends Stanton from office
- “The Tenure of Office Act” (1867-1887) requires approval of the Senate for removal
- President requested Senate approval
- Senate resisted and refused to approve the removal
- Johnson removes Stanton anyway and attempts to appoint a new Secretary of War
- Johnson broke the law
- House of Representatives votes resolution of impeachment – first President to be impeached
- Vote: 35 senators found him guilty, 19 senators found him not guilty (64.8%)
- One short of 2/3 needed to convict
- Not removed from office
- Johnson called for a truce after the Senate trial
9
Q
15th Amendment
A
- Passed by Congress in February 1869
- Prohibited states from depriving any citizen of the right to vote because of “race, color or previous condition of servitude.”
- Extended Black (male) voting to the entire country
- Prohibited exclusion on basis of race but not for other reasons
- In time Southerners would devise other ways to deprive blacks of the vote
- Literacy requirement
- Property requirement
- “Poll” tax
- Did not address women’s suffrage and women were angry!
10
Q
Carpetbaggers
A
- Northern whites, generally Republicans, who made the South there home after the war.
11
Q
Scalawags
A
- White Southern Republicans
- Who Supported reconstruction
- Collaborated with northern Republicans during Reconstruction, often for personal profit.
- Term used derisively by white Southern Democrats who opposed Reconstruction legislation.
12
Q
Sharecropping
A
- Emerges in the South as way of life after civil war
- A way to resume agricultural production in a devastated South
- Offers something to both ex-masters and ex-slaves
- But Satisfied neither
- Cotton Plantations were divided into small farms
- Freedmen rented property
- Paid rent with a share of each year’s crop – usually half
- Black families built cabins on the land they rented
- Landlords had power to evict after each growing season
13
Q
“Waving the bloody shirt”
A
- Republicans were accused of using the memory of the Civil War to their political advantage
- A political strategy to remind the American public that it was Republicans who fought to save the union in the Civil War and they should be rewarded with election to office
14
Q
Credit Mobilier scandal
A
- Came to public attention in 1872
- Involved the Union Pacific Railroad and the Crédit Mobilier construction company
- In the building of the First Transcontinental Railroad financed by the federal government
- The construction company charged the railroad far higher rates than usual
- To get the construction contract Crédit Mobilier gave cash and $9 million in discounted stock as bribes to politicians, including the Vice-President Schuyler Colfax, the Secretary of the Treasury, four senators, and the Speaker and other members of the House
- Colfax lost his position as Vice President
- Many in Congress were censured
15
Q
Compromise of 1877
A
- Behind closed door an informal deal was struck to resolve the dispute and prevent another rebellion
- Awarded all 20 electoral votes to Hayes
- In exchange for the Democrats’ promise not to block Hayes’ inauguration and to deal fairly with freedmen Hayes agrees, that once he becomes President, he will withdraw federal troops from the South to end Military Reconstruction and all reconstruction
- The Compromise effectively ceded power in the Southern states to the Democratic Redeemers who went on to pursue their agenda of returning the South to a political economy resembling that of its pre-war condition
- Hayes became President, withdraws troops from the south, and reconstruction is over
