Reconstruction Flashcards
In December 1865, the first constitutional amendment in 60 years was ratified by 2/3 of the states. What did the Thirteenth Amendment do?
The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime.
What was Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan?
Lincoln proposed that for a state to be readmitted to the Union, it had to fulfill two requirements:
agree to abolish slavery
10% of the total number of voters from 1860 had to take an oath of future loyalty to the United States
By 1863, the states of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana fulfilled Lincoln’s requirements and applied for readmission.
Radical Republicans
Vehement abolitionists, the Radical Republicans favored harsh treatment for the former Confederacy, and advocated strong protections for newly freed blacks, such as the Freedman’s Bureau.
Radical Republicans opposed the more moderate stances towards the Confederacy advocated by Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.
In 1863, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee had fulfilled the requirements of Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan, and applied for readmission to the Union. Their application was denied in Congress. Why?
The Radical Republicans, who controlled Congress, thought that Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan was too lenient, and denied the three applications for readmission.
What did the Wade-Davis Bill (1864) require regarding the readmission of former Confederate States?
The Wade-Davis Bill required that, in order to be readmitted, 50% of a former Confederate state’s voters had to take the Ironclad Oath, swearing that they had never taken up arms against the Union, nor supported the Confederacy. Effectively, the Bill sought to keep ex-Confederates from voting and controlling the readmitted states.
How did Abraham Lincoln react to the harsh terms of the Wade-Davis Bill (1864)?
Lincoln exercised a pocket veto over the Wade-Davis Bill (meaning that he neither approved nor vetoed it formally, instead letting the Congressional term expire).
Lincoln opposed the Bill’s harsh Ironclad Oath, which required swearing that one had never taken up arms against the Union, nor given aid to the Confederacy. Lincoln preferred that Southerners swear an oath of future loyalty.
How did President Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan differ from Lincoln’s?
In addition to Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan, Johnson proposed three further requirements for readmitted states:
ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment
repudiation of Confederate debts
renunciation of secession
Much as Lincoln’s plan had, Johnson’s plan angered Radical Republicans in Congress, who felt it was too lenient on the former Confederate states.
Black Codes
In 1865, legislatures in the formerly Confederate states passed Black Codes, which were laws that prohibited blacks from:
borrowing money to purchase land
renting land
testifying against whites in court
serving on juries when a white defendant was on trial
The Black Codes also established a form of semi-bondage which deemed many freedman as vagrants and forced them to work
sharecropping
Under sharecropping, a landowner provided land, seed, and needed farm implements to poor black and white farmers in exchange for a portion of the harvested crop (usually 50%).
Although sharecropping gave poor farmers access to land, it allowed for little upward mobility.
By late 1865, all 11 of the former Confederate states had met the lenient requirements of Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan, and sent representatives to Congress. How did Congress react?
Congress, and especially the Radical Republicans, were furious, especially since none of the new state constitutions extended voting rights to blacks and had established Black Codes. Further, many of the elected Congressmen were former Confederate leaders, including Alexander Stephens, the Confederate Vice President.
What was the “Swing Around the Circle”?
The “Swing Around the Circle” was the nickname given to President Johnson’s speaking tour in 1866. Johnson sought public support for his lenient Reconstruction policies and denounced Radical Republicans.
What was the result of the 1866 congressional elections?
Radical Republicans were swept into office, ensuring that a hard line would continue to be maintained against the former Confederate states.
Johnson failed in his attempts to persuade the public to support his lenient policy in his “Swing Around the Circle” tour. For the remainder of his Presidency, Johnson would face staunch Congressional opposition.
In response to the South’s Black Codes, Congress passed the first _____ _____ Act in 1866.
Civil Rights
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 deemed that blacks were citizens, directly contradicting the Dred Scott decision. Concerned that the Supreme Court would deem the Act unconstitutional, its terms were later embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment.
President Johnson vetoed the bill, further angering Republicans in Congress.
What did the Fourteenth Amendment establish?
Adopted in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment:
defined citizenship to include all persons born or naturalized in the United States
extended the Constitution to the states, meaning that states could no longer violate rights embodied in the Constitution
repudiated Confederate debt
barred former Confederates from holding elective office
What prompted Congress to pass the Military Reconstruction Act in 1866?
Due to Southern opposition, the Fourteenth Amendment initially failed to be ratified by the requisite 2/3 of the states. After the 1866 election, Congress passed the Military Reconstruction Act, which designated 10 of the 11 former Confederate states as military districts under military control. Johnson vetoed the Act.
The Military Reconstruction Act held that to be readmitted, states must adopt the Fourteenth Amendment, and provide for black voting rights.
The 11th state was Tennessee, which had ratified the 14th Amendment.
Why did the House vote to impeach President Johnson?
In 1867, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, which required the President to get Senate approval before removing a cabinet member. The Act was designed to protect Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, a Radical Republican ally.
Johnson ignored the Act and fired Stanton. The House voted to impeach Johnson, but by a single vote the Senate voted against his removal from office.
Who did the Republicans nominate at the 1866 Republican Convention?
The Republicans backed Ulysses S. Grant, a popular war hero with no political record. The Republican platform endorsed many Radical Republican policies, including harsh treatment for the South.
In the 1868 presidential election, Grant defeated Democratic Party nominee Horatio Seymour by only 300,000 votes. Which group of voters formed the deciding margin?
Grant could never have won without the 500,000 votes provided by newly enfranchised freedmen. The importance of freedmen to their continued political dominance convinced even conservative Republicans to vigorously defend black voting rights.
To further protect black voters, Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment.
What conduct was the Fifteenth Amendment (1869) designed to protect?
The Fifteenth Amendment was designed to protect the right to vote, and disallowed any state to abridge voting “on account of race, color, creed, or previous condition of servitude.”
In part, Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment in response to Grant’s narrow victory in the 1868 election, which had been due to the 500,000 votes Grant received from black voters.
How did suffragettes react to the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment?
Many suffragettes espoused abolition and supported the granting of civil rights to blacks. They used the Amendment’s passage to argue that they deserved the same rights which the nation had extended to former slaves.
_____ were Northerners who came South after the War to operate the Reconstruction governments; _____ were Southerners who cooperated with them
Carpetbaggers; Scalawags
Both groups met with widespread derision from the local populace.
The term “Carpetbaggers” refers to carpetbags, a popular suitcase of the time. Critics contended that Carpetbaggers tossed their few possessions in a bag, then headed South to take advantage of the defeated Confederacy.
Union Leagues
The Union Leagues were organizations in various Southern cities during Reconstruction, mostly headed by Northern blacks. In addition to providing education and political discussions, the Union Leagues registered voters and encouraged them to vote for Republican candidates.
What was the Ku Klux Klan?
Founded by former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Klan sought to intimidate newly freed blacks by lynchings, whippings, and burning black-owned buildings. The Klan operated in secret, with membership wearing distinctive white hoods.
In response to the Klan’s activities (and those of related entities), Congress passed the Force Acts of 1870 and 1871, which made actions such as the Klan’s federal offenses.
In 1872, Congress passed the _____ _____, which granted to all but top-ranking Confederates their civil rights, including the right to vote.
Amnesty Act
Re-enfranchised voters throughout the South promptly elected Democrats to their state governments.
Who ran against Grant in the presidential campaign of 1872?
Horace Greeley
Breaking with their party over political corruption, Liberal Republicans nominated Northern newspaperman Horace Greeley, a move which was also endorsed by Democrats.
During the campaign, the Republicans relied upon “waving the bloody shirt,” a tactic they’d employed since 1866, by referring to those who had fought and died in the Civil War to justify their re-election.
What was the Freedman’s Bureau?
Active between 1865 and 1869, the Freedman’s Bureau was a federal agency that assisted newly freed blacks.
The Freedman’s Bureau provided food, clothing, and education, and over a four-year period, taught some 200,000 blacks to read, founded several black colleges, and built 3,000 schools.
