Reconstruction
The Economic Problems of Peace:
The national debt had shot up from $65 million in 1860 to $3 billion in 1865.
War taxes had to be reduced.
Physical devastation inflicted, chiefly in the South, had to be repaired.
4 million black slaves suddenly were free.
Were the seceded states to be brought back into the Union on the old basis?
What of the captured Confederate ringleaders?
Potential Foreign Problems with France and Britain:
Napoleon III had enthroned “Archduke” Maximilian on the Mexican throne.
Northern hatred of England for sympathy of the Confederates.
The Prostrate South:
(A “Jeff Davis Necktie”)
Agriculture was crippled. Seed was scarce, livestock had been driven off, and black labor had taken off to enjoy their freedom.
“Forty acres and a mule.”
The slaves, once worth about $2 billion, had been freed in one of the costliest confiscations of history.
Yet many southerners remained defiant of the North.
Black Codes in the Black South:
Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau in 1865 to provide food, clothing, and education.
It was also authorized to distribute up to 40 acres of abandoned or confiscated land to every adult male.
It taught an estimated 200,000 Black fold the elements of reading.
They longed to read the Word of God.
The Bureau redistributed virtually no land.
In 1865 and 1866 the South enacted the iron-toothed Black Codes to insure a stable labor supply.
1. Forbade a Black to serve on a jury.
2. Barred Blacks from renting or leasing land.
3. Punished for idleness – sentenced to work on the chain gang.
Thousands slipped into the status of share crop farmers.
Johnson – The Tailor President:
Johnson was a Southerner and a Democrat, and a dogmatic champion on states’ rights and the Constitution.
He was the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Lenient Johnsonian Justice:
The Radical Republicans were determined to reconstruct the south “Radically.”
Lincoln’s “rosewater” 10% plan of 1863 said voters equal to 1/10 of the voting population must take the oath of allegiance to the U.S.
Must create a constitution which accepted the abolition of slavery.
Lincoln would then recognize their state governments.
Johnson’s plan in 1865:
1. Disfranchised certain leading Confederates, including those with taxable property worth more than $20,000.
2. Required that a state repeal the ordinances of secession.
3. Repudiate all Confederate debts, and ratify the slave-freeing 13th Amendment.
1865 scores of distinguished Southerners were on hand to take their seats in Congress.
Radical Republicans refused to allow them to take their seats.
A restored South would be stronger than ever in Congress.
The South would be entitled to 12 more votes than prior to the war.
Give the ballot to the ex-slave and induce him to vote Republican.
Johnson clashes with Congress:
On what terms should the seceded states not be readmitted?
1. Never legally withdrawn from union.
2. Had committed “suicide,” “conquered provinces”
Congressman Thaddeus Stevens
The 14th Amendment:
1. Conferred civil rights (but not the vote) on the Blacks.
2. Reduced proportionately the representation of a state in Congress if it denied the Blacks the ballot.
3. Disqualified from federal and state office ex-Confederates who had been former officeholders.
4. Guaranteed the federal debt, while repudiating all Confederate debts.
Military Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867:
1. Set up 5 military districts – commanded by a Union General.
2. Disfranchised many Southern white leaders.
3. Stringent conditions for readmission – ratify the 14th Amendment.
4. Guarantee full suffrage for their former slaves.
1870 – 15th Amendment – guaranteeing Black Suffrage.
“Scalawage” – Southerners who were Union sympathizers.
“Carpetbaggers” – Northerners.
Lincoln and Johnson favored giving the ballot gradually to the Blacks.
Qualify through education, property ownership, or soldier service.
Black-and-White Legislatures in the South:
Many newly elected black legislators were literate and able.
Overall these governments were characterized by graft and theft.
Public debt in the Southern states doubled and tripled.
Tax rates shot up 10 to 15 fold.
“No Taxation Without Representation.”
Knights of the White Sheet:
“Invisible Empire of the South,” or Ku Klux Klan
Tennessee in 1866
Force Acts of 1870 and 1871
Johnson’s Impeachment:
President pro tempore of the Senate, Radical Bluff Ben Wade of Ohio
1867 Tenure of Office Act
Secretary of War – Edwin M. Stanton
The House of Representatives voted 126 to 47 to impeach Johnson for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Senate failed by 1 vote to muster the 2/3 necessary to remove Johnson.
The Purchase of Alaska:
1867 Secretary of State – Seward
$7.2 million paid to the Russians
“Seward’s Folly” “Seward’s Icebox” “Frigidia” “Walrussia”
So why purchase Alaska?
1. Russia had been friendly to the North during the Civil War
2. Rumored to be teeming with furs, fish, and gold
Heritage of Reconstruction:
One of America’s tragic failures.
No wholesale blood purges.
“Solid South” – Democratic
Andrew Johnson – The Man 1808 – 1875
Presidential Term – 1865 – 1869
Election of 1868:
Republicans nominated General Ulysses S. Grant
Democrats nominate Horatio Seymour – two-time governor of New York
Grant won 214 to 80 in the Electoral College
Grant won by a majority of only 300,000 popular votes.
An estimated 500,000 ex-slaves cast votes for Grant.
The Era of Good Stealing:
Grant’s administration is the most corrupt government in U.S. History.
He was not a good judge of personal character.
Extremely loyal to his friends.
The Election of 1872:
Radical Republicans re-nominate Grant
Liberal Republican Party is formed
Horace Greeley is jointly run by the Liberal Republicans and the Democrats
Grant won 286 to 66 in the Electoral College
General amnesty act of 1872
Reduced the high Civil War duties
Panic of 1873 – 5,000 businesses went bankrupt.
Grant’s scandals exposed:
1875 – Whisky Ring – Private Secretary
1876 – Secretary of War, Belknap took $24,000 by selling he privilege of disbursing supplies to the Indians.
The Election of 1876:
Grant was interested in a 3rd Term
Ulysses S. Grant – The Man 1822 – 1885
Presidential Term – 1869 – 1877
When Grant was President:
“Custer’s Last Stand” took place on June 25, 1876.
The Great Chicago fire took place when “Mrs. O’Leary’s” cow kicked over the lantern on Oct. 8, 1871. 250 people were killed.