CHAPTER 16

Chapter 16
Reconstruction: An Unfinished Revolution,1865-1877

Chapter Summary
Reconstruction refers to the process by which the nation was rebuilt after the destruction caused by the Civil War. This rebuilding was social, political, and economic. Since there were no guidelines as to how it would be accomplished, questions and disagreements arose. Given such disagreements, as well as the emotional aftermath of four years of war and the force of individual personalities, Reconstruction proceeded by trial and error.
As early as 1863, some two years before the end of the war, a debate began between the President and Congress over key questions relating to Reconstruction. In this debate, and in the Reconstruction proposals put forward by President Lincoln and Congress, it was apparent that the two disagreed over the scope and objectives of the Reconstruction process. Despite these disagreements, in early 1865 Congress and the President were able to work together to secure passage of the Thirteenth Amendment and to create the Freedmen’s Bureau.
At war’s end and as the power struggle between the executive and legislative branches over control of the Reconstruction process became more pronounced, blacks renewed their determination to struggle for survival and true equality within American society. On one level they placed faith in education and participation in the political process as means of attaining equality, but they also turned to family and religion for strength and support. Denied the possibility of owning land, they sought economic independence through new economic arrangements such as sharecropping. However, sharecropping ultimately “proved to be a disaster” for all concerned.
When Congress reconvened in December 1865, it was faced with a Reconstruction policy advanced by President Johnson that not only allowed former Confederate leaders to regain power at the state and national levels, but obviously abandoned the freedmen to hostile southern whites. Northern congressmen and the constituents they represented were unwilling to accept this outcome of the long, bitter struggle against a rebellious South. Believing that it had a constitutional right to play a role in the Reconstruction process, Congress acted. This action led to clashes with an intransigent President Johnson and to the passage of two congressional Reconstruction plans.
The first of these plans, the Fourteenth Amendment, evolved when the wrangling between President Johnson and Congress produced compromises among the conservative, moderate, and radical factions of the Republican Party. Although Congress passed the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 over the president’s veto, there was concern that the Supreme Court would declare the basic provisions of the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional. Therefore, those provisions were incorporated into a constitutional amendment that was presented to the states for ratification in April 1866. The Fourteenth Amendment demonstrated that Congress wanted to guarantee equality under the law to the freedmen, but its provisions make it clear that the moderate and conservative Republicans who controlled Congress were not willing to accept the more progressive concept of equality advanced by the Radical Republicans.
When, at the urging of the president, every former Confederate state except Tennessee refused to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, Congress passed its second Reconstruction plan—the Reconstruction Acts of 1867–1868. Although these acts demonstrated some movement in the Radical direction by extending to blacks the right to vote in state elections, congressmen were still limited by the prejudices of the age. They labeled as extremist the suggestion that southern land be redistributed and so rejected the idea of giving blacks economic independence. They naively assumed that blacks would need only the ballot in their fight for a better life.
The same kinds of limitations worked within Reconstruction governments, preventing fundamental reform of southern society. Concurrently, southern Republicans adopted a policy that returned voting rights to former Confederates. These former Confederates, or Conservatives, ultimately led a campaign designed to return political and economic power to their hands by discrediting the Reconstruction governments. Adopting tactics ranging from racist charges and intimidation to organized violence, the Conservatives were able to achieve their objectives, as events in Alamance and Caswell counties in North Carolina demonstrated.
These setbacks indicated that northern commitment to equality had never been total. The federal government even began to retreat from partial commitment—a retreat made obvious by the policies of President Grant, the gradual erosion of congressional resolve on Reconstruction issues, the conservative decisions of the Supreme Court, and the emergence of other issues that captured the minds of white Americans. Finally, with the resolution of the disputed Hayes-Tilden election in 1876, Reconstruction ended. The promise of equality for black Americans remained unfulfilled.



Learning Objectives
1. Examine the clash between the executive and legislative branches of government over the issue of Reconstruction, and discuss the events and forces that affected the development of the congressional Reconstruction plans.
2. Examine and evaluate the Reconstruction experience for blacks.
3. Explain the divergence between the provisions of President Johnson’s Reconstruction plan and its actual operation.
4. Cite the major provisions of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments; indicate the reasons for their passage by Congress; and explain the compromises embodied in each.
5. Cite the major provisions of the First Reconstruction Act of 1867; indicate the reasons for its enactment by Congress; and explain why it diverged from the proposals of the Radical Republicans.
6. Discuss the political, social, and economic impact of the Reconstruction governments on southern society.
7. Examine and evaluate the means by which white southern Conservatives attempted to regain control in the South, and indicate the outcome of their efforts.
8. Examine the events and forces that brought a weakening of the northern commitment to Reconstruction and an end to the Reconstruction era.

Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
The end of the Civil War brought profound changes to the United States. Reconstruction changed some things, but it did little regarding social equality and political turmoil. In the end, the government established black suffrage, but this reform proved insufficient to remake the South or to guarantee human rights.

II. Wartime Reconstruction
A. Lincoln’s 10 Percent Plan
Lincoln planned for a swift and moderate Reconstruction process. Under his 10 Percent Plan, he proposed that as soon as 10 percent of the voting population in the 1860 election took an oath and established a government, it would be recognized.
B. Congress and the Wade-Davis Bill
Responding negatively to Lincoln’s Reconstruction plan, Thaddeus Stevens advocated a “conquered province” theory and Charles Sumner advanced a “state suicide” theory. In July 1864, Congress passed the Wade-Davis bill by which the process of readmission to the Union was to be harsh and slow. Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill.
C. Thirteenth Amendment and the Freedmen’s Bureau
Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment on January 31, 1865. On March 3, 1865, Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands to aid southern refugees.

III. The Meanings of Freedom
A. The Feel of Freedom
Many former slaves began to explore freedom by searching for family members or exercising their right of mobility. Others reacted more cautiously. Most settled as workers on their former farms or plantation but attempted to control the conditions of their labor.
B. Reunion of African American Families
Relying on the black community in the South, thousands of former slaves began odysseys to find family members.
C. Blacks’ Search for Independence
Many blacks tried to avoid contact with overbearing whites by abandoning their slave quarters and relocating their houses. Some even established all-black settlements.
D. African Americans’ Desire for Land
Next to freedom, blacks wanted land most of all. Since they could not secure solid support in the North, however, few obtained their dream of independence.
E. The Black Embrace of Education
Many African Americans eagerly sought an education. Federal aid and northern charity helped start thousands of schools for freedmen in the South.
F. Growth of Black Churches
In an effort to gain more independence from whites, African Americans established their own churches, which became the social center of their new freedom.
G. Rise of the Sharecropping System
Blacks could not get credit, and sharecropping became widespread. Owners often cheated their tenants.

IV. Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan
A. Who Was Andrew Johnson?
Johnson was the only senator from a seceded state (Tennessee) who refused to follow his state out of the Union. At heart he was really a Jacksonian Democrat, not a Republican. He believed in limited government and was a white supremacist.
B. Johnson’s Leniency and Racial Views
Johnson’s belief that black suffrage could never be imposed on a southern state by the federal government put him on a collision course with the Radical Republicans.
C. Johnson’s Pardon Policy
Johnson hoped to keep prewar leaders from participating in the Reconstructed South. Nevertheless, he ended up pardoning most of them and thus restored the old elite.
D. Black Codes
Johnson’s pardons upset many Republicans, but the discriminatory black codes revealed the depth of southern defiance.

V. The Congressional Reconstruction Plan
A. The Radicals
The Radicals wanted to transform the South, and they were willing to exclude it from the Union until they had achieved their goal. By refusing to work with conservative and moderate Republicans, Johnson and the Democrats forced them to work with the Radicals.
B. Congress Wrests Control from Johnson
Congress worked to extend the Freedmen’s Bureau and to pass a civil rights law counteracting the black codes. Johnson vetoed these bills, ending hopes of compromise.
C. The Fourteenth Amendment
This amendment gave citizenship to freedmen, prohibited states from interfering with constitutional rights, declared the Confederate war debt null and void, barred Confederate leaders from holding state and federal office, and punished any state that restricted extension of the right to vote to black men.
D. The South’s and Johnson’s Defiance, 1866
At the urging of President Johnson, all southern states except Tennessee rejected the Fourteenth Amendment. Having won overwhelmingly in the 1866 congressional elections, Republicans decided to form new southern state governments.
E. The Reconstruction Acts of 1867-1868
Congress set up five military districts in the South, guaranteed freedmen the right to vote in elections for state constitutional conventions, required congressional approval of all new state constitutions, and declared that southern states must accept the Fourteenth Amendment.
F. The Failure of Land Redistribution
Thaddeus Stevens failed to win approval for his plan to confiscate and redistribute land in the former Confederate states.
G. Constitutional Crisis
Congress passed a number of controversial laws, including the Tenure of Office Act, by overriding presidential vetoes. Johnson proceeded to take several belligerent steps, including removal of Secretary of War Stanton.
H. Impeachment of President Johnson
After Johnson removed Secretary of War Stanton, Congress impeached the president. Although acquitted in the Senate, Johnson suffered politically.
I. Election of 1868
Grant, a supporter of congressional Reconstruction and of black suffrage in the South, won the 1868 presidential election.
J. Fifteenth Amendment
In 1869, Radicals succeeded in passing the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited denying the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Voting rights of women could still be denied.

VI. Reconstruction Politics in the South
A. White Resistance
Whites in the South resisted Reconstruction. Some denied freedom to their slaves, while others prevented blacks from getting land.
B. Black Voters and Emergence of a Southern Republican Party
Thanks to a large black voter turnout and restrictions on prominent Confederates, a new southern Republican Party controlled the state constitutional conventions of 1868-1870.
C. Triumph of Republican Governments
Republican victory in the South meant that for the first time black citizens gained political office. Southern Republicans worked to build white support for the party.
D. Industrialization
Republican governments tried to industrialize the South, but higher taxes for that purpose drew money away from education and other reforms.
E. Republican Policies on Racial Equality
Economic progress remained uppermost in the minds of most southern blacks. They accepted segregated facilities in return for other opportunities.
F. The Myth of “Negro Rule”
Southern Conservatives used economic and social pressure on blacks as well as inflammatory racist propaganda to undermine congressional Reconstruction.
G. Carpetbaggers and Scalawags
In their propaganda, Conservatives labeled northerners seeking economic opportunity as “carpetbaggers” and white southerners who supported the Republicans as “scalawags.”
H. Tax Policy and Corruption as Political Wedges
Although an increase in taxes was necessary just to maintain traditional services, Republican tax policies aroused strong opposition. The corruption with which Republicans were charged was often true.
I. Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan terrorized black leaders in an effort to curb their support for the Republicans.
J. Failure of Reconstruction
A number of things brought about the collapse of the Republican regimes, forcing them out of office before they instituted social and economic reforms.

VII. Reconstruction Reversed
A. Political Implications of Klan Terrorism
Congress passed two Enforcement Acts in 1870 and 1871 in an effort to counteract Klan violence. The laws were enforced selectively. Congressional opponents of these laws charged that Congress was infringing on states’ rights.
B. The Liberal Republican Revolt
Although Grant won reelection in 1872, the revolt of the Liberal Republicans in conjunction with opposition from the Democrats reinforced Grant’s desire to avoid confrontation with white southerners.
C. A General Amnesty
In 1872, Congress offered amnesty to most remaining former Confederates, and in 1875 it offered a watered-down Civil Rights Act that the Supreme Court eventually struck down.
D. Reconciliation and Industrial Expansion
Both industrialization and immigration surged in the years immediately after the Civil War. Then came the Panic of 1873.
E. Greenbacks Versus Sound Money
Many Americans wanted to keep “greenbacks” in circulation, but Grant, along with many Congressmen, industrialists, and financiers, supported sound money.
F. Judicial Retreat from Reconstruction
Supreme Court decisions, by narrowing the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment and by denying equal rights, encouraged the northern retreat from Reconstruction.
G. Disputed Election of 1876 and the Compromise of 1877
The disputed election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden resulted in the Compromise of 1877, effectively ending Reconstruction in the South.
H. Betrayal of Black Rights and the Exodusters
Tens of thousands of southern African Americans felt betrayed by the election of 1876 and decided to leave the South where they could no longer hope for equal rights.