1. Chapter 16
Reconstruction

2. Presidential Reconstruction
How should the Southern states be re-admitted into the Union?
Lincoln’s “10 Percent Plan”
Southerners could be reinstated as citizens by taking a oath of loyalty
When a number equal to 10 percent of those who had voted in 1860 had done so they could set up a state government
That government must be a republican form, must recognize freedom of slaves, and provide for education of freed slaves

3. Presidential Reconstruction
Radicals against 10 percent plan – too moderate and gave Lincoln too much power to determine policy in South
Radicals passed Wade-Davis Bill
Constitutional conventions in states had to have a majority
Those who bore arms against Union were barred from voting
States had to repudiate Confederate debt
Bill vetoed by Lincoln (just prior to assassination)

4. Lincoln Dead!
After Lee’s surrender, John Wilkes Booth’s plot to kidnap Lincoln changed to assassination
Lincoln was not the only one targeted- General Grant, Vice-President Johnson, and Secretary of State Seward were also to be killed

5. Lincoln Dead!

6. Lincoln Dead!

7. Lincoln Dead!

8. Lincoln Dead!

9. Lincoln Dead!

10. Lincoln Dead!

11. Lincoln Dead!

12. Lincoln Dead! Lincoln Johnson Seward Grant John Wilkes Booth
George Atzerodt
Lewis Powell

13. Lincoln Dead!
Mary Surratt was the first woman to be executed by the US government

14. Lincoln Dead!
Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860 and JFK was elected in 1960
Both were elected to Congress in ’46 (1846 and 1946)
Both had children die in the White House (Willie and Patrick)
Lincoln was shot in Ford’s Theater and JFK was shot in a Ford limousine

15. Lincoln Dead!
Lincoln was killed in a theater and his assassin was caught in a warehouse
JFK was shot from a warehouse and his killer was caught in a theater
Both assassins went by three names: John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald

16. Lincoln Dead!
Both presidents were succeeded by Southern Democrats named Johnson
Both Andrew and Lyndon Johnson were born in ‘08 (1808 and 1908)
Both presidents were shot in the head from behind while seated
Both presidents were shot in the company of their wives

17. Lincoln Dead! Both presidents were shot on a Friday
Both presidents were shot in the presence of another couple in which the male was also wounded (Rathbone and Connally)
Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy who told him not to go to the theater*
Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln who warned him not to go to Dallas

18. Lincoln Dead! Both assassins were killed before being brought to trial
A week before his assassination, Lincoln was in Monroe, Maryland*
A week before his assassination, JFK was in Marilyn Monroe*

19. Lincoln Dead!
Major Rathbone, who, with his fiance Clara Harris, had accompanied the Lincolns to Fords theater, was appointed counsel to Hannover, Germany in 1882
While there, he killed his wife, almost killed his three children, and attempted suicide
Rathbone spent the rest of his life in a German insane asylum
It is said that Rathbone’s insanity was caused by his sense of failure in stopping Booth
In the 1950’s, the bodies of Rathbone and his wife were disposed of by the German cemetery

20. Lincoln Dead! Robert Lincoln
Only Lincoln son to reach adulthood (Edward, Willie, and Tad all died in childhood)
Had his mother committed to an insane asylum (she escaped)
Was present at the assassination of President Garfield
Was present at the McKinley assassination
Robert Lincoln

21. Lincoln Dead!
Some weeks before his father’s assassination, Robert Lincoln was at the train station
A large crowd jostled him and he fell from the platform onto the tracks into the path of an oncoming train
Just before he would have been hit and probably killed, a hand reached down and grabbed him, pulling him to safety
The man that saved Robert Lincoln was Edwin Booth, older brother of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth
Edwin Booth

22. Presidential Reconstruction
Lincoln succeeded by Andrew Johnson
Tennessee Unionist Democrat
Champion of the small farmer
Hated Southern aristocrats which endeared him to Republican radicals thinking he was anti-South
Johnson shared South’s views on states’ rights and contempt for blacks
Enacted an amnesty program only slightly more rigorous than Lincoln’s
By 1865, all Southern states had governments, had ratified the 13th Amendment, and were ready to re-join the Union

23. Republican Radicals
Ultra-radicals wanted complete civil and political equality for blacks
Other Republicans wanted to protect blacks from exploitation and guarantee basic rights but little else
Republicans wary of seating Southern delegates as 3/5 Compromise gone and South could hold majority

24. Republican Radicals
Southern states provoked North by electing representatives from former Confederacy
South provoked North by enacting Black Codes
Johnsonian Reconstruction therefore rejected

25. Congress versus Johnson
Johnson vetoed legislation expanding the Freedmen’s Bureau
Congress passed Civil Rights Act putting teeth in 13th Amendment
Johnson’s veto was overridden – Congress was now in control
Johnson’s behavior alienated many
Radicals demanded extra rights to protect blacks – faced increasing opposition

26. Fourteenth Amendment
Supplied a broad definition of American citizenship
Struck at discriminatory state laws such as Black Codes
If states refused the vote to any adult male, its representation was to be reduced
Former federal officials who had served in the Confederacy were barred from holding state or federal office
The Confederate debt was repudiated

27. The Reconstruction Acts
South unwilling to ratify 14th Amendment
Furious North enacted coercive measures known as the Reconstruction Acts
Divided South into military districts each controlled by a general with near-dictatorial powers
Military rule would end only with ratification of the 14th Amendment

28. The Reconstruction Acts
First Reconstruction Act too vague to be workable – South made no effort to follow laws
A Second Reconstruction Act required military to register voters and supervise election of delegates to constitutional conventions
Southerners refused to go to the polls
Georgia last to ratify in 1870

29. Congress Supreme
Southern resistance to even the mildest forms of reconstruction goaded the North to apply increasingly harsher measures
Johnson’s stubbornness also influenced Republicans
Congress exerted more authority over army, cabinet members, and even Supreme Court (size reduced and jurisdiction limited)

30. Congress Supreme
Johnson refused to submit to Congress reducing executive powers
Johnson violated “Tenure of Office Act of 1867” by removing Sec. War Stanton
Johnson was impeached but escaped conviction by 1 vote
Kept Congress from permanently damaging the power of the executive

31. The Fifteenth Amendment
Grant elected president in 1868
Radicals wanted to give right of vote to all blacks in all states
Republicans saw black vote as advantageous – 15th Amendment sent to states in 1869 and ratified in 1870
Amendment to give suffrage to all men regardless of color – women outraged
Suffrage restricted through literacy tests and other measures

32. “Black Republican” Reconstruction
Within five years of emancipation, blacks were exerting real political influence
Real winners were “scalawags” – white Southerners willing to cooperate with Republicans
“Carpetbaggers” – Northerners who went to South to help blacks, serve in federal system, or grab a piece of the pie

33. “Black Republican” Reconstruction
Blacks failed to dominate Southern politics
Most of those who held office were house servants or artisans
Mulattos also fared better politically and socially
Black officials were usually competent and conscientious though there were examples of corruption

34. “Black Republican” Reconstruction
Biggest thieves were white
Despite wasted money, Southern infrastructure was rebuilt
Major contribution made by the Freedmen’s Bureau
Programs enacted under Black Republicans as well as corruption continued under white rule that came later

35. The Ravaged Land
South was never as wealthy as the North – now it was desperately poor due to the destruction of war
Radical Republicans wanted to confiscate plantations and divide land between freed slaves
Land without seed and tools useless
Blacks had to either strike out on their own or work for former masters

36. The Ravaged Land Black productivity dropped after emancipation
Whites assumed blacks “lazy”
Black family dynamics changed- male authority increased and women moved to child-rearing roles

37. Sharecropping and Crop-Liens
After the war, Southern planters tried farming through gang-labor – failed due to scarce money and black dislike of working under whites
Sharecropping system emerged- planter supplied land, seed, equipment in return for half the crop
Sharecropping gave blacks more control over their lives

38. Sharecropping and Crop-Liens
Poor whites also utilized sharecropping system
Lack of capital forced development of crop-lien system
Both landowner and sharecropper depended on local bankers, merchants, storekeepers for everything from seed to coffee and salt
Crossroads stores proliferated- prices of goods on credit high
Store owners also lacked capital and paid high interest on credit purchases

39. Sharecropping and Crop-Liens
South, drained of resources, had to compete with the West and North for capital
Southern reconstruction achieved at the expense of the standard of living of the producing classes
Progress in South slow: 7,000 miles of track laid in South between , in rest of US 45,000 miles laid
Late 1800’s Southern production revived in cotton, tobacco, textiles

40. White Backlash
Radical Southern governments needed support of whites to maintain power
Support came from wealthy merchants and planters (former Whigs)
Southern white Republicans used the Union League of America to control the black vote

41. White Backlash
Dissident Southerners powerless to oppose the League openly
Secret terrorist societies established such as KKK, White Camelia, and Pale Faces
KKK began as social club in 1866 but by 1868 it was taken over by vigilantes trying to drive blacks out of politics
Claimed to be ghosts of dead Confederate soldiers
When intimidation failed they used violence
Congress struck back at the KKK – severely diminishing their influence

42. White Backlash KKK eroded will of white Republicans and Black voters
Open intimidation and violence erupted with the Red Shirts in Mississippi beginning 1874
Terrorism against blacks increased white fears of black retaliation
Blacks learned to stay home on election day

43. White Backlash
Northern anger at South diminished over time and “conservative” white governments took over in South
North had little interest in racial equality
Southern idea of the need for the workforce to be disciplined gained ground in the North

44. Grant as President
Stock market crash of 1873 created economic problems for a decade
Controversies over “greenbacks” versus “sound” money
Grant administration and corruption
1872 election split Republicans between Grant and Greeley- ended Republican dominance

45. Election of 1876
Republican: Rutherford B. Hayes / Democrat: Samuel J. Tilden
Tilden carried enough states to win – Republicans controlling Southern states threw out Democratic ballots so that Hayes “won”
BUT many blacks kept from voting
A commission organized to judge the election was corrupted by both sides
Commission voted for Hayes 8 to 7

46. Compromise of 1877
Southern Democrats ready to accept Hayes if he ended military occupation of South
Hayes elected and troops removed
Efforts made by Republicans to find niche in South but South remained solidly Democratic
Compromise ended Reconstruction and began new political order in the South
Blacks would bear the brunt of these changes as the North forgot them and the courts rebuffed them