Abraham Lincoln ______ Andrew Johnson Ulysses S. Grant Rutherford Hayes Frederick Douglass ______ Robert E. Lee Presidents of the United States and other influential figures during the Reconstruction, 1865 - 1877

President Abraham Lincoln He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 15, 1865 – just six days after Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Lincoln’s “Ten Percent Plan” was the most lenient of all Reconstruction plans – he would have allowed Southerners to create their own state governments if 10% of the population swore loyalty to the Union and the state’s legislature approved the 13th Amendment. Lincoln’s death further embittered Northerners eager to punish the CSA. Radical Republicans viewed Lincoln as a martyr and attempted fought even harder for African American equality and voting rights.

Robert E. Lee Robert E. Lee was the most important general in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, so you will not be surprised to learn that he was not in favor of granting African-Americans full citizenship or the right to vote. In fact, his family had held slaves during the Antebellum years. After the Civil War, Lee was forbidden from running for elected office. He did, however, encourage Southern people and ex-Confederates to cooperate with their Northern countrymen and assimilate. After the Civil War, Robert E. Lee became the President of Washington University in Lexington, VA. Today, the college is called Washington and Lee University.

President Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson was both a Southerner and a Democrat, and is considered an “accidental” President. Johnson’s “Restoration” plan would have banned slavery, but not given African-Americans full citizenship or suffrage. He held racist sentiments. Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Freedman’s Bureau Extension Act – but both were passed into law by Congressional override. Johnson was impeached by Congress because they hated him so. He came within one vote of being removed from the Presidency, but he remained in office until the end of his term.

Frederick douglass Before the Civil War, Frederick Douglass was an outspoken abolitionist. He ran away from slavery himself – stole his own body – and then founded and abolitionist newspaper, The North Star. During the Civil War, Douglass petitioned President Lincoln to allow African-American soldiers to fight against the Confederacy. After the war, he was a leader of the Freedman’s Bureau and the strongest voice in favor of the passage of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave African-American men the right to vote. Later in his life, Douglass became the first African-American ambassador to another nation: Haiti, in the Caribbean.

President ulysses S. Grant Grant is often remembered as a poor President for his inability to control corruption in his government – especially with regards to the railroad companies. He was, however, a true believer in the cause of civil rights for African-Americans – and thought that the Civil War would have been in vain if the voting rights of African-Americans were not upheld. Grant passed laws controlling Ku Klux Klan activity and other hate groups, maintaining the Freedman’s Bureau, and continuing efforts to end black codes. Grant was President when the 15th Amendment was added to the Constitution. The amendment guaranteed suffrage for African-American men.

President Rutherford B. Hayes Samuel Tilden won more votes than he did in the Election of 1876 – but Hayes won the Electoral College vote! He became President of the United States as a result of the Compromise of 1877 – a very controversial bargain. He promised to end the Reconstruction of the American South by removing soldiers from southern states and ending the Freedman’s Bureau. While he was President, southern states passed laws (literacy tests, poll taxes, and grandfather clauses) which made it very difficult for African-Americans to vote.