1. Political Reconstruction

2. Organizing Principle
The period of Reconstruction was extremely controversial for both the North and South. Many historians call the period “The Second Civil War,” as the regions remained bitter as their wounds from the Civil War healed. Many questions loomed about who would direct the process of Reconstruction. There were many more questions about what was to be done with the emancipated slaves. Though lofty in its ideals, Reconstruction did little to ameliorate the plight of African Americans, or bring the North and South to agreeable terms. It did however push the nation into the direction of equality.

3. WWLD? Lincoln’s wartime conundrum: Treaty? Readmission?
Recognizes South
Readmission?
Strict vs. lenient

4. Lincoln’s Plan (the 10% Plan)
Lenient
General amnesty
Oath
10%=statehood
Officials of the Confederacy
Nucleus of Southern Unionists (“traitors”) would make up gov’t.
Suffrage (voting rights) for blacks?
Touchy subject
Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee
Readmitted under Lincoln
Radicals in Congress resist
Wade-Davis Bill
“pocket” veto

5. R.I.P. Lincoln Lincoln Assassinated: April 14, 1865
Ford’s Theater in D.C.
John Wilkes Booth
Andrew Johnson becomes president

6. President Johnson Tennessee Democrat Presidential Reconstruction
Resented planters
Rejected racial equality
Presidential Reconstruction
Lenient in practice
Amnesty for oath
$20,000 taxable property
Provisional governor
Constitutional Convention
Revoke ordinance of secession
Ratify 13th amendment
Repudiate debts

7. Presidential Reconstruction in Practice
All seceded states “reconstructed” under Lincoln & Johnson’s plans by 1865
“Restoration” during congressional recess!
Congress refuses to recognize Johnson governments due to:
Reluctance to abolish slavery
Deny blacks the vote
Elected prominent Confederates
Alexander Stephens VP of Confederacy elected to Senate

8. Black Codes
Designed to regulate the newly freed blacks in the South
Vagrancy laws
Apprehend unemployed blacks
Fine them for vagrancy
Hired out to private employers to satisfy the fines
Back to the plantation
Certain states
Blacks cannot own/lease land
Blacks cannot be employed outside of plantation work
Could not serve on a jury

9. Black Codes
Students need to complete the following after being assigned a partner:
Annotate the laws (summarize in as few words as possible).
Complete the questions under O(rigin) and P(urpose) on the OPVL handout.

10. Federal Government’s Response
Congress
Extends the life of the Freedman’s Bureau
Widens their powers
Passed the First Civil Rights Act (1866)
Black citizenship—strikes at Black Codes
Johnson resists
Vetoes (twice)
Congress overrides
Midterm Elections—1866
Campaigns for candidates

11. The Fourteenth Amendment 1866
Defines American citizenship
Equal protection of the laws
Imposed penalties on states that denied male suffrage
Imposed a 2/3s pardon on former confederates/sympathizers
State readmission contingent on ratification

12. The Congressional Plan (Radical Reconstruction)
Led by Thaddeus Stevens (PA) and Charles Sumner (MA)
Congress passes Reconstruction Acts (1867)
Details
5 military districts
Register qualified voters
Constitutions—black suffrage (voting rights)
Adopt 14th amendment
1868—6 states readmitted
VA, TX, & MS—
Also had to ratify 15th Amendment
Could not deny the vote based on “race, color, or…condition of servitude”
Black votes give 1868 election to U.S. Grant

14. Johnson’s Impeachment
Johnson was an impediment to Reconstruction
Refused to implement Congressional Plan
Radicals wanted him removed
Tenure of Office Act
Dismissal of Stanton=impeachment
Impeachment trial
Spring 1868
35-19 (one short of 2/3s)