1. SOUTHERN RECONSTRUCTION Warmup Question: Should people have to take a test to vote, why?

2. Lincoln’s Plan for the South  Grant amnesty to all Confederate soldiers  amnesty: when the president formally forgives a large group of people on behalf of the country  Have southern states freely re-admitted into the union without expectations.  Favored the idea of slaves colonizing areas of Africa.  Solved any racial problems of slaves blending in new society  Could help pay off all war debts.  All of this changed when John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln.

3. Problems with Lincoln Gone  Lincoln was only politician willing to help the South and popular enough to get Congress to approve his plans.  Radical Republicans: northern Congressmen that wanted to punish the south for starting the war  Andrew Johnson: Lincoln’s vice president who was a former slave owner from Tennessee and not popular with Radicals.  Johnson wanted to repudiate, or forget, all southern war debts.

4. Johnson Struggles with Radical Republicans:  With Lincoln gone and Johnson weak the Radical republicans placed their own reconstruction plan  1. disenfranchised: to take away the right to vote. Confederate soldiers were disenfranchised by Radical Republicans.  2. the Reconstruction Act placed all southern states under military rule.  3. Southern states had to accept the 14 th Amendment granting all slaves citizenship.

5. Carpet Bag Governments  Since confederate soldiers couldn’t vote, many northern businessmen moved south and convinced former slaves to vote for them in elections.  Many southern states responded with literacy tests attempting to prohibit black people from voting.  15 th Amendment: granted the rights to all citizens regardless of race or prior slave status.

6. Example literacy test question:  Question:  if a person charged with treason denies his guilt, how many persons must testify against him to prove his guilt?  Answer:  Two

7. Johnson’s Impeachment:  Tenure Law: law stated that Johnson could not fire a member of Lincoln’s cabinet who was hired before Johnson’s presidency.  Radical Republicans wanted to keep people in the administration to control Johnson  Edwin Stanton: Radical Republican hired by Lincoln who Johnson fired and thus violated the Tenure Law.  Impeachment: to bring federal charges up on an elected official  Andrew Johnson was the first American President to be impeached.

8. Bottom Line  The Republican party had entirely too much power following the Civil War.  Political divide in America:  North – Republican  South – Democrat  From 1860-1912 only one democrat served as president (Grover Cleveland)