Andrew Johnson Takes Over

• Only Senator from a Confederate state to remain loyal to Union

• Blamed wealthy Southern planters

Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan

• “The time has arrived when the American people should understand what crime is, and that it should be punished, and its penalties enforced and inflicted… Treason must be made odious… traitors must be punished and impoverished… their social power must be destroyed. I say, as to the leaders, punishment. I say lenience, conciliation, and amnesty to the thousands whom they have misled and deceived.”

• Based on his quote, what will his plan look like?

Johnson’s Reconstruction

• Was pro-Union, but was not a Radical Republican (not an equal rights advocate)

• May 1865- “Presidential Reconstruction”• Confederate states would have to…– 1. Withdraw Secession– 2. Swear Oath– 3. Ratify 13th Amendment

Reception

• South favored the plan – Pardoned all Confederates– Favored states’ rights

• Radicals and African Americans disliked– No retribution to disloyal whites– Not much in terms of freedmen’s rights– Was too similar to Lincoln’s lenient plan

HOLD UP!!!!

• Didn’t we read that Johnson wanted the South to be punished?!?– “White men alone must manage the South.”

• Lesson to be learned: Many Americans, though they supported abolition, were racist.

Congress Steps In

• Moderate Republicans ruled the Senate– Pushed through additional laws to protect African

Americans– Increase power of Freedmen’s Bureau- • Created to help slaves and poor whites by performing

marriages and providing clothes, food, hospitals, schools, etc.• http://www.angelfire.com/ar/freedmen/mars2.html

Propaganda- Who created it?

Congress Steps In

• Civil Rights Act of 1866– African Americans given citizenship– Forbade discriminatory laws (Black Codes)– Black Codes: No right to vote, sit on juries, testify

against white men, carry weapons, travel without a permit, own land work in certain occupations.

Johnson Blocks Congress• Vetoes bill to increase power of Freedmen’s Bureau and the

Civil Rights Act!!!• "This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am

President, it shall be a government for white men." • "Everyone would, and must admit, that the white race was

superior to the black, and that while we ought to do our best to bring them up to our present level, that, in doing so, we should, at the same time raise our own intellectual status so that the relative position of the two races would be the same."

Is that a joke?!?

Fast forward…

• Congress overturns veto and The Civil Rights Act passed.. BUT

• battle between President and Congress means Reconstruction comes to a halt

Reconstruction, Part 1Lincoln and Johnson

• Why is there such a struggle to create a successful Reconstruction Plan??

• Why does Reconstruction come to a halt?• What would your Reconstruction Plan look

like?• Small groups: Create a Reconstruction Plan for

the confused United States.

Reconstruction- Part 2Congressional Reconstruction

• In response to Johnson’s actions and the halt…– Radical and Moderate Republicans override

Johnson’s vetoes (FB and CRA)• With this new unity, Congress can have more

power than the President

1866 Congressional Elections

• Johnson irritates people…– Went on a tour to encourage voters to elect reps

that agreed with him– On the tour, people were actually cheering on

Grant

– Moderate and Radical Republicans win- proceed to go forward with their own Reconstruction (1867)

Timeline• April 1865

– Civil War Ends– Lincoln is assassinated

• May 1865– Johnson begins his Presidential Reconstruction Plan

• Early 1866– Johnson vetoes Congress’ bills

• Mid 1866– Congress overrides vetoes

• 1866– Congressional Elections

• 1867– Congressional Reconstruction Begins

Congressional Reconstruction

• Reconstruction Act of 1867– New states admitted under Lincoln or Johnson’s Plans are

not recognized– Now must:

• give African Americans right to vote• Ratify 14th Amendment

– Creates:• Five military districts in the South (troops)

• Johnson vetoes…Congress overrides• Why not just get rid of Johnson??

Johnson Impeached

• Surprise, surprise• To impeach means to put on trial, NOT to

remove from office

Johnson Impeached

• Congress looks for grounds on which to impeach Johnson

• Congress passes the Tenure of Office Act (March 1867)– Cabinet members could not be removed during

the term of the President by whom they had been appointed without approval of Senate

– Protect Stanton (Radical Republican)

Johnson Impeached

• Johnson tests the Act– Fires Stanton, Lawyers say Lincoln, not Johnson,

appointed him (tricky tricky)• Hold the impeachment trial (11 charges)– March 1868– 1 vote short of the 2/3 needed to oust him

• Next election is in November– Grant wins- Shows importance of African

American vote

Questions to Consider

• What direction would Reconstruction have taken if Democrats held majority in Congress?

Objectives

• Define the 14th and 15th amendments• Predict the impact of these amendments on

Southern society• Analyze how these amendments were

received and carried out in the South

14th Amendment

• July 9, 1868• During whose “Reconstruction” plan does this

become adopted?

Citizenship Clause

• Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2• Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States

according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3• No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress,

or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4• The validity of the public debt of the United States,

authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5

• The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

14th Amendment (cont.)

• Was proposed in 1866, but was not ratified until 1868– Johnson encouraged the South to vote against it

15th AmendmentRatified February 3, 1870

• 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

• 90% of African Americans voted, 90% of those voted Republican

• Response of the South?

Response to the 15th Amendment

• Poll Tax-– Charged a fee to vote– Who can’t afford to pay this tax?

• Poll Tax were not made illegal until 1964 (24th Amendment) during the Civil Rights Movement

Response (cont.)

• Violence– Threatened African Americans to keep them from

the polls

Government Response

• Enforcement Act of 1870– More power to punish those who prevent African

Americans from obtaining rights– How “enforceable” is this act?

Who is this ridiculing?

Review

• How did the government attempt to protect the rights of African Americans?

• What did the South do in response to these actions?