ANDREW JOHNSON VS. THE RADICALS

CHAPTER 14 , SECTON 2

LIKE LINCOLN NOT LIKE LINCOLN Born in South with poor

parents Served in state

legislature and congress

Johnson was taught to read later in life by wife Eliza (he was a tailor)

Only Southern Dem. (from TN.) to support Union after they fired on Fort Sumter.

Lacked Lincoln’s tact and warmth/wit.

Was Dem., Lincoln was a Rep. (he was chosen to pull in more Dems.)

The Rad. Republicans wanted him to call a special session but he would not. He unapologetically refused.

SOUTHERN STATE CONVENTIONS States gathered under Johnson’s

encouragement to get a better of what they had to do to admit defeat.

But SC repealed rather than nullify their ordinance of succession

Implied that succession was legal all along.

MS refused to ratify the 13th amendment. Instead announced the slaves were free by the force of the Northern arms.

Lacking strong lead from Johnson the South was slipping back to being indignant.

THE BLACK CODES New laws in the South

based on old slave codes, Northern vagrancy laws, and British West Indies laws.

Supposed to ‘provide’ for the freed blacks but really limited their freedom. They could not vote, not allowed to marry whites, and in some states couldn’t even be witnesses at trials.

BLACK CODES CONTINUED… Some laws

restricted employment to ag. Jobs and domestic service.

Harsh vagrancy laws

The question was asked is this slavery but under a new name?

CONFEDERATES ELECTED TO OFFICE Along with black codes,

Southern states were electing big time confed. leaders as new leaders.

Worse for the Northern Republicans, Johnson allowed this and pardoned them (thinking he was doing like Lincoln preserving the Union at all cost, but not really).

THE NEW SOUTH LOOKS LIKE THE OLD SOUTH

Confederate leaders elected to new offices… VP, 6 cabinet members, 58 members of Confed. Congress, and a number of others.

The South actually returned to Congress with more members than then they had left the Union (since representation was now based on full pop.)

If Southern Dems. Joined with Northern Dems. The Republicans would be in a weaker spot then before the war.

THE FREEDMEN’S BUREAU Committee of

Reconstruction (Joint Committee of 15 – lead by Stevens.

The Bureau set up 6 weeks before Lincoln died to help get Southern farms back in working order. Also to help the newly freed blacks (freedmen) to start their new lives.

FREEDMEN’S BUREAU CONTINUED…..

Handed out millions of free meals.

Built hospitals Treated ½ mil. Cases of

illness. Helped plant and

rebuild 1000s of farms. Also tried to help the

freedmen find jobs and watch out for the black codes of the South.

BUREAU’S MOST IMPORTANT JOB…. # 1 job was to set

up schools and provide teachers

(show video ) Helped set up

Howard Univ. Atlanta Univ., and others.

250,000 black children went to school for the first time.

A new Freedmen’s Bureau bill was passed in 1866 but Johnson wouldn’t sign it saying it gave too much power to the Bureau. (through military courts and fighting for Civil Rights).

Johnson’s sabotage of these programs outraged the Republicans

CIVIL RIGHTS BILL Congress followed the

Fre. Bill with a Civil Rights bill to protect blacks in the South.

It allowed the federal government to step in when states denied rights of citizens.

Johnson though, an old state’s rights advocate, again refused to sign it and vetoed the bill.

Johnson was quickly angering many in Congress and the moderate Repub. Now went and joined the Radical Repubs. Against Johnson.

They overrode his veto on the Civil Rights bill and passed it.

They also did the same with a new Freedmen’s Bureau bill and when he vetoed that they overrode it again also.

THE FOURTEENTH AMENDEMENT

Defined citizenship and forbade any state from depriving citizens of their rights and privileges.

Reduced representation for any state that did not allow all adult male citizens to vote.

Ruled that no state could choose to pay its Confederate debt.

And said that no one who held Confederate office could hold a Union office without 2/3 of Congress pardoning them.

WILL THE SOUTH ACCEPT THE 14TH? TN. Promptly ratified it and its

Senators and Rep. were accepted.

(but other states followed Johnson’s lead and refused to adopt it).

Johnson even tried to form a new party (a mix) and campaigned ‘undignified’ across the country. The Republicans won in a land slide and there was a new war at hand – less than civil … Johnson vs. Radicals.