Plans During the Civil War
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Large areas of the South lay in ruins. Its economy had collapsed, its currency was worthless, and its infrastructure destroyed. African Americans that had once been slaves were emancipated.
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How do we bring the South back into the nation?
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Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan: proposed in December 1863, it granted amnesty to most ex-Confederates and allowed each rebellious state to return to the Union if 10% of its voters took a loyalty oath and approved the Thirteenth Amendment. This plan was considered too lenient by Radical Republicans, led by Pennsylvania Representative Thaddeus Stevens, they aimed to revolutionize the South’s social structure (including the power of planters), habits, manners, and institutions by preventing Confederate leaders from returning to power, to make the Republican Party a powerful force in the South, and to use the Federal government to help African Americans achieve political equality by guaranteeing their right to vote).
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Wade-Davis Bill: Congress’ plan proposed in July 1864 as a compromise between moderate and Radical Republicans, required an oath of allegiance by the majority of each state’s adult white men, then states could write new constitutions and create state governments formed by those who had not taken part in the Civil War. Voting and office holding rights would be permanently stripped for Confederate government officials and military leaders. The bill passed Congress but was pocket vetoed by Lincoln.
Assassination of Lincoln: Lincoln looked for a compromise but in April 1865, he was assassinated by southern actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. Vice President Andrew Johnson (D-TN) became president. Johnson was the only southern senator that did not secede, grew up working class, hated the planter class, and held racist views toward African Americans.
Freedman’s Bureau
- Established in March 1865, Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau to aid freedmen (freed African Americans) who were displaced by the war and deal with abandoned lands in the former Confederacy.
- Between 1865 and 1870, the Bureau would feed and clothe refugees using surplus army supplies to prevent mass starvation.
- The Bureau also helped freemen find work on plantations and negotiated labor contracts (pay and hours worked) with planters and set up special courts to resolve disputes.
- In order to help feed themselves, there was discussion of freemen receiving “forty acres and a mule” each from seized Confederate land but this never came to fruition. During the war, in January 1865, William Tecumseh Sherman parceled out 400,000 acres of confiscated Confederate land in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida and allowed black refugees to farm the land to sustain themselves. Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens supported this redistribution of land.
- Working with northern charities, the Bureau established schools and hired teachers to educate former slaves.
- In December 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment ending slavery in the United States was ratified by the states.
Presidential Reconstruction
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Congress was in recess and Andrew Johnson used the opportunity to implement his version of Reconstruction.
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Presidential Reconstruction: Andrew Johnson’s plan offered a pardon and return of property to former Confederate citizens that took an oath of loyalty to the Union. Confederate officers, officials, and those with property valued over 20,000 dollars had to seek a pardon directly from the president.
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Each former Confederate state had to call a constitutional convention to revoke its ordinance of secession, ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, and reject all Civil War debts. Johnson did not see a role for African Americans in the future politics of southern states.
Southern states elected former Confederate leaders to Congress. This shocked Congressional Republicans who refused to seat the former Confederates.
Southern state legislature passed Black Codes to negate the results of the war, severely limiting African Americans’ rights and designed to force former slaves back to plantation labor and protect planter’s economic interests (African Americans would be required to sign yearly labor contracts).
Vetoes:
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In 1866, Congress extended the charter of the Freedmen’s Bureau but Johnson vetoed the bill citing a violation of states’ rights, that it used the military inappropriately during peacetime, and felt it gave Blacks preferential treatment that poor Whites never received and that it would hamper African Americans’ ability to become self-sustaining.
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To combat the Black Codes, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which declared all persons born in the United States, except Native Americans, to be citizens. It allowed African Americans to own property and be treated equally in court. Johnson vetoed the bill.
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Both vetoes were overridden by Congress and became law.
In 1866, there were anti-black, incredibly violent riots in Memphis and New Orleans.
Congressional Reconstruction
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Congress was anxious to protect freedmen, reassert Republican power in the South, and counter Johnson’s conciliatory stance toward the South. It passed the Fourteenth Amendment:
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Citizenship Clause: declared “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” to be citizens of the United States and of the state they reside in.
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Privileges or Immunities and Due Process Clauses: to ensure that states cannot deny the rights of citizens.
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Equal Protection Clause: all citizens would enjoy equality under the law.
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Confederate debt is voided.
Andrew Johnson opposed ratification but in the 1866 midterm election, Republicans won a 3-1 majority and toward the Radical Republicans, led in the House by Thaddeus Stevens (R-PA) and in the Senate by Charles Sumner (R-MA). With such majorities, Congress could now circumvent President Johnson. Johnson advised southern states to not ratify the amendment.
Thaddeus Stevens argued that plantations should be broken up and given to former slaves in order to sustain themselves. His position found little support in Congress.