Reconstruction was an attempt to rebuild the South after the Civil War. It was noble in its aspirations; not only was Southern society and its economy to be rebuilt, Blacks were to be given rights and freedoms. They were to become Americans at last. However, this noble effort was ultimately doomed, and would fail. Reconstruction had to address post-war problems, and newly-freed blacks would need to be integrated into society, however, there were radically different ideas about how to approach this; white society would not accept these changes, leading to the overall failure of Reconstruction and the continuation of black oppression.
Reconstruction had to tackle many post-war issues, including the readmission of Southern States, the rebuilding of a war-torn southern economy, the re-establishment of cordial relations between the North and South, how to address the issue of newly-freed slaves, and how to deal with the effect of Lincoln’s assassination. George Miller outlined Reconstruction’s idea in his 1856 speech to the House of Representatives: “The wicked rebellion, having been crushed, the next great question for us to legislate is, to try and prevent a similar outbreak; and to this Congress the Nation looks to a guarantee of permanent security” (Miller, 1).
To do this, three competing plans were presented. The first was Abraham Lincoln’s Plan, better known as the “Ten Percent Plan”. This plan required that 10% of the people who lived in the former Confederate States to swear an oath of fealty to the United States in order to gain readmission. Each state was required to ban slavery, and amnesty was to be given to all who signed the oath except the officers and government officials of the Confederacy (Pierce, 16). Lincoln’s primary concern was to make the process quick and simple, his strategy as to reform the Union expeditiously, and to begin the healing process. His assassination on April 15th, 1865 cut this plan short.
It was never ratified. The opposition in Congress, known as the Radical Republicans, had their own plan, as they thought Lincoln was not hard enough on the South. They presented it as the Wade-Davis Bill. The Radical Republicans were led by Thaddeus Stevens. Their views were indeed radical; they wanted to punish the south and wanted comprehensive and immediate reform. Steven’s Speech to the 39th Congress was powerful and outlined what the Radicals required.
They insisted upon punishing the South for the rebellion; states would have to have a majority of their white male electorate take an oath of loyalty, and only the men who were not involved in fighting the North would be eligible to vote at all. States would have to ban slavery, and all Confederate officials would be banned from future office (Rodriguez, 499). In addition, Stevens voiced that reparations would be necessary for the blacks in his December 18, 1865 Speech to Congress: But this is not all that we ought to do before inveterate rebels are invited to participate in our legislation.
We have turned, or are about to turn, loose four million slaves without a hut to shelter them or a cent in their pockets. The infernal laws of slavery have prevented them from acquiring an education, understanding the common laws of contract, or of managing the ordinary business of life. This Congress is bound to provide for them until they can take care of themselves. If we do not furnish them with homesteads, and hedge t hem around with protective laws; if we leave them to the legislation of their late masters, we had better have left them in bondage…
If we fail in this great duty now, when we h ave the power, we shall deserve and receive the execration of history and of all future ages (Stevens, 72). President Lincoln effectively blocked the Wade-Davis Act by a pocket-veto, he took no action on it before Congress recessed and it was therefore dead. Before he could take action on his Ten-Percent Plan he was assassinated, leaving Andrew Johnson to determine the fate of the Southern states. Andrew Johnson was a southern-born Carolinian whose loyalty lay with the North.
He held a lenient position when it came to the South, and his plan and actions embittered the Radical Republicans, which would ultimately cause his impeachment, earning him the distinction of being the first U. S. President to be impeached, which was was ruinous to him even though he was acquitted. Johnson vetoed both the Freedman’s Bureau Act and the Civil Rights Act passed by the Republican Congress. (Both vetoes were over-ridden). He wanted to grant amnesty to almost all southerners, Confederate political leaders could apply for a Presidential pardon.
Johnson was not pro-black, however, and only white male voters would be allowed. He also wanted the former Confederate States to ratify the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. In addition, all property rights were to be restored. He implemented this plan while Congress was in recess, and by the end of 1865 the former Confederacy was ready to rejoin the Union, sans Texas. (Kennedy, 2001). With the enactment of Johnson’s Plan, the issue of the Blacks themselves needed to be addressed.
Although Johnson vetoed the Freedman’s Bureau and the Civil Rights Act, the Radical Republicans were able to overcome both. The Freedmen’s Bureau provided food, housing and medical aid, established schools and offered legal assistance. It also attempted to settle former slaves on Confederate lands confiscated or abandoned during the war” (History. com, 2010). It was run by the military, which Johnson considered inappropriate for peacetime. The most important accomplishment of the Bureau was in education; schools were established throughout the South, and the rental of buildings, the books and literature, and the protection of the schools were handled by the Bureau.
Over 1,000 schools and eleven colleges, including the prestigious Howard University and the University of Atlanta, were opened under the auspice of the Bureau. However, the South had other ideas for the former slaves, and began enacting the Black Codes. “The Black Codes was the term applied to laws enacted throughout the former Confederate States between 1865 and 1867” (Brown, 78). These laws were designed to control the blacks, and were effectively a re-enslavement. The subjugation was complete with convict lease, “… system in which armies of free men, guilty of no crimes and entitled by law to freedom, were compelled to labor without compensation, were repeatedly bought and sold, and were forced to do the bidding of white masters through the regular application of extraordinary physical coercion” (Blackmon, 4). The federal government would need to step in, and the Radical Republicans resubmitted and passed The Civil Rights Act in 1866. Johnson vetoed it for a second time, but he was over-ridden and it became law.
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was the first time the federal government enacted a law guaranteeing the rights of all citizens. It essentially overturned the Black Codes that had been enacted in the South, and also the Dred Scott decision, which basically affirmed the view that blacks could not be citizens. Fearing that the Civil rights Act would be overturned, Congress also passed the 14th Amendment, which “granted citizenship to ‘all persons born or naturalized in the United States,’ which included former slaves recently freed.
In addition, it forbids states from denying any person ‘life, liberty or property, without due process of law’ or to ‘deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” (Library of Congress, 2015). The mid-term election of 1866 proved to be a referendum against Johnson, and political power was solidly in the hands of the Radical Republicans. With this fresh infusion of political clout, they quickly passed the Military Reconstruction Acts of 1867.
These Acts provided for the following: The Failure Of Reconstruction 1. The division of states into five military districts with a Union general in command 2. The requirement that states reform their governments and constitutions 3. The assertion of Federal power over states’ rights 4. The revocation of Confederate leaders’ rights to vote 5. All states were to ratify the 14th Amendment Congress followed up by revoking habeas corpus, and quickly overturned Johnson’s vetoes of the measures.
The states that had not been readmitted fell into line and did so, seven of them in 1868, and the final three in 1870, after they ratified the 15th Amendment, which guaranteed the right of black men to vote. Still yet, Congress had to address another problem. Andrew Johnson’s control of the military. Congress decided to address this problem with the Tenure of Office Act. The act was to prevent the President from removing Edward Stanton, a key ally of the Republicans and also the Secretary of War. It was also intended to prevent Johnson from replacing Republicans in office with Democrats.
In 1868, Johnson removed Stanton from office, in violation of the Act. He felt the Act was unconstitutional, and his action with Stanton was an intentional move on his part, primarily to have the Act tested in the courts. Congress immediately over-rode his action, and moved to impeach Johnson, making him the first President to face this action. After 11 weeks of trial, Johnson was acquitted, the impeachment failing by a single vote. During the rest of his Presidency, he was continually defeated by Congress – his vetoes over-ridden – and in 1868, General Ulysses S. Grant, the Republican nominee, won the Presidency. (PBS, 2016).
Grant continued the Radical Republican agenda, and the three Enforcement Acts that were passed between 1870 and 1871, attempted to curtail the violence that had arisen in the South, particularly with the KKK. (The final Enforcement act of 1871 was also known as the KKK Act). However, tensions and problems between the Scalawags and Carpetbaggers, and the actions of the Redeemers (anti-Republican, rich landowners and usinessmen), certain paramilitary organizations like the “White League” in Louisiana and the “Red Shirts” of Mississippi to undermine the Republican vote, proved to be too much. The Democrats regained the House of Representatives in 1874, and the last gasp of successful Reconstruction was uttered when the Army was removed from the South by Congress in 1877 as part of a compromise to ensure the election of Rutherford B. Hayes.
“The Compromise of 1877 nailed the coffin shut on Reconstruction. ‘The long controversy over the black man,’ announced the Chicago Tribune, “seems to have reached a finality. “The negro,” echoed The Nation, “will disappear from the field of national politics. Henceforth, the nation, as a nation, will have nothing more to do with him” (Foner, 10954-10956). The apathy of the North and the idea that the slavery issue was dead didn’t help. The Reconstruction, although it saw success in education, was a failure. The issue would not be addressed again until the 1950’s and 1960’s, with the advent of the Civil Rights Movement. One is left to wonder if, had Reconstruction been a success, how much further along mankind could have been.
