United States History from 1865

John Baick, Arnold M. Rice

• Publisher: Collins Reference
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9780062115140
• Topic: Aides à l'étude
• Subtopic: Placement avancé

The Collins College Outline for United States History from 1865 follows the key moments and players in American history from the Civil War Reconstruction period to the record high gas prices and low presidential poll numbers of 2006, with information on politics, disasters, crimes and scandals, social issues, pop culture, and more. This guide also contains appendixes on the territorial expansion and admission of states into the Union, the population of the United States, and a timeline of presidents and secretaries of state. Completely revised and updated by Dr. John Baick, this book includes a test yourself section with answers and complete explanations at the end of each chapter. Also included are bibliographies for further reading, as well as numerous vocabulary lists, exercises, and examples.

The Collins College Outlines are a completely revised, in-depth series of study guides for all areas of study, including the Humanities, Social Sciences, Mathematics, Science, Language, History, and Business. Featuring the most up-to-date information, each book is written by a seasoned professor in the field and focuses on a simplified and general overview of the subject for college students and, where appropriate, Advanced Placement students. Each Collins College Outline is fully integrated with the major curriculum for its subject and is a perfect supplement for any standard textbook.

CHAPTER 1

Reconstruction

1863: Lincoln announces his Reconstruction plan.

1864: Lincoln pocket-vetoes Wade-Davis bill.

1865: Civil War ends; Lincoln assassinated; Johnson becomes president; Freedmen’s Bureau established; Joint Committee on Reconstruction created; Thirteenth Amendment ratified; Ku Klux Klan founded.

1865–1866: Black Codes passed.

1866: Civil Rights Act passed.

1867: Tenure of Office Act passed.

1867–1868: Reconstruction Acts passed.

1868: Johnson impeached but acquitted; Fourteenth Amendment ratified.

1870: Fifteenth Amendment ratified.

1870–1871: Enforcement Acts passed.

1872: General Amnesty Act passed.

1875: Civil Rights Act passed.

1877: Hayes withdraws remaining troops from South.

1896: Plessy v. Ferguson decided.

The Civil War worked a revolution in the life of the American people in many respects more profound than did the American Revolution. During Reconstruction, which lasted from the surrender of the Confederate forces in 1865 to the removal of the last Union occupation troops in 1877, the South was the scene of bitter strife, as its status in the federal government and the plans for its rebuilding were debated. From Reconstruction emerged new patterns of government, economy, and society that transformed the South.

FRAMING AND IMPLEMENTING A RECONSTRUCTION POLICY

The views among the political leaders who tried to formulate and carry out a program for the rehabilitation of the former Confederate states were so mixed that the American people were badly confused.

The Prostrate South

War always disfigures. And a civil war often scars the face of society so greatly that it is hardly recognizable. This was true of the South during Reconstruction. Confederate soldiers, returning home after the surrender of General Robert E. Lee, found destruction, poverty, and hopelessness all about them.

Economic Chaos

Throughout the former Confederacy, farmhouses, barns, and mills had been burned; bridges and railroad tracks had been destroyed; towns had been looted and their inhabitants driven out. Plantation owners had lost their slaves, and they could not afford the capital for agricultural equipment to replace slave labor. Business was at a near standstill.

Social Confusion

The war had—at least temporarily—destroyed the whole structure of Southern society. Aristocratic planters, shorn of their wealth and power, yielded reluctantly to the growing influence of bankers, merchants, and small farmers. The changing status of blacks, as they made the transition from slaves to wage earners, created serious social tensions between blacks and whites.

Political Uncertainty

The collapse of the Confederacy had stalled most political processes in the South. State and local governments had to be organized; the new state governments had to establish normal relations within the Union. In the nation’s capital and throughout the North, political leaders differed sharply over what should be done and how it should be done. There were bitter quarrels among the leaders of the dominant Republican party concerning the proper basis for political reconstruction.

Framing a Policy

The approaches of presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson on the one hand, and of Congress on the other, for the readmission of the former Confederate states to the Union were so opposed that a rift between the executive and legislative branches of the government soon occurred that was unprecedented in the nation’s history.

The Conquered Provinces Theory

Some members of Congress, including such influential Republican leaders as Senator Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio and Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, argued that secession was an illegal act and that Southerners must pay a heavy penalty for having committed it. By having engaged in this crime, the Southern states had placed themselves outside the protection of the Constitution. They must now be treated as “conquered provinces,” which Congress had the constitutional power to govern.

Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan

President Lincoln argued against the conquered provinces theory, although he knew it had support from important members of his own party. He claimed that the right to secede did not exist, and that the Southern states had never left the Union but had merely been “out of their proper practical relation” to it. (In 1869, the Supreme Court in Texas v. White upheld the position that the Union was constitutionally indestructible.) Lincoln was convinced that he should help the South quickly resume its former status within the Union. In December 1863, he presented a two-part plan for reconstruction. First, the plan pardoned all Southerners (except high Confederate officials and those who had left U.S. government or military service to aid the Confederacy) who would swear allegiance to the United States and accept “all acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves.” Second, it authorized the establishment of a new government, with representation in the national government, for any state if one-tenth of its qualified voters (as registered in 1860) would take the required loyalty oath.

The Wade-Davis Bill

Lincoln’s moderate plan ran into strong opposition among the congressional leaders of his own party. They feared that the president would “let the South off too easily” and that former Confederate officials would return immediately to political power in their states. In July 1864, Congress passed the stringent Wade-Davis bill. Named after its sponsors, Senator Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio and Representative H. Winter Davis of Maryland, it provided that a majority of white male citizens had to take a loyalty oath before a civil government could be organized in a seceded state. It also excluded from the electorate of such states former Confederate officeholders and military personnel who had “voluntarily borne arms against the United States.” Lincoln defeated the bill with a pocket veto; that is, he failed to sign it into law before the adjournment of Congress. Wade and Davis consequently accused him of “dictatorial usurpation.”

The Johnson Plan

The assassination of President Lincoln on April 14, 1865, was a particular blow to those who favored a policy of moderation. His unfinished work fell into the hands of his vice-president, Andrew Johnson, a pro-Union Democrat from Tennessee. In the 1864 election, Johnson had been placed with Lincoln on the Republican party ticket (temporarily calling itself the Union party) to emphasize unity and attract wide support. The new president attempted to carry forward his predecessor’s plan with minor changes, but the politically inept Johnson had little success in handling Congress. He granted amnesty to all former Confederates (except certain high leaders and large property holders) who were willing to take an oath to uphold the Constitution. By successive proclamations, he set up provisional governments (adapted to current conditions and of a temporary nature) in the former Confederate states. He authorized the loyal white citizens to draft and ratify new state constitutions and to elect state legislatures, which were expected to: (1) repeal the ordinances of secession; (2) repudiate the Confederate state debts; and (3) ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting slavery.

Implementing a Policy

Members of the Republican party who opposed the Johnson plan came to be called Radicals. The Congress that convened in December 1865 soon came to be dominated by this group, which was led by Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts and Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania.

Motives of the Radical Republicans

In opposing the president’s policy, the Radicals exhibited a curious blend of high moral purpose and partisan self-interest, in which the following were important factors: (1) personal animosity toward Johnson on the part of senators and representatives who believed him unworthy of the presidency; (2) fear of executive encroachment upon the authority of Congress; (3) the desire to safeguard the interests of blacks freed from slavery as a result of the war (usually referred to as “freedmen”) and their unwillingness to leave these matters in the hands of the deeply racist Johnson; (4) resentment over the speedy return of former Confederates to political power in the South; and (5) the determination of the Republican politicians to establish their own party in the South.

The Thirteenth Amendment

On one issue there was complete agreement among all Northern political leaders: that slavery must be abolished. Thus, in February 1865, Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery within the nation. Ratification of the amendment by the required number of states was obtained by the following December, and it thus became part of the Constitution.

The Black Codes

Beginning in November 1865, and continuing into 1866, Southern legislatures that had been elected under Johnson’s moderate reconstruction plan passed the so-called Black Codes, a series of laws that regulated the status of the freedmen. Although these laws conferred some rights of citizenship upon the newly freed slaves, they helped to ensure white supremacy and de facto slavery by narrowly restricting the political, economic, and social activities of blacks. The Black Codes varied in severity from state to state. African Americans were, for example, denied the right to hold public office, serve on juries, bear arms, or engage in any occupation other than farming without obtaining a license. The immediate effect in the North of the Black Codes was increased support for the Radical Republican position.

The Freedmen’s Bureau

In March 1865, Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (popularly called the Freedmen’s Bureau). Its role was to provide the newly emancipated blacks with the basic necessities of life and to protect their civil rights as well as to care for the abandoned lands of the South. In February 1866, legislators passed a bill extending the life of the bureau indefinitely. Johnson vetoed this bill on the grounds that the states affected by it had not been represented in Congress when it was passed and that its provision for the military trial of civilians violated the Constitution. A later bill, however, enlarging the powers of the Freedmen’s Bureau, was passed over Johnson’s veto in July 1866.

The Joint Committee on Reconstruction

In December 1865, Congress refused to seat the senators and representatives who had been elected by the provisional state governments set up under the Johnson plan. (According to the Constitution, each house of Congress is empowered to judge the election and qualifications of its own members.) Instead, t...