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The Challenges of Reconstruction:
The most immediate -- and lasting -- consequence of Lincoln's death was felt in the postwar era known as Reconstruction. The challenges confronting his successors were daunting: how were North and South to be reunited? What was to become of four million former slaves? What punishments, if any, would Confederate leaders face? Had the war permanently strengthened the federal government at the expense of the states?
All this and more now fell upon Andrew Johnson -- a very different kind of leader from Abraham Lincoln. Would Lincoln have made the same choices as Johnson?
The Road to Reconstruction:
Planning for Peace:
In December 1863, President Lincoln proposed to readmit any seceding state once 10% of its voters swore allegiance to the Union. Radical Republicans in Congress thought that Lincoln's plans did not sufficiently guarantee civil liberties for freed slaves. They rejected the plan and instead passed the Wade-Davis Bill, which would have made it more difficult for southern states to rejoin. Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill so it never went into effect, and the political disagreement over whether Congress or the President was in charge of Reconstruction continued.
Neither the Ten-Percent Plan nor the Wade-Davis Bill proposed the enfranchisement of African Americans. As the war ground on, however, Lincoln began to shift his stance. On April 11, 1865, in what would be his last speech, Lincoln publicly proposed giving black soldiers the right to vote. Four days later he was dead.
This 1861 political cartoon pre-dates Reconstruction, but shown the hopes in the country that Lincoln might be able to repair the split between North and South.
Reconstruction or Restoration?
Andrew Johnson, like Lincoln, wanted to make it simple for Southern states to return to the Union. Unlike Lincoln, however, Johnson wanted a return to prewar America, where state's rights took precedence over racial justice. Johnson talked of Restoration rather than Reconstruction.
Johnson set about establishing new state governments throughout the South. Most of these new regimes passed Black Codes that demoted freedmen to a permanent second-class status. In response Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which ensured full citizenship rights for African Americans. Johnson vetoed the legislation, along with a bill extending the life of the Freedman's Bureau, established a year earlier to assist former slaves. Congress overrode both of Johnson's vetoes.
This poster from an 1866 gubernatorial election race attacks the Radical Republicans and their support of civil rights for African Americans. The image depicts an African American receiving benefits for free while white laborers work for their livelihood.
Congress Takes Charge:
Triumphant from overwhelming victories in Congressional elections, Radical Republicans wasted no time in dividing the South into five separate military districts. States seeking re-admission to the Union had to guarantee African-American men the right to vote. They also had to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment extending benefit of citizens to all.
The seeds of a multiracial South were thus planted. Starting in 1867, an estimated 1,500 African Americans were elected to office. The restrictive Black Codes passed by state legislatures were abolished. By July 1870, all of the former Confederate states were back in the Union.
Parody of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, showing a group of Radical Republicans celebrating over the political assassination of Andrew Johnson. Harper's Weekly, March 1869.
"Let Us Have Peace":
The war hero, Ulysses S. Grant, won the presidency in 1868 by declaring, "Let us have peace." Grant supported the Fifteenth Amendment, giving all male citizens the right to vote. When Southern resistance flared up, with violence directed against Republican officeholders, Grant used military force against terrorist groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
Over time, northern interest in black rights faded and sectional reconciliation over racial justice. The election of a Democratic Congress in 1874 stalled Reconstruction policies and quickened the decline of federal protection of black civil rights. Meanwhile, state governments in the South increasingly barred blacks from voting. The disputed presidential election of 1876 then gave white supremacists the leverage to make a deal: Democrats would permit Republican Rutherford B. Hayes to assume the presidency; in return, Hayes would end military occupation in the South.
This political cartoon, entitled "Re-Construction," shows an African-American holding onto the "tree of liberty," as he offers a hand to a white man being swept downriver. President Grant stands on the shore, urging the white man to accept the black man's help.
The Reconstruction Amendments:
In the years following Abraham Lincoln's death, Congress passed three constitutional amendments regarding civil rights -- together referred to as the Reconstruction Amendments.
The 13th Amendment continued the work started by Lincoln with the Emancipation Proclamation by officially abolishing slavery within the United States. The 14th Amendment guaranteed equal protections to African Americans. The 15th Amendment granted voting rights to all men, regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
This sketch shows a parade scene, surrounded by portraits and vignettes of African-American life, illustrating the rights granted to them by the Fifteenth Amendment. |