Reconstruction Could have happened: Purge Confederate leaders Indefinite martial law Guerilla warfare in South Freedmen revenge on former owners and whites generally 1865 Only small group of politicians supported black suffrage (Radical Republicans) Charles Sumner Senate (Mass) Thaddeus Stevens H of R (Penn) How do R R sweep into power? Lincolns 10% Plan Doesnt include blacks Hope to establish pro-Union govts in former Confederacy Hope to build southern Republican party By end of war some states readmitted by Lincoln, but Congress blocked seating Johnson Rad Reps thought was ally, Johnson friend in war, was military gov of Tenn 62-64 treason is a crime Wanted to destroy planter aristocracy; Reconstruction plan included banning from politics all Confederates with $20k or more in property Owned 8 slaves, but told Tenn blacks he would be Moses Johnson But not idealist and still racist; just wanted to hurt planters Gave out 13,000 pardons Dropped plans for punishing traitors Status quo almost achieved Office holders at local, state, and federal levels Ensured landless, dependent black labor force -- teach them their place SC license if black wanted nonagricultural job MS prohibited blacks buying, selling land Many states arrested blacks who didnt have jobs and auctioned them off What can be hatched from such an egg but another rebellion? Southern defiance Congress vs. Johnson Southern black status now major issue in Congress, but Rad Reps still minority Congress not united (Conservative Reps, Radical Reps, moderate Reps, and Democrats) Johnson vetoes (both overridden) Freedmans Bureau extension 1866 civil rights bill Claimed that southerners shut out of Congress pushes mod Reps w/ Rad Reps swing around the circle is debacle for AJ Democratic party becomes a common sewer...into which is emptied every element of treason Rad Reps receive clear mandate in 1866 elections Block Confederate power Black suffrage Fed support for public schools More military occupation Invalidate state govts in South except Tenn (1867), new constitutions Create Republican govts But no prosecution, no redistribution But Johnson c-in-c of army, chooses generals symp to South Leads to impeachment 13 th freedom 14 th citizenship 15 th suffrage (1870) Need votes in South, margin of victory for Grant in 1868 High tide for Congress Attitudes towards freedom Southern whites want labor force, blacks not ready for freedom yet Northern whites want crops harvested (=$) Northern blacks want show hard workers Southern blacks want land and economic independence Temporary power shift Union veterans for business, land, RR, climate, investments Missionaries Teachers Freedmens Bureau agents Carpetbaggers (bag=travel, magic carpet) Scalawags (=start with S, like South) Rely on black voters (= 80% of Rep voters in South) Pop quiz: What are reforms enacted by Reconstruction govts? Universal manhood suffrage Education reform (public) More offices accessible Roads, bridges, public buildings Care for orphans, etc. Integrated militia Bigger govts Higher taxes to help no property herd Missing... Land reform fails Want to attract northern investors, so leave private property alone Why does Reconstruction fail? Resistance from executive branch Weak executives Failure to establish Republican party in South, moderates and Unionists suppressed Only partial independence for blacks (land? Education?) Failure to enforce laws (like Force Acts) North gets distracted e.g., Panic of 1873 Election of 1872 splits Republican party Corruption Failure to break Southern landed elite Slaughterhouse Cases (73) dual citizenship, so some rights because of state citizenship, some because of national citizenship (so states can encroach on freedmen rights) 15 th amendment does not give guarantee of vote, only that cannot be deprived based on explicit list (so bar vote based on something else, like literacy) U.S. v. Cruikshank (76) 14 th amend only protect against violations by a state, not private citizens like vigilantes (Colfax massacre) Radical Republicans get old and tired and dead Idealism vanished, fatigue sets in; business interests to forefront Waving bloody shirt not as effective Continued racial attitude that blacks, after all, are inferior to whites political suicide to insist on equality