Reconstruction

I

Introduction

Reconstruction, in United States history, period after the American Civil War during which the seceded states were restored to normal relations with the Union.

II

Lincoln's Ten Per Cent Plan

The question of how to reconstruct the Union emerged well before the Civil War ended. President Abraham Lincoln wanted to begin the process of reconciliation as Union armies occupied each seceded state. Lincoln initially administered the affairs of the conquered Confederate states in an informal manner, but on December 8, 1863, he announced a specific Reconstruction programme. All southerners (except high-ranking Confederate officials) could obtain a full pardon and restoration of rights after taking an oath that pledged future loyalty to the Union and acknowledged the end of slavery. When ten per cent of the 1860 voting population in a given state had taken this oath, these citizens could vote in elections that would create new state governments and new state constitutions. After a state government had been formed and a constitution recognizing the end of slavery ratified, that state would once again be eligible for representation in Congress and Lincoln would consider the state fully readmitted to the Union.

Many northerners believed that the president's Reconstruction plan treated the South too leniently. Others complained that Lincoln's programme discriminated against the freed slaves, because under it blacks could not take the loyalty oath, vote, or hold office. Lincoln probably conceived of the ten per cent plan as a wartime measure only, hoping that its lack of vindictiveness would shorten the war by enticing the rebellious states back into the Union. After Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered in 1865, Lincoln hinted that he might announce a new Reconstruction policy, but he was assassinated before he could do so.

III

Johnson's Reconstruction Policy

Vice-President Andrew Johnson succeeded to the presidency upon Lincoln's death. Throughout his political career, Johnson had been an outspoken foe of the aristocracy of rich slaveholders who controlled southern politics before the war, and this convinced northerners that he would deal harshly with the South. In most respects, however, Johnson continued the policy initiated by Lincoln. Under Johnson's Reconstruction plan, announced on May 29, 1865, the president would appoint governors for each of the rebellious states. These governors would convene constitutional conventions, and only those who took the loyalty oath prescribed by Lincoln could vote for delegates to these conventions. High-ranking Confederate officials and people owning land worth $20,000 or more could vote only if they were personally pardoned by the president. Once new state governments had been so organized, Johnson would deem the states to have rejoined the Union.

IV

The Black Codes

Johnson predicted that under his programme, the nation could complete the task of Reconstruction in a matter of months. Instead, the perception that the president was treating the South leniently dashed any hope for a speedy national reconciliation. Despite protests from the North, Johnson allowed the governors he selected to appoint prominent secessionists to office. He was also very liberal in his pardoning policy, granting clemency to the most unrepentant rebels. In northern eyes, however, the worst affront was the institution by the new southern governments of the so-called Black Codes. These laws were meant to circumscribe black economic options and thus force the freedmen to continue working as plantation labourers. The codes imposed prohibitive taxes on freedmen who tried to pursue nonagricultural occupations, restricted the blacks' ability to rent land or own guns or dogs, instituted harsh vagrancy laws meant to intimidate the freedmen, and created apprenticeship statutes that allowed children of “unfit” parents to be bound out to their former masters in what was nothing less than a continuation of slavery.

Consequently, by the time Congress convened in December 1865, many Republicans had concluded that Johnson's policy needed modification. A faction known as the Radical Republicans argued that Congress should completely overhaul the programme. The Radicals believed that Reconstruction represented a “golden moment” during which they could swiftly institute far-reaching social and economic changes in the South. Led by Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts and Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, these politicians sought to take control of Reconstruction from the president, and to use a more powerful federal government to guarantee civil and political rights (including the right to vote) for the freedmen. Stevens and others even advocated that the government distribute land to the freedmen in order to ensure their economic independence.

Moderate Republicans outnumbered the Radicals, however, and the moderates believed that Johnson's programme could succeed with only minor adjustments. These modifications were embodied in two bills that received congressional approval in early 1866. The bill concerning the Freedmen's Bureau extended the life of the agency that helped blacks make the transition from slavery to freedom by providing economic assistance and legal protection, especially against the Black Codes. Johnson, believing that the freedmen deserved no such special assistance, outraged most Republicans by vetoing this bill.

The president further angered Republicans by vetoing the moderates' second proposal, the Civil Rights Bill. Even after the most outrageous portions of the Black Codes had been repealed, the southern states continued to deny blacks equality before the law by arguing that they were not citizens. The Civil Rights Bill, which was passed in Congress with nearly unanimous Republican support in March 1866, attempted to redress this situation by defining all people born in the United States (except Native Americans) as citizens. The bill went on to specify the rights of citizens, including the right to sue; make contracts; give evidence in court; hold, convey, and inherit property; and enjoy all “fundamental rights” belonging to whites. Finally, the bill allowed federal attorneys to bring suit against violators if state courts refused to act. In his veto message, Johnson argued that the Civil Rights Bill transferred too much power from the states to the federal government. His message smacked of blatant racism, with its argument that guaranteeing rights for blacks would result in discrimination against whites, and the claim that miscegenation would increase if the bill became law.