The Battle Over Reconstruction

—Curriculum Unit Overview—

Introduction

Beyond the obvious material destruction, there was more to reconstruct in the South than buildings, farms, manufacturing and railroads—there were social and political relationships to rebuild. Yet, it is impossible to understand Reconstruction fully without a grasp of the social and economic upheaval the war brought with it. For the people living through the times, this upheaval created a situation that demanded immediate attention. Economically, the South had been shattered, with much of its capital—formerly invested in slaves—lost. Fields remained untilled and fallow. Capital that during the war had been invested in manufacturing to a much larger extent than it had been before the war, was now laid to waste with many of the South’s factories in ruins. Beyond these tangible losses there was the devastating cost in human life. More than one-fifth of the South’s adult white male population (some 260,000) was lost fighting for the Confederacy. In addition, the great majority of black soldiers who had fought and died in the Union army were from the South. Its losses in manpower, therefore, was monumental.

Another consideration in post-bellum America was a new question for southern society: What would be the role of the newly freed black population of the South? What would be the social relationship between this new community and its former white masters? The South faced a newly freed workforce that grew more and more recalcitrant, refusing to work for former masters (very often with good cause), whatever the pay. Old habits of social interaction had to be reconsidered and, most often, unlearned. Thus, even if the South could quickly show some signs of economic recovery, solving the problems posed by social reconstruction would prove to be a much more difficult and lengthy proposition.

The political process of Reconstruction, on the other hand, had begun before the war ended. In some states—like Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana—where earlier Union victories had been so complete as to take them out of the Confederacy for practical purposes, the populations had already taken steps in the direction of re-establishing former relations with the Union. For Abraham Lincoln, it was impossible to separate Reconstruction policy from war policy. Reunification was the central object of the war for Lincoln. Because of that, Lincoln believed that a swift procedure for Reconstruction—taking place, in effect, as Union victories gradually spread throughout the South—would aid in the effort to bring the war to a speedy end. In order to encourage a speedy process of Reconstruction, Lincoln argued for generous terms of amnesty to former rebels and encouraged lenient processes for restoring states to their former relations with the Union.

Many in Congress, however, had a different view. Upon receiving Lincoln’s “Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction” these members were indignant. Apart from the content, which a number viewed as too gentle toward the South, some legislators argued that Lincoln’s proclamation flew in the face of Congress’ presumed sovereignty in the matter. Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania argued that Lincoln’s plan for allowing only 10% of a state’s electorate to put forward a constitution was contrary to democratic theory and the principle of majority rule. Further, many members argued that the states joining the Confederacy had, in effect, “committed suicide” and had to be re-established from the ground up in the same way territories or conquered foreign lands would be organized.

Whatever virtues there were in Lincoln’s less strident and less specific plan for Reconstruction, however, may also have contributed to its weakness. Because its success depended so much on Lincoln’s own judgment, discretion, and persuasive abilities, his assassination on April 14, 1865 was a devastating loss to its operation. Lincoln’s Vice President, Andrew Johnson, shared Lincoln’s view that reconstruction ought to be directed from the White House, but he lacked much of Lincoln’s political savvy and understanding and shared almost none of his forgiving nature or charm with the people.

After the impeachment of Andrew Johnson and the ascendancy of Congress in directing Reconstruction policy, the realities of enforcing their well-meaning goals soon dimmed the enthusiasm of many Republicans. Though Republicans made quick and huge political gains in the South as newly enfranchised black voters rushed to their support, it was clear that the party and its ideals of peace through racial and sectional harmony on Republican terms remained unpopular with large segments of the population—particularly with those who were disenfranchised because they could not take the “oath” or otherwise prove their loyalty to the Union. This meant that the huge majorities Republicans then enjoyed were, so to speak, operating on borrowed time.

Southern governments frequently were in the hands of political novices: for example, inexperienced (and sometimes illiterate) freedmen and—worse yet, from the point of view of many Southern loyalists—Northerners who had moved south in the wake of war to assist in the recovery effort. These conditions made it quite difficult for the Republican Party to get much of a foothold in the South among any except black voters and those who had relocated from the North. It also made it difficult to enforce Republican plans for Reconstruction and the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution.

As resistance and violence continued to spread in the South, Republican resolve began to weaken. Maintaining a visible and active presence of Union troops in the South to facilitate the peaceful operation of government and Reconstruction was expensive and frustrating to many in Congress. Moreover, the horrors of the late war were alive in the memories of most Americans and the real or imagined threat of resumed and open hostilities operated with more persuasive force than the best of arguments.

President Ulysses S. Grant had been elected partly because he seemed to show promise of strong executive leadership, but also because he was viewed in the afterglow of his wartime success. But in his first showdown with Congress upon being elected, Grant backed down and accepted a compromise proposal with the Senate even after the House had voted to join him in his opposition to the Tenure of Office Act. This show of weakness seemed to set the tone for Grant’s administration (1869-77) which, though it seemed to offer some promise to restore order and sanity to the South, actually accomplished very little in this realm.

In part, Grant’s administration suffered because of some real and some exaggerated charges of corruption—most of which did not directly involve Grant but tarnished him (and, eventually, Congress) nonetheless. The impact of scandal on the national political debate was real. It contributed to a chastening of Republican ambitions in the South and forced the party to concentrate on maintaining its base of support in the North rather than growing the party in Dixie. This helped to shape the national political debate for generations.

The “official” era of Reconstruction came to a close with the Compromise of 1877. In that “compromise,” Republican Rutherford B. Hayes won a tight race for the Presidency with just one electoral vote—on the condition that all federal troops be removed from the South and a southern Democrat be named to his cabinet.

In all, the history of Reconstruction was an object lesson in the limitations of persuasion in politics—as was the history of the Civil War that preceded it. The great political battles of the era were full of interesting reflections and assertions about the nature and purpose of America and American government. The passage of the 14th Amendment and Civil Rights legislation were great victories for the advocates of equality under the law. But in the end, events overpowered the best thinking on both sides of this divide and the impact of these great victories was left to be felt and interpreted by a new generation of Americans. Much of the legislation enacted in the name of racial equality was to be undone in the coming years by rulings coming from the Supreme Court (Plessy v. Ferguson, The Civil Rights Cases, etc.) and then to be taken up again in the Civil Rights struggles of the 20th century. In many ways, we continue these struggles in our politics today.

Guiding Questions

• How did the experience of social and political upheaval from the Civil War influence people to think about the process of Reconstruction?
• What were the leading differences between Presidents Lincoln and Johnson, and the Radical Republicans in Congress when it came to Reconstruction?
• Which of the leaders had the best and most realistic understanding of what was needed?
• How did the results of Reconstruction policy shape the politics of the reconstructed states and the nation at large?

Learning Objectives

• Describe the general character of the social conditions within the nation in the aftermath of war.
• Demonstrate the ability to navigate through a statistical map interactive and use information gathered there to inform an understanding of the political, social, and economic crisis confronting the nation during Reconstruction.
• Distinguish the central and driving ideas at work in original documents surrounding Reconstruction and be able to discuss their impact on events.
• Identify specific problems that may have emerged given the attitudes and conditions prevalent in the defeated South.
• Discuss how these attitudes and ideas may have helped or hindered Reconstruction.
• Describe the constitutional claims of both the President and the Congress (in the generic rather than specific sense) for controlling Reconstruction policy.
• Give a general accounting of the differences between some of the leading representatives in Congress and both Presidents Lincoln and Johnson.
• Distinguish between the purposes of Johnson and Lincoln in advocating a stronger executive role.
• Explain how the divisions between President Johnson and the Congress eventually led to his impeachment.
• Distinguish between the main and competing visions for Reconstruction as they began to emerge at the end of the Civil War.
• Distinguish the central and driving ideas at work in original documents surrounding Reconstruction and be able to discuss their impact on events.
• Describe the general character of the social conditions within the nation in the aftermath of Reconstruction.
• Demonstrate the ability to navigate through a statistical map interactive.
• Use information gathered from the interactive maps to inform an understanding of the political, social, and economic problems confronting the nation in the wake of Reconstruction.
• Distinguish the central and driving ideas at work in the documents used to illustrate this lesson.
• Identify specific problems that may have emerged as a result of Reconstruction policy in its many and varied permutations.
• Discuss how these policies may have affected attitudes in the country and, subsequently, how these attitudes helped or hindered politics upon the conclusion of the Reconstruction era.

Preparing to Teach this Curriculum Unit

Download the Text Documents for the lessons, available as PDF files. These files contain excerpted versions of the documents used in each lesson, as well as questions for students to answer. Print out and make an appropriate number of copies of the handouts you plan to use in class. Also note that scattered throughout this unit's lesson plans are thumbnails linked to engaging cartoons of the reconstruction era that flesh out and give life to the issues and struggles of the period. Be aware that, due to the attitudes of the times, some of the cartoons may be offensive to modern sensibilities, even though the intent of them was to be sympathetic to those depicted.

Finally, familiarize yourself with the interactive maps and timeline that accompany this lesson. The interactive maps (http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/neh/interactives/reconstruction/) explore the impact of the war and Reconstruction on the South, while the interactive timeline (http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/neh/interactives/impeach/) examines the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson and his troubles with the Congress. These interactives are incorporated into several of the activities for this lesson.

Analyzing primary sources: If your students lack experience in dealing with primary sources, you might use one or more preliminary exercises to help them develop these skills. The Learning Page at the American Memory Project of the Library of Congress includes a set of such activities. Another useful resource is the Digital Classroom of the National Archives, which features a set of Document Analysis Worksheets.

Unit Lessons

Lesson Plan #1: The Aftermath of War
Lesson Plan #2: The Politics of Reconstruction
Lesson Plan #3: The Aftermath of Reconstruction

Selected EDSITEment Web Sites

• Africans in America
• “A Visit from the Old Mistress” painting
American President
• Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
• Abraham Lincoln, Third Annual Message to Congress, December 8, 1863
• Digital History
• America's Reconstruction: People and Politics after the Civil War
• Thomas Long, former slave, recalling treatment in the Union army
• Tobias Gibson, lamenting how out of control blacks on his plantation have become, 1864
• The Emancipation Proclamation
• Meeting between Black Religious Leaders and Union Military Authorities, January 12, 1865
• Tobias Gibson, lamenting the mixing of Negro and white children in the same schoolroom
• Jourdan Anderson, an ex-slave declining his master’s invitation to work on the plantation, 1865
• Corporal Jackson Cherry, appealing for equal treatment of freedmen, 1864
• Rufus Saxon, former Commissioner of the Freedman’s Bureau
• Samuel Thomas, a Freedman Bureau official, 1865
• An Autobiography—A Southern Colored Woman
• Excerpt from the testimony of Henry Blake, 1937
• A Georgia Negro Peon
• Documenting the American South
• Diary of Sarah Morgan Dawson, 1862-1865
• Diary of Emma LeConte, 1864-1865
• Diary of Julia Johnson Fisher, 1865
• Rev. Irving E. Lowery, Life on the Old Plantation in Ante-Bellum Days, 1911
• Holland Thompson, From the Cotton Field to the Cotton Mill: A Study of the Industrial Transition in North Carolina, 1906
• The Resources of North Carolina: Its Natural Wealth, Condition, and Advantages, as Existing in 1869. Presented to the Capitalists and People of the Central and Northern States, by Bannister, Cowan & Company
• Zebulon Baird Vance, The Duties of Defeat: An Address Delivered before the Two Literary Societies of the University of North Carolina, June 7th, 1866
• Atticus G. Haygood (then President of Emory University), Our Brother in Black: His Freedom and Our Future, 1881
• William Robert Houghton, Two Boys in the Civil War and After, Montgomery, Ala.: THE PARAGON PRESS, 1912
• Freedmen and Southern Society Project
• The Militia Act, July 17, 1862
• Chronology of Emancipation
• Keeper of Sandy Point Lighthouse to a Baltimore Judge
• Testimony of a South Carolina Freedman before the American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission
• Louisiana Planters to the Commander of the Department of the Gulf
• President Lincoln's Order of Retaliation, July 30, 1863
• Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, December 8, 1863
• Black Residents of Nashville to the Union Convention
• The Freedmen's Bureau Act, March 3, 1865
• Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, December 8, 1863
• Black Residents of Nashville to the Union Convention
• The Freedmen's Bureau Act, March 3, 1865
• From Revolution to Reconstruction
• The Wade-Davis Manifesto, 1864
• Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation on the Wade-Davis Bill, July 8, 1864
• Thaddeus Stevens, speech from December 18, 1865
• An address to the Loyal Citizens and Congress of the United States of America adopted by a convention of Negroes held in Alexandria, Virginia, from August 2 to 5, 1865
• Alexander Stephens, speech April 11, 1866
• Andrew Johnson, Cleveland Speech, September 3, 1866
• Andrew Johnson, Veto of the First Reconstruction Act, March 2, 1867
• Charles Sumner, Opinion on the Trial of Andrew Johnson, 1868
• James W. Grimes, Opinion on the Trial of Andrew Johnson, 1868
• PBS’s “American Experience” Reconstruction: America’s Second Civil War
• Teaching American History
• Forty Acres and a Mule: Special Field Order No. 15 by William Tecumseh Sherman
• Excerpt from Prose Works, by Walt Whitman
• Excerpts from the Journal of Gertrude Thomas, May 1865
• Letter from General William T. Sherman to James M. Calhoun, September 1864
• Richard Henry Dana, Excerpt from “Grasp of War Speech” delivered June 21, 1865 in Faneuil Hall
• Abraham Lincoln, Last Public Address, April 11, 1865
• Andrew Johnson, Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, May 29, 1865
• Andrew Johnson, Speech in Honor of George Washington’s Birthday, February 22, 1866
• Andrew Johnson, Message on the Veto of the Freedman’s Bureau Extension Act, February 19, 1866
• Andrew Johnson, Message on the Veto of the Civil Rights Bill, March 27, 1866
• Charles Sumner, Eulogy of Abraham Lincoln, June 1, 1865
• Civil Rights Act of 1866
• Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Report of May 22, 1866
• First Reconstruction Act, March 2, 1867
• Tenure of Office Act, March 2, 1867
• Andrew Johnson’s Articles of Impeachment, 1868
• Excerpts from the testimony of Maddie Curtis from Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, North Carolina Narratives 1937
• Excerpt from Albert T. Morgan, Yazoo, Or, On the Picket Line of Freedom, 1881
• Excerpt from Frederick Douglass, Address to the Massachusetts Antislavery Society, April 1865
• Letter from President Ulysses S. Grant to the Hon. D. H. Chamberlain, Governor of South Carolina (on the occasion of riots in Hamburg, S.C.), August 1, 1876
• Excerpt from Senator Carl Schurz of Missouri, speech in the Senate, January 30, 1872
• Rutherford B. Hayes, letter of acceptance of the nomination for the Presidency, June 8, 1876
• Excerpt from a Speech from Richard H. Cain, February 17, 1868 during the South Carolina Constitutional Convention
• The National Archives: For Educators and Students
• Fourteenth Amendment
• Our Documents
• Wade-Davis Bill, 1864