RECONSTRUCTION 1865 1877 RECONSTRUCTION PLANS CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION OBJECTIVES
RECONSTRUCTION 1865 -1877 RECONSTRUCTION PLANS & CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION
OBJECTIVES • Contrast Lincoln’s plan to reunite the nation with that of the Radical Republicans. • Discuss life in the South immediately after the war. • Analyze the Reconstruction dispute between President Johnson and Congress. • Describe the major features of Congressional Reconstruction.
The Freedman’s Bureau • Established by Congress to address the refugee crisis that arose as large #s of Af Ams flocked to Union lines as the war progressed • Bureau fed & clothed war refugees in the S. using surplus army supplies • Helped enslaved people find work, negotiated labor contracts, set up special courts to deal with grievances • Education: provided schools, paid teachers, helped establish
RECONSTRUCTION • The nation faced difficult problems after the Civil War. The first issue was how to bring the South back into the Union. • War devastated most Southern cities & the South’s economy. In the months after the Civil War, the nation began the effort to rebuild + reunite. • The President & Congress had to deal with Reconstruction = rebuilding the South after the Civil War –Had to decide under what terms/conditions the former Confederate states would rejoin the Union • Lincoln wanted to make reunion relatively easy. After he died, Congress designed a plan that focused on punishing the South + ensuring that African Americans had the right to vote. These policies increased hostility between the regions. Pressures on the South to reform eased with the Compromise of 1877.
LINCOLN: PROCLAMATION OF AMNESTY & RECONSTRUCTION • 1 st plan introduced in 1863 • Called for a general amnesty = pardon, to all Southerners who took an oath of loyalty to the U. S. & accepted the Union’s proclamations concerning slavery. • After 10% of the state’s voters in the 1860 presidential election had taken the oath, the state could organize a new state gov. • WANTED COUNTRY REUNITED AS SOON & PAINLESSLY AS POSSIBLE LENIENT TOWARDS SOUTH • The Radical Republicans in control of Congress disagreed with the plan.
Radical Republican Goals • The Radical Republicans had 3 main goals. 1. Prevent the Confederate leaders from returning to power after the war 2. Wanted Republican Party to become powerful in the South. 3. Wanted the federal gov. to help Af. Ams achieve political equality by guaranteeing them the right to vote in the South.
RADICAL REPUBLICANS: WADE-DAVIS BILL (1864) • Majority of adult white men in former Confederate state must take oath of loyalty to Union • Could then have convention to create new state gov • State must: • 1. abolish slavery • 2. reject all debts the state had taken on as part of Confederacy • 3. not allow former gov/military officials the right to vote or hold public office • WANTED TO PUNISH THE SOUTH, NOT RECONCILE Radical Republicans led by Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania & Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts * PRESIDENT LINCOLN POCKET VETOED THE PLAN
- Slides: 7