President
Lincoln wanted the nation to follow his Ten Percent Plan after the Civil
War. In his opinion, far too many lives
were lost and far too much bitterness was engendered. The following is from SparkNotes:
“Lincoln’s
blueprint for Reconstruction included the Ten-Percent Plan, which
specified that a southern state could be readmitted into the Union once 10 percent of its voters (from the voter
rolls for the election of 1860)
swore an oath of allegiance to the Union. Voters could then elect
delegates to draft revised state constitutions and establish new state
governments. All southerners except for high-ranking Confederate army officers
and government officials would be granted a full pardon. Lincoln guaranteed
southerners that he would protect their private property, though not their
slaves. Most moderate Republicans in Congress supported the president’s
proposal for Reconstruction because they wanted to bring a quick end to the
war.
In many
ways, the Ten-Percent Plan was more of a political maneuver than a plan for
Reconstruction. Lincoln wanted to end the war quickly. He feared that a
protracted war would lose public support and that the North and South would
never be reunited if the fighting did not stop quickly. His fears were
justified: by late 1863, a large
number of Democrats were clamoring for a truce and peaceful resolution.
Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan was thus lenient—an attempt to entice the South to
surrender.
President
Lincoln seemed to favor self-Reconstruction by the states with little
assistance from Washington. To appeal to poorer whites, he offered to pardon
all Confederates; to appeal to former plantation owners and southern
aristocrats, he pledged to protect private property. Unlike Radical
Republicans in Congress, Lincoln did not want to punish southerners or
reorganize southern society. His actions indicate that he wanted Reconstruction
to be a short process in which secessionist states could draft new
constitutions as swiftly as possible so that the United States could exist as
it had before. But historians can only speculate that Lincoln desired a swift
reunification, for his assassination in 1865
cut his plans for Reconstruction short.”
But what of the freedmen? The first
African Americans to serve in the United States Congress were Republicans during the Reconstruction Era. On February 25, 1870, Hiram Rhodes Revels was
seated as the first black member of the Senate, becoming also the first black
member of the Congress.
Blacks
were a majority of the population in many congressional districts across the
South. In 1870, Joseph Rainey of South Carolina was elected to the US House of
Representatives, becoming the first directly elected black member of Congress.
Freedmen were elected to national office also from AL, FL, GA, LA, MS, NC, and
VA.
All
of these Reconstruction Era black senators and representatives were members of
the Republican Party. The Republicans
represented the party of Abraham Lincoln and of emancipation. The Southern
Democrats represented the party of planters, slavery and secession.
But from 1868, southern elections were accompanied by increasing
violence, especially in Louisiana, Mississippi and the Carolinas. In the
mid-1870s, groups such as the White League and Red Shirts worked openly to turn
Republicans out of office and intimidate blacks from voting. This followed on
the earlier years of secret vigilante action by the KKK against freedmen and
allied whites.
Many historians
believe the Reconstruction was a “glorious failure”. What was the Reconstruction supposed to do
for the South, for the newly freed African Americans, and for society? While African Americans initially made rapid
gains, by the end of the Reconstruction, northerners were tired of the Reconstruction
and its many “issues”, and African Americans largely lived in fear of white
reprisal should they choose to exercise their constitutional right to
vote. No more African Americans would
serve in Congress until 1928!!
Prompt: Was
the Reconstruction a success OR a failure? Consider the intent of the Reconstruction and
what it accomplished (or failed to accomplish).
Be sure to support your opinion WITH FACTS. As always, DO NOT repeat what has been said!
Here are
some additional notes to get you thinking J
·
1865 Lincoln is assassinated; Johnson becomes president
Congress establishes Joint Committee on Reconstruction; Southern states begin to issue black codes
·
1866 Johnson vetoes renewal of
Freedmen’s Bureau charter Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1866 over Johnson’s veto Congress drafts
Fourteenth Amendment Johnson delivers “Swing Around the Circle” speeches; Ku
Klux Klan forms
·
1867 Radical Reconstruction begins
Congress passes First Reconstruction Act ; Congress passes First and Second
Reconstruction Acts Congress passes Tenure of Office Act
·
1868 House of Representatives
impeaches Andrew Johnson Senate acquits Johnson Fourteenth Amendment is
ratified; Ulysses S. Grant is elected
president
·
1869 Fisk-Gould Gold scheme evolves
·
1870 Fifteenth Amendment is ratified
·
1871 Congress passes Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871; Tweed Ring is exposed
·
1872 Liberal Republican Party emerges Grant is reelected
Crédit Mobilier scandal is exposed
·
1873 Depression of 1873
hits; Supreme Court hears Slaughterhouse Cases
·
1874 Whiskey Ring scandal occurs; Democrats become majority party in House of
Representatives
·
1875 Congress passes Resumption Act; Civil Rights Act of 1875 passed
·
1876 Samuel J. Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes both claim
victory in presidential election
·
1877 Congress passes Electoral
Count Act Hayes becomes president Hayes removes remaining troops from the South
to end Reconstruction
