Week of 1/21-1/27/2013 (1st Week of 3rd 9 Wks)

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