AP US HistoryDecember 9 – 13-2019

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Hopefully you completed the Quia Review of the American Revolution See exam schedule below for Next Week

MONDAY (Recap Activity to follow lesson) Discuss the key provisions of Presidential Reconstruction 1863 – 1866 (POL-3) (WXT-4) (CUL-2) Explain why tensions developed with Congress.

Materials Strategy/FormatPpt Lecture-discussion L.CCR.1

Student Thinking SkillsChronological Reasoning 1,3Historical Argument 6,7Interpretation/Synthesis 8,9

Introduction One of the most important political themes of American History is the sometimes-tenuous relationship

between the executive and legislative branches (with the judicial branch also sometimes tossed into the mix. The Constitution, though clear for the most part on the branches and their powers, does sometimes have gray areas. We already saw that one such gray area was the notion of implied vs. expressed powers. This was, after all one of the reasons why the party system first developed.

Another issue that was a root cause of the Civil War was the issue of state versus Federal powers. We know that slavery was the main issue but others had cropped up as well involving civil liberties (Alien and Sedition Acts), the funding of internal improvements, and tax policies involving the tariff. The Jacksonian destruction of the Bank of the U.S. was also a state vs. Federal issue. While the Civil War ended most of these debates, we will see them crop up on occasion. Which ones have we seen lately in our own time?

60th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg Photograph of veterans, 1913

The Reconstruction Period 1863 – 1877 is very clearly defined and is divided into two parts: Presidential and Congressional (sometimes called Radical) Reconstruction. This illustrates a key tension about the three major questions of the Reconstruction Period:

a. How do we best reintegrate the South back into the Union?b. How do we protect the rights of former slaves (freedmen)?c. And finally, whether or not and to what degree should the South be punished?

Presidential Reconstruction

By late 1863 Lincoln saw that the Union might now be saved. Gettysburg was a great blow to Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and the Western front was ended at Vicksburg. Already plans were being made for Sherman’s March to the Sea cutting off any retreat by Lee’s forces into the Deep South. So, in December 1863 Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. The name clearly outlines Lincoln’s philosophy of leniency but also reflects a desire to sway some CSA states back into the Union with a sign of goodwill. (A further sign being the choice of Andrew Johnson, a Tennessee Democrat as his running mate for the 1884 Election). Lincoln’s plain is often called “the 10% Plan.”

President Lincoln announces a plan for reconstructing those Confederate states already under Union control. He offered to pardon Confederates who take an oath to support the Union. When 10% of a state's citizens eligible to vote in 1860 swear an oath of allegiance (the so-called “ironclad oath”) and a state has abolished slavery by accepting the soon to be passed 13th amendment, he promises to readmit the state to the Union.

Take a look at the plan. It is too lenient? Lincoln’s plan was issued while the war was still raging and his attitude probably reflected this fact to a degree. However, it can be inferred from other writings that Lincoln was interested in some level of forgiveness. Is this within Lincoln’s constitutional power? Well, he thought so since this was part of a military operation his power as commander in chief.

The Wade Davis Bill July 1864

At this point, Congress reviewed Lincoln’s Plan. Many Congressional Republicans (so called “Radical Republicans”) believe that the 10 Percent Plan was too lenient since it does nothing to end the economic and political power of the planter class or protect the civil rights of ex-slaves (both good points). They also believed that the president was overstepped his authority by issuing a plan for reconstruction without consulting Congress.

Congressional Republicans outline their plan for reconstructing the union. The Wade-Davis Bill requires each state to abolish slavery, repudiate their acts of secession, and refuse to honor wartime debts. It also stipulates that a majority, rather than 10 percent, of voters in 1860 take an oath of allegiance before a state could be reorganized. Finally, it specifies that anyone who wanted to vote in a constitutional convention in a former Confederate state must swear that he had never voluntarily supported the Confederacy. These ideas will become central to Congressional Reconstruction.

Lincoln did not like the Wade-Davis Bill because he found it to be too inflexible and he believed that it would cause unnecessary anger inhibiting and not helping Reconstruction. So, he used a maneuver called a “pocket veto.” The Constitution grants the President 10 days to review a measure passed by the Congress. If the President has not signed the bill after 10 days, it becomes law without his signature. However, if Congress adjourns during the 10-day period, the bill does not become law. Lincoln knew that soon Congress would adjourn for recess (one envisions Congressmen on a playground) and all unfinished business would have to be re-introduced. Lincoln was stalling for time. Under Lincoln’s Plan, TN, AR, and LA were technically returned into the Union.

However, there was one proposal of the Republicans in Congress that Lincoln did whole-heartedly support and that was the creation of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Its function was to coordinate efforts to protect the

rights of former slaves and provide them with education and medical care. One of the bureau's most important functions is to oversee labor contracts between ex-slaves and employers. Finally the Bureau did help to reconnect family members divided by the war. Funded by Congress, this may have been one of the first examples of social welfare in American History.

Lincoln’s Death and the Impact upon Reconstruction

On Friday April 14, 1865 Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a terrorist who believed by killing the President, that the South would restart the war. Some recent scholarship has also suggested that the assassination was revenge for a similar order secretly signed by Lincoln to assassinate Jefferson Davis while the war was still going (if you’re interested see the link below on the Dahlgen Affair) http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/dahlgren.htm

Lincoln’s death was a tragic event compounded by the fact that his VP Andrew Johnson was hated by most of Lincoln’s Cabinet and by many Republicans in Congress. He was an odd sort. He refused to leave the Senate when Tennessee seceded demonstrating his loyalty to the Union. He was an avowed hater of the planter aristocracy though he was once a slave owner himself. So, at least it was believed that he would crush the old southern planter class.

Johnson’s Plan

Johnson’s Plan was similar to Lincoln’s draft but also had elements of the Wade-Davis Bill. After helping to push through the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, the President sought to quickly restore the rebel states to the Union. He considered Reconstruction a "restoration" and wanted to quickly readmit the former Confederate states after they had repudiated their ordinances of secession, accepted the 13th Amendment, repudiated the Confederate debt, and pledged loyalty to the Union. Johnson reserved the right to personally pardon any ex-Confederate. One important difference from Lincoln’s Plan (and one that Radical Republicans liked) was the fact that no Confederate with over $20,000 in property would be pardoned. Perhaps the first sign of trouble developed when Johnson did not immediately disavow “black codes” (see below) an ultimately pardoned about 12,000 ex-Confederates.

But Johnson's overall vision of Reconstruction clashed with that of many Radical Republicans. He vetoed a string of Republican-backed measures, including an extension of the Freedman's Bureau and the first Civil Rights bill in American History (that included the proposed 14th amendment). He ordered black families evicted from land on which they had been settled by the U.S. Army (a violation of the 5th amendment property clause because the original owners had been denied due process). He acquiesced in the Black Codes which southern state governments enacted to reduce former slaves to the status of dependent plantation laborers saying that these were matters for the state’s to decide.

ConclusionIt seemed obvious to many that Johnson would obviously stand in the way of the Radical Republican visions of Reconstruction and there seemed to be plenty of evidence that the South was unrepentant. The Black Codes were outright attempts to keep freedmen in a state of servitude. Furthermore, groups like the KKK started springing up all over the south. Perhaps worse in the minds of Radical Republicans was the fact that former CSA officials were returning to positions of power in the so-called Bourbon governments of the South (a reference to the old corrupt French aristocracy).

HomeworkNone

TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY Examine Congressional Reconstruction 1867 – 1877 and the impeachment of Andrew Johnson (CUL-3)

(POL2,3,5) (NAT-3,5) Explain the factors that led to the end of Reconstruction 1868 - 1877(CUL-3) (POL2,3,5) (NAT-3,5)

Materials Strategy/FormatPower point Lecture-discussion

Skill TypesChronological Reasoning: 1,3Comp/Context 5Evidence and Argument 7Interpretation/Synthesis 8,9

Johnson’s Plan

Johnson’s Plan was similar to Lincoln’s draft but also had elements of the Wade-Davis Bill. After helping to push through the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, the President sought to quickly restore the rebel states to the Union. He considered Reconstruction a "restoration" and wanted to quickly readmit the former Confederate states after they had repudiated their ordinances of secession, accepted the 13th Amendment, repudiated the Confederate debt, and pledged loyalty to the Union. Johnson reserved the right to personally pardon any ex-Confederate. One important difference from Lincoln’s Plan (and one that Radical Republicans liked) was the fact that no Confederate with over $20,000 in property would be pardoned. Perhaps the first sign of trouble developed when Johnson did not immediately disavow “black codes” (see below) an ultimately pardoned about 12,000 ex-Confederates.

But Johnson's overall vision of Reconstruction clashed with that of many Radical Republicans. He vetoed a string of Republican-backed measures, including an extension of the Freedman's Bureau and the first Civil Rights bill in American History (that included the proposed 14th amendment). He ordered black families evicted from land on which they had been settled by the U.S. Army (a violation of the 5th amendment property clause because the original owners had been denied due process). He acquiesced in the Black Codes which southern state governments enacted to reduce former slaves to the status of dependent plantation laborers saying that these were matters for the state’s to decide.

Congressional Reconstruction

Though Lincoln had struck down the Wade-Davis Bill, the philosophy remained unchanged and most of the original bill was re-introduced after Lincoln’s death.

The first step in the process dealt with the states that were “redeemed” or reconstructed under Lincoln. Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas had all followed Lincoln’s plan and technically were back in the union. However, as evidence shows, some of the former CSA states, while abiding by the 13th amendment clearly were unwilling to go further to protect the rights of freedmen.

Some Black Codes incorporated morality clauses based on antebellum slave laws into Back Code labor laws. For example, in Texas, a morality clause was used to make it crime for laborers to use offensive language in the presence of their employers, his agents, or his family members. Borrowing from the Ohio and Illinois codes, Arkansas enacted an ordinance banning free blacks from immigrating into the state. Florida on the other hand would not allow freedmen to leave the state. All over the South it became a crime to be a vagrant and many were arrested and “rented” to plantations. These were the precursors of the later Jim Crow Laws which were not restricted to the South and were even more restrictive.

1. Congress denied representatives from the former Confederate states their Congressional seats and passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and wrote the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, extending citizenship rights to African Americans and guaranteeing them equal protection of the laws. The 14th Amendment also reduced representation in Congress of any southern state that deprived African Americans of the vote. In 1870, Congress went even further as the states ratified the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave voting rights to black men or universal male suffrage. The most radical proposals advanced during Reconstruction--to confiscate plantations and redistribute portions to the freemen--were defeated (once again because it violated property rights under the Constitution).

2. Another key part of Radical Reconstruction was the division of the South into military districts. The Union Army was now an occupying army in the South. Southerners called this “bayonet rule.” As recent history has shown, this is often times more difficult than the fighting itself. With the Federal troops now acting as a police force, it was hoped that freedmen could now vote and even hold political office. The Reconstruction Act of 1867 gave African American men in the South the right to vote three years before ratification of the 15th Amendment. With the vote came representation. Freedmen served in state legislatures and Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce became the first African Americans to sit in the U.S. Senate, from South Carolina and Mississippi no less!

As it turned out, the creation of military districts was a miscalculation. As President Johnson had campaigned against the 14th amendment and started supporting fellow Southern Democrats in their efforts to resist “social engineering,” Radical Republicans like Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens should have realized that they placed enforcement of the laws in the hands of a recalcitrant President. In other words, they seem to have forgotten that the Constitution gives the President the power to enforce the law and as they wanted to use the army, Johnson was also the commander in chief….ooppppps…..

The Tenure of Office Act

Almost immediately Johnson made moves that seemed to block Congressional efforts. He forbade the Army from trying violations of federal law in its courts or to prohibit activities that were not in specific violation of federal or local statutes. Many Republicans regarded the president's actions as a systematic effort to thwart the will of Congress and lend aid and comfort to enemies of the Union. To some degree Johnson was not simply a racist redneck. He did see Congressional actions as violations of the Constitution.

To prevent the president from obstructing its reconstruction program, Congress passed several laws restricting presidential powers. These laws prevented him from appointing Supreme Court justices and restricted his authority over the army. The Tenure of Office Act barred him from removing officeholders, appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate, without Senate approval.

In August 1867, Johnson tested the Tenure of Office Act by removing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, prompting Republicans in Congress to seek to impeach and remove the president.

Officially, Johnson was impeached for violating the Tenure of Office Act, which had been passed over Johnson's veto, which prohibited the president from dismissing certain federal officials without Senate approval, and for denouncing Congress as unfit to legislate. But those reasons masked the issues that were more important to Congressional Republicans. Johnson had vetoed 20 Reconstruction bills and had urged southern legislatures to reject the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing equal protection of the laws. He had ordered African American families evicted from land on which they had been settled by the U.S. Army. The President's attorneys argued the Tenure of Office Act applied to officials appointed by the president, and since Secretary of War Stanton was appointed by Lincoln, not Johnson, he was not covered by the act.

The final vote was 35 to 19, one short of the two-thirds needed for conviction and removal from office. Seven Republicans voted to acquit. The Senate voted on two more articles of impeachment, each again just one vote shy of conviction. The chamber never voted on the remaining eight impeachment articles. But Johnson had been defamed. In the future, he no longer obstructed Congress' Reconstruction policies.

Though Johnson was acquitted on all counts, he certainly got the message. He became something of a lame duck President and though he sought the 1868 Democratic nomination, there was little chance of him receiving it. Johnson continued to assert southern rights against Congress for the rest of his life. Congressional Reconstruction moved forward and created a new wave of Republican governments in the South.

The Fifteenth Amendment and Military Reconstruction This legislation divided the former Confederacy into five military districts, each occupied by a Union

general and his troops, whom Southerners contemptuously called “bluebellies.” The officers had the power to maintain order and protect the civil rights of all persons. The southern states were required to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and adopt new state constitutions guaranteeing blacks the right to vote in order for their representatives to be admitted to Congress and military rule to end (which paved the way for easy ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment later). However, the Act did not go as far as giving freedmen land or education at federal expense.

Although peacetime military rule seemed contrary to the spirit of the Constitution, the Supreme Court allowed it. The hated “bluebellies” remained until the new Republican regimes were firmly established in each state. It was not until 1877 that the last federal troops left the south.

Radical Republicans were still concerned that once the states were re-admitted to the Union, they would amend their constitutions and withdraw black suffrage. They moved to safeguard their legislation by adding it to the federal Constitution with the Fifteenth Amendment. The amendment prohibited the states from denying anyone the right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” In 1870, the required number of states had ratified the amendment, and it became part of the Constitution.

The Fifteenth Amendment did not guarantee the right to vote regardless of sex, which outraged feminists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Equally disappointing to feminists was the fact that the Fourteenth Amendment marked the first appearance of the word “male” in the Constitution. Efforts to include female suffrage in the Fifteenth Amendment were defeated, and 50 years passed before an amendment to the Constitution granted women the right to vote.

Southern Republicans

One part of Radical Reconstruction that seems quite evident is the attempt to weakened Democrats control of the “Solid South” so-called because of its usual dedication to the Democratic Party. There were THREE main groups that formed this new and rather short lived Republican bloc of power.

1. “The Carpetbaggers” was the southern nickname for Northerners who moved South after the war. Many of these people were Union veterans who liked the climate both for weather and business opportunities. With the planter aristocracy greatly weakened (but not destroyed), cheap land was available. Also, because there was initially little competition, larger businesses developed faster here. The name is sometimes still used but less as a politically derisive term.

2. “The Scalawags” were the most hated group among white southerners because they were seen as traitors. They were white southerners who voted Republican and held political office. They were sometimes victims of attacks by the KKK just as freedmen were.

3. “The freedmen” were actually the largest Republican voting bloc following the 15th Amendment. In several states, they held positions in the legislatures and as we saw Revels and Bruce were elected to the U.S. Senate. However, this power was short lived as the KKK escalated attacks and Federal troops left the South by the 1870s

The Legacy of Thaddeus StevensThe Civil Rights Act of 1875 was the last congressional Reconstruction measure. It prohibited racial discrimination in jury selection, transportation, restaurants, and "inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement." It did not guarantee equality in schools, churches, and cemeteries. Unfortunately, the Act lacked a strong enforcement mechanism, and dismayed Northerners did not attempt another civil rights act for 90 years

The End of Reconstruction

The process of Reconstruction was falling apart in the South towards the end of Grant's presidency. The activities of the KKK and other groups were intimidating black voters and office holders despite the presence of Federal Troops. While Grant believed it was necessary to keep Federal soldiers in the South – (federal troops still remained in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida), Democrats and even many Republicans believed that the time had come to remove troops. Public opinion in the North was turning against the employment of soldiers, people wanted the end of reconstruction and military intervention in the South.

Two other related factors that weakened Reconstruction was a series of scandals (to be discussed later) that plagued Grant’s Presidency and finally in 1873 the nation was rocked by another panic. This one was far more severe than the previous ones.

The Republican candidate was Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio. His Democratic opponent was Samuel J. Tilden of New York. The electoral returns were fraught with accusations and arguments. There appeared to be two sets of returns from each of three Southern states (Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina) and the vote of Oregon was also doubtful. The disputed results prevented either of the candidates from securing a majority of electoral votes. The Senate was Republican, and the House of Representative was Democratic. The two houses could not agree as to how the electoral returns should be counted so they referred the whole issue to an electoral commission.

The electoral commission was made up of five Senators, five Representatives, and five justices of the Supreme Court. Eight of the commissioners were Republicans and seven commissioners were Democrats. The electoral commission would eventually decide by eight to seven votes that Hayes was elected and that he would be inaugurated as President on March 4, 1877. But first the terms in the Compromise of 1877 had to be agreed Democratic Leaders accept the Republican Hayes.

The Compromise of 1877 was secretly hammered out in the months following the Presidential election of 1876, but before the inauguration in March 1877. Republican and Democratic leaders reached a compromise to resolve the election issue and outstanding matters relating to reconstruction. Democratic leaders accepted Rutherford B. Hayes’s election as president in exchange for Republican promises to withdraw federal troops from the South and other terms and guarantees in the Compromise of 1877.

The terms of the Compromise of 1877 were as follows: To withdraw federal soldiers from their remaining positions in the South (Louisiana, South Carolina, and

Florida). The restoration of "Home Rule" To appoint Democrats to patronage positions in the South To appoint a Democrat to the president’s cabinet To pass federal legislation that would encourage industrialization in the South

ConclusionPresident Johnson attempted to slow the pace of Reconstruction because he did not believe that blacks were equal whites and also because he believed that Congress had overstepped its bounds. He was impeached but not convicted. However, he never got the way of Radical Republican efforts again. Southern Republicans did briefly gain power but as we will see next week, without the protection of Federal troops, one by one they fell.

HomeworkLook over the class and web-notes for rather long SAQ style quiz

THURSDAY SAQ format quiz on the Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction Period

Materials Strategy/FormatQuiz packet Assessment and Review

Instructions Using the source packet and your knowledge of the period answer the questions. This must be completed in

class and no extra time will be given. This will be the last SAQ format quiz of the quarter (though there will still be quia.com versions)

HomeworkDue FridayComplete American Voices: Freedom pp: 488 – 489 Questions 1,2,3 and Think Like a Historian: The Lost Cause pp 502 – 503 Questions 1,2,3,4 (Omit Putting it Together)

FRIDAY (book and notes suggested) Review activities for the Mid-term Exam

Materials Strategy/FormatMC/Matrix Review sheets Assessment and Review

Weekend HomeworkSTUDY

Monday, Dec 16  Tuesday, Dec 17  Wednesday, Dec 18  Thursday, Dec 19 

REVIEW PD 1  REVIEW PD 1 Exam D1

 

Exam D2

 

REVIEW PD 2  REVIEW PD 2 Exam D1

 

Exam D2

 

REVIEW PD 3  REVIEW PD 3 Exam D3

Exam D4

REVIEW PD 4  REVIEW PD 4 Exam D3

Exam D4

LUNCH REGULAR SCHED

5th Period Review

LUNCH REGULAR SCHED

5th Period Review

Go to 7th period

from 3rd period.

7th Period Review

Lunch based on

7th period location

Go to 6th period

from 4th period.

6th Period Review

Lunch based on

6th period location

REVIEW PD 6  REVIEW PD 6 Exam D7

 

Exam D6

REVIEW PD 7  REVIEW PD 7  Exam D7

Exam D6

Friday, Dec 20   

Exam D5

 Exam D5

 Exam D5

Exam D5