The Battle over Reconstruction

New Orleans 1874, during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period
White Leaguers attacking the integrated police force and state militia, New Orleans, 1874

Reconstruction After the Civil War

'Reconstruction' addressed how the eleven seceding states would regain self-government and be reseated in Congress, as well as the civil status of the former Confederate leaders and the Constitutional and legal status of freedmen. The civil rights of freedmen and whether they should be given the right to vote were under special consideration. Reconstruction policies were implemented when the Union Army controlled Confederate states.

Lincoln During the Reconstruction

President Lincoln planned that the eleven Confederate states that had seceded could be readmitted to the Union by meeting some tests of political loyalty. In his 1863 Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, Lincoln established a plan that would have granted presidential pardons to all southerners, except for the political leaders during secession. They took an oath of future allegiance to the Union. Lincoln's plan would re-legitimize a state as soon as 10 percent of the voting population of the 1860 general election took the oath, and the state government accepted the emancipation of the slaves. By December 1864, the Lincoln plan of Reconstruction had been enacted in Louisiana and the legislature sent two Senators and five Representatives to take their seats in Washington.

However, Congress refused to count any of the votes from Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee, essentially rejecting Lincoln's moderate Reconstruction plan as too lenient. They passed the more demanding Wade-Davis bill in 1864 instead. It required 50 percent of the voters to take the loyalty oath and allowed only those who could swear that they had never supported the Confederacy to run for office or hold federal employment. Lincoln pocket-vetoed this bill.

Andrew Johnson's Presidency

After Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, Vice President Andrew Johnson became President. Johnson's leadership proved to be an obstacle for the Radical Republicans in Congress, who attempted to completely overhaul the Southern government and economy. In May 1865, Johnson made his own proclamation that was very similar to Lincoln's. It offered amnesty to almost all Confederates who took an oath of allegiance to the Union. Johnson also reversed General Sherman's decision to set aside land for the express use of freed slaves. Not long after Johnson took office, all of the former Confederate states were readmitted.

In 1866, Johnson vetoed two important bills. The first bolstered the protection that the Freedmen's Bureau gave to blacks, and the second was a civil rights bill that gave blacks full citizenship. The Republicans then united against Johnson to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which outlawed the black codesThe Black Codes were laws in the United States after the Civil War with the effect of limiting the civil rights and civil liberties of black people. that had been prevalent throughout the South. They also tried to pass the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted citizenship to all persons born in the United States and required the states to respect the rights of all U.S. citizens.

Over Johnson's vetoes, Congress passed three Reconstruction acts in 1867 which divided the southern states into five military districts under the control of the Union army. The military commander in charge of each district was to ensure that the state fulfilled the requirements of Reconstruction by ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment and by providing voting rights without a race qualification. Tennessee was not included in the districts because it had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment in 1866 and was quickly readmitted to the Union.

In 1868, the House of Representatives impeached Andrew Johnson. Earlier, Congress had passed the Tenure of Office, which required the President to dismiss officers only with the advice and consent of the Senate if he appointed them with the same advice and consent. Johnson believed that the Act was unconstitutional (the Supreme Court agreed in 1926) and intentionally violated it. Radical Republicans used this violation as an excuse to impeach Johnson, who the Senate acquitted by one vote.