Reconstruction 1865 77 01 20 2012 DAY 1 1 Abraham Lincoln and Reconstruction a Was purposed before the war ended Was to bring the south back into the Union His main goal in the war was to reunify the nation though he is most known as the Great Emancipator b His policy said that he would let any Confederate back into citizenship if that person would sign a oath of allegiance c If a 1 10th of the voting population had to agree to be submitted for readmitted they had to abolish slavery they couldn t secede Then they could be readmitted into the Union d Louisiana was the first state readmitted e Lincoln chose Andrew Johnson as his running mate in the next election He did this because he was the opposite of Lincoln He was a southerner and democrat This was done to show that there was peace in the nation f When Lincoln was killed Johnson was made president 2 Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction a Johnson didn t agree with what the South did in the War by seceding so most thought that he d be harder than Lincoln on them to get back in the Union But Johnson made it easier than Lincoln to get the Southern states back in to the Union b He appointed provincial governors to new southern states c Thirteenth Amendment i This abolished slavery Before this it was a states decision to abolish or support slavery ii Before this there were black codes These were codes that hindered blacks of having normal citizens rights Though slavery was gone the black codes kept them oppressed iii The same politicians that ruled the south during and before the war are still in power in the south In most cases the old politicians are more powerful because ex slaves are now seen as a whole person apposed to being 3 5 of a person Now this gives those politicians more representation iv This concerned Northern politicians because they had no opposition from southern politicians during the war Now that the southern politicians are back and stronger the northerners were concerned d Freedman s Bureau i Congress tries to help the bureau which helped get ex slaves get on their feet Slaves weren t educated and had no jobs or homes The bureau helped the ex slaves do all of this ii The problem was there was very minimal funding to it Johnson continues to veto any attempt to raise the budget He was for states having the right to educate blacks He liked the power in the hands of the states e Fourteenth Amendment i Congress answers with this amendment The amendment gives African Americans citizenship but not the right to vote They told states that they could give African Americans the right to vote and they would also count toward the population of that state But you would have to deal with the consequences if they voted for ii This shows that northern politicians those who wrote the amendment were more concerned with political power than the someone else rights of blacks iii This also makes it off limits for anyone who served in public office in the Confederacy to be politicians in the Union iv Johnson encourages the states no to ratify the amendment and ends up not having enough votes to survive 3 Radical Republican Reconstruction a Reconstruction Acts of 1867 i This divides the south into 5 military districts This was done in spite of the south Because the south wanted to be its own country the Union treated the south as a conquered country They made the south vote on state constitution The other ways that the southern states have to ratify the 14th amendment and recognize black suffrage Congress also says that the president can t just control the army directly b Tenure in Office Act i This says that the president cant fire anyone in his cabinet without senate approval They didn t want to let the president control the government and make it only support him Johnson fires his Sec of War because he supported the radical republicans By doing this he violates this act He almost gets impeached but survives by one vote c Election of 1868 after all of the acts d Fifteenth Amendment i Ulysses S Grant won the popular vote barely but loses the election to Seymour This shows that they had lost political power still even i This said that the right to vote cant be based on race This is passed and ratified This theoretically gave blacks the right to vote By 1870 all the southern states are readmitted ii Black Reconstruction means that blacks were being involved in politics because of northern support and protection Blacks were even voted in to office in some instances This is possible because some states had more blacks than whites in the states But no where in the south is a black elected governor because of low representation 4 Interpreting Reconstruction a Did reconstruction work i If it reunified the country then yes DAY 2 1 Transformation of War Aims a The initial aim for the north was to unify the nation not to abolish slavery Most northerners didn t want to abolish slavery they just didn t want it in the north The South was defending their right to have slaves and didn t want the gov t to tell them what to do They wanted to maintain their way of life i The Emancipation Proclamation 1863 1 In the beginning the South had the upper hand as a result the North used emancipation as a tool to weaken the South British in the north were against slavery and this gave stability to the North s aims of war 2 African Americans in the War Effort a 10 of all troops in the Union were blacks This helps to shorten the war vote b This helps to get rid of some of the laws that were oppressive to blacks education and migration Though blacks still don t have the right to c The right to vote is the biggest issue for blacks in this time Though the blacks were going to vote Republican because their former slave owners were Democrats the Republicans weren t all for black suffrage and rights But they were very interested in political power 3 Black Suffrage a White workers don t want to have to compete with black workers who are going to lower wages and make it harder to get jobs 4 Failure of Reconstruction a One of the reasons why Reconstruction was a failure was because Northerners still weren t open to black rights and equality b Lack of Support for Equal Rights i Samuel B Tilden D 1 Tilden wins the electoral votes but doesn t necessarily win Three state sends back two returns one saying Hayes won and the other saying Tilden wins ii Rutherford B Hayes R iii Compromise of 1877 1 All of the disputed votes go to Hayes who promises that if he is made president he