Afterwar peiod (Reconstruction), the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the constitution. Carpetbaggers, Ku-Klux-Klan. What did Reconstruction fail?

Answer

Lincoln's role

Lincoln, despite being little prepared for it by prior military experience, was first and foremost a war president. The nation was at peace for less than six weeks of his presidency and his was the only presidency that was entirely "bounded by the parameters of war". Lincoln was called on to handle both the political and military aspects of the war, and his leadership has to be evaluated based on his ability to balance these inseparable parts of the Union's efforts. He was a successful war president to the extent that he was able to control the revolutionary forces unleashed by his election and Southern secession, maintain the democratic principles that were the bedrock of the nation, and achieve a military victory. His assassination near the end of the war left the final challenge of reconstructing the nation to others, but Lincoln as early as 1863 established principles that he felt should shape this process.

Lincoln ran on a political platform opposing the policies of the Pierce and Buchanan administrations that would have preserved slavery for the foreseeable future. While acknowledging that only a state could outlaw slavery within its own borders, the Republican insistence on keeping slavery out of all territories would ultimately lead to the end of slavery in the entire nation since, in the minds of both most Northerners and most Southerners, the survival of slavery depended on its ability to expand. By his nature, Lincoln was open to political compromises, but, from his election to his assumption of office, he led his party in standing firm against any compromise on the territorial issues. After being sworn in as President he likewise refused to accept any resolution that would accept Southern secession from the Union.

Well, he was the President of the United States at that time and that made him the Commander in Chief of all the armed services. In other words, we went to war because he said to. Oh and freeing the slaves had very little to do with it. I believe it was mostly an economic thing.

On the nigh t ofApril 13. 1865. cro wds ofpeople

moved through the brigh tly lit stree ts of Washington

to celebr ate Lee's surrend er at Appomattox. A man

who was there w rote in his diar y: " GUllS arc firing,

be lls ringing, flags flying, men laughing, children

cheering, all, all arc j ubilan t. "

The next day was Good Friday. In the evening

President Lincoln and his wife went (0 Ford's

T heater in Washi ngt on to sec a play called "Our

Ameri can C OllSIIl." T h e theat er was full and the

audience cheered the President as he took his scat in a

box beside the stage. Once Lincoln was safely in his

seat, his bodygu ards moved away to wa tch the play

themselves from scats in the gallery.

At exactly 10:13. when the play was part way

through. a pist ol shot rang thro ugh the darke ned

theater. As th e President slumped forward in his scat,

a man in a black fcl r hat and hig h boorsjumped fro m

the box on to th e stage. He waved a gun in the air and

shouted "Sic semper tyrannist'j'lhus always to

tyran ts] and then ran out o f th e theater. It was

dis covered later that th e gunman was an act or named

John Wilkes Boo th. He was cap tured a few day s

later, hiding in a barn in th e Virgi nia countryside.

Lincoln was carried across the street [Q the house ofa

tailor. I Ic died the re III a downstairs bedroom th e

next morning. Mel! and women wept in the streets

when they hear d the news. T he poet J ames Rus sell

Lowell wrote: "Never befo re that startled April

mornlllg d id such multi tudes of men shed tears for

the death ofone th ey had never see n, as if with him a

friendly pr esence had been taken fro m th eir lives."

Lincoln was succeed ed as Pr eside nt by his Vice

President. AndrewJohnson. T he big gest problem

the new President faced was how to de al with the

de feate d South. Lincoln had made no secre t ofhis

own ideas ab out this. Only a few weeks before his

death he had begun his second term of office as

President. In his inaugural address he had asked the

American people to help him to " bind up the na tion's

wounds " and rebuild th eir war-battered homeland.

Lincoln blamed individual southern leaders (or th e

war. rat her th an th e people ofthe seced ing sta tes as a

whole. He in tended to pu nish only those guilty

in dividuals and to let the rest of the So ut h's people

playa full pan ill the na tion's life aga in.

Joh nson had similar ideas. He began to introduce

plans to reunite th e Sou th wi th the rest of the nation.

I Ie said th at as SOOIl as the citizens o f th e seceded

states promised to be lo yal to th e govcnuncnr ofthe

United States they cou ld elect flew state assem blies to

run their affairs. \Vhe n a state voted to acce pt the

13th Amendment to th e Constirur io n (the one th at

completely abo lish ed slavery) Johnson intended that

it should be accepted back into the U nion as a full and

eq ual member.

Buc white southerners were dete rmined to resist an y

changes tha t rhrcarcncd thei r powe r to co ntrol the life

of th e South. They were especially horrified at the

idea ofgiving equal right s to their former black

slaves. T he assembly ofthe state ofMississippi

expressed the \va y it fclr III these blu nt words:

"Under the press ure offederal bayonets th e people

ofMi ssissippi have ab olished the institution of

slav ery. T he negro IS free whether we like it or no r.

To be free. however, doe s nor make him a citizen or

en title him to soci al or poli tical equality w ith the

white mall."

The ot her 1(>TIlleT Coufcdcrarc states shared this

att itude. All th eir assemblies passed laws to keep

blacks III an in ferior pos ition. Suc h laws were called

"Black Codes. " "Fede ra l bayonets" might have

made th e black s free, bur the ru ling whites intended

them to rem ain unski lled. un ed ucated and land less,

with no lega l protection or rights ofthei r own.

Black Codes re fused blacks rile vote. said that the y

could not StTH' onjurics. forba de rhcm to gIve

evidence in court against a wh itt' 11I.111. In Mississippi

blacks were not allowed to buy or to rvnr farm land.

III Louisiana they had to agn.'t' to work for 011e

employer fora. whole year and co uld be impri soned

and made to do forced labor if they refused. With 110

land. no mont'y and no protection from rile law, ir was almost as ifblark s were still slaves. In 1865 the Chicago Tribune ncwspaper \....arncd

southern ers o f the growing;lI1ger in the North about

th e Black Codes:

"We tell th e wh ite men ofMississippi th at the men

of the North w ill co nvert th e State ofMississippi into

a frog po nd befor e rhcy will allow such law s to

dis grace one foo t ofso il in which the bonos o f our

sol diers sleep and over which the Hag cf frccdom

waves.':

T he feelings o f the C/tiea,l!(l Trill/mt" were shared by

m;JIlY members ofthe United States Congress. A

group th ere called Radical Republicans believed th at

the most important reason fo r figlui ng the Civil War

had been to free the blacks, Havin g won the WJr,

th ey were de termi ned that neither they nor th e blacks

were now going to be cheated. They said that

Pr esident j ohnson was treating the defeated white

so utherners roo kindly and that [he southerners were taking advantage o f this. " They have not been

punished as they deserve," said one Radical

Rep ublican.

In J uly 1866, despite opposition from the Presiden t,

Congress passed a Civil Rig hts Act. It also set up all

o rganizat ion called the Freedmen's Bu reau. Both

these measures were intended to ensure that blacks in

th e South were not cheated oftheir rights. Congress

then introduced the l-tth Amendment to th e

Constitution. T he l-lt h Amendment gave black s full

fights ofcitize ns hip, mel ud ing th e figh t to vote.

All the former Confederate st ates except Tennessee

refu sed to accept the l -lrh Amendment. In March

1867, Congress replied by passing the

Reco ns tru ct ion Act. This dismissed the white

governments of the southe rn sta tes an d placed them

. under military rule. They were told th at they co uld

ag ain have elec ted governmeIHs when the y accepted

the 14th Amen dment and gan' all black men th e

vote.

13y 1870 all the southern states had new

" Reconstruction" govemmcnrs. Most were made up

ofblacks, a few white southerners who were wi lling

to w ork with them an d white men from the North. The newly ar rived northerners were referred to by

southerners who opposed them as "carpetbaggers."

T he na me came from the large. cheap bags made of

carpet ing mate rial in which some o f the northern er s

carried their belongings. Any white southerners who

cooperated with the carpetbaggers were referred to

with contem pt as "scalawags." T he word

"scalawag" still mea ns scoun drel. or rogue. III the

English language to day.

Most white southerners supported the Democratic

poli tical pa rt y. T hese southern Democrats claimed

that th e Reconstruction govermllellts were

in competent and dishonest. T here was some truth in

this claim. Man y ofthe new black members of the

state assemb lies were ine xperienced and poorl y

educated. Some carpetbaggers were thie ves. In

Loui sian a. tor example, one car petbagger official was

accuse d ofstealing IOU,OnO dollars from state fun ds in

his first year ofoffice.

But Reconst ru ction governments also contained

honest men who tried to Improve the South. T hey

passe d!;l\VS to provide care for orphans and the

blind. to encour age new indusmcs and the building

of rail road s. and to bui ld schools for both white an d

black chi ldren.

None of these Improvements stopped southern

whites from ha ting Reconstr uc tion. This wa s not

because of th e incom petence or di shonesty ofits

go vcmmcms. It was because Reco ns tructi on aimed

to give blacks the same rights th at w hites had.

Southern whites were determined to prevent this.

T hey organ ized terrorist groups to make whi te men

the masters once mo re. T he main aim of these groups

was to th reaten and frighten black people and Ptv vvut

them fro m claiming the ir nghts.

The largest and most feared terr orist group wa s a

secret sOCIety called the Ku Kl ux Klan. Its members

dressed themselves in white sheets and wore ho ods to

hide their faces. They ro de by night through th e

southern count rysi de. beating an d killing any bla cks

who tr ied to improve their position. T heir sign was a

burni ng wooden cross. which th ey placed out side the

homes oftheir intended victims.

This usc of violence and fear helped white racists to

win bac k control ofsta te governments all over the

South. By 1876 Repu blican suppo ners of

Reconstruc tion held power in on ly three southern stares. When Congress withdrew federa l troops

from the South in ISn, white Democrats won

control ofthese. too. Reconstruction W3S over.

From this rime onwards southern blacks were trc-arcd

more and mere as "second class citizens" -e th ar IS,

they were not given equal treatment und er the law.

Most serious of311, they were robbed oftheir right to

vote.

Som e southern states prevented blacks from voting

by say ing that only peo ple who paid a tax on voters a

poll tax-co uld do so. T hey rhcn madc the tax so

high th at most blacks could nor alford to pay it. If

blacks did try to pay. rhc [ax co llecto rs oft en refu sed

to take th eir money. "Grandfather clauses" were also

widely used to prevent black s from voting. These

clauses, or rul es, allowed till' vote only to peo ple

whose grandfath ers had been qualified to vote in

1865. Most blacks had only obta ined the vote in 1866

so the grand father clauses automatically rook away

their voting righ ts,

The effe cts ofgran dfa rbcr clauses co uld be seen in the

state of Louisiana. Before 1898 it had 164,088 white

voters and 130,344 black voters. Aft er Louisiana

Introduced a grand fathe r clause it still had 125, 437

white vorcrs. but only 5,320 black ones.

On ce blacks lost the vorc. raking away their ot her

rights became easy, All the southern states passed

laws to enforce strict racial separation, or

"segregation." Segregation was enforced on trams, in parks, 1Il schools, in resta urants. in theater s and

swimming pool sc-cven in cemeteries! Any black

who dared to brea k these scgrcgnrion laws was likely

ro cnd up either in pj-iscn or dead. In the 1890s an

av erage of 151)blacks a yea r were killed

illeg allv-. " lynched" - by white mobs. It seemed

tha t rhe improve..mcnr-, the Civil War and

Reconstruct ion had brought black people were lost

for eve r.

Uut Recon struction had nor been for nothing. It had

been the boldes t attempt so far to achieve racial

j ustice in the United Stares. T he l -ith Amendment

was especially important. It was the foundation of

the Ci vil Rights movement ofthe 1950s and 1960s

and made it po..siblc fo r Martin Luther King to cry

our cvcuruallv on behalfofall black Amcricans:

"free ar last! Free at last! Thank God Almightv. we

are free at last!"

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