Thaddeus Stevens. Charles Sumner

Transcription

1 The Radical Republicans & President Lincoln had different beliefs as to how harsh the country should be on the Confederate States reentering the nation. Thaddeus Stevens Charles Sumner President Lincoln RESA: Reconstruction (23 min) 1. Lincoln s Plan of Reconstruction (created in December of 1863): a. Lincoln contended that individual citizens seceded not states. b. 10% Plan (oath of citizenship). c. All states had to accept Emancipation. d. Did not require the formal abolition of slave laws over the southern laborers (Black Codes were permissible). e. Tenn; Arkansas; & Louisiana were readmitted under this plan but Congress later in 1864 denied it to them.

2 2. Radical Republican Plan of Reconstruction (also known as the Wade-Davis Bill of July 1864) intended to be harsher because they believed that Lincoln s Plan was too lenient on the Confederates. a. Radicals contended the States did secede as a whole, all citizens thus were guilty of secession. b. 50% Plan (oath of citizenship). c. Total abolishment of slavery (adopt the 13th Amendment). d. Adoption of Black Codes was forbidden. e. President Lincoln believed that the abolishment of slavery could only be legal if it were done by the individual states by amending the state constitutions. Lincoln vetoed the Wade-Davis Bill!!!! Ended Slavery in the US and rid the Constitution of the Three-Fifths Clause President Lincoln VETO! Senator Ira Harris, NY introduced the Bill Senator Benjamin Wade, OH Rep. Henry Winter Davis, MD Party Yes No Republicans 18 4 Democrats 0 6 Unconditional Unionist 0 3 Unionist 0 1 swear that you had never borne arms against the Union or supported the Confederacy that is, you had "never voluntarily borne arms against the United States," had "voluntarily" given "no aid, countenance, counsel or encouragement" to persons in rebellion and had exercised or attempted to exercise the functions of no office under the Confederacy

3 3. Lincoln was assassinated 14 April 1865 at Ford s Theatre in Washington DC by the actor/confederate John Wilkes Booth. 4. Vice President Andrew Johnson takes over. He was from Tennessee, a former slaveholder and a Democrat. He was chosen to run with Lincoln, as a Compromise Candidate, to help get southern votes in the election. He viewed the secessionists as traitors and was for increasing Federal power. Johnson was a very stubborn person who was not well suited for the presidency and did not get along with the Radical Republicans in power in Congress. Pre War Johnson The only southern congressmen to NOT secede with his home state when Civil War occurs President Johnson

4 5. Johnson s Plan of Reconstruction: a. Very similar to President Lincoln s. b. Required Confederates with $20,000 equity to ask for a presidential pardon. c. Allowed Black Codes (which at the time had been adopted by all former Confederate states except Tennessee). d. Must adopt the 13th Amendment e. This proposed Bill was not adopted! John s Idea EQUITY PLAN $20,000 President Johnson Lincoln s Idea allow Black Codes for gradual equality Radical Republican s Idea (Wade- Davis Bill)

5 was a Congressional Election year. Andrew Johnson travels the country and gave stump speeches in an effort to help his followers get control in Congress over the Radical Republicans and to get states to vote down the adoption of the proposed 14th Amendment. He fails and the Radical Republicans (like Charles Sumner of Mass. & Thaddeus Stevens of PA) maintain control of Congress. Sumner Stevens Party Total seats (change) Seat percentage Republican Party % Democratic Party % Independents % Conservatives % Totals %

6 7. Radical Reconstruction Prevails 1866 and the South pays: a. 14th Amendment (also known as the Civil Rights Act) is drafted June and is adopted over a presidential veto as a law in b. Military Reconstruction Act is adopted as a law in March of 1867: (1) The former Confederate States of America are placed into 5 military districts each run by a Northern army commander (except the state of Tennessee which was the only Confederate state to accept the 14th Amendment). (2) Each state had to hold Constitutional Conventions in effort to adopt new constitutions. (3) Adopt new State Constitutions in correspondence to the National Constitution. Defines citizenship or rules the opposite of the DredScott Court Case.

7 7c. The 15th Amendment becomes a law in This law declared that the right to vote couldn t be denied to any citizen on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

8 7d. Impeachment of President Johnson: (1) Congress creates the Tenure of Office Act in March of 1867 which denies the President of the US the ability to remove members of the presidential cabinet without consent from the US Senate. (2) Johnson fires Edwin M. Stanton (Sec. Of War) Feb. of (3) Johnson was impeached by the House for violating the law. (4) He was not removed from office; Senate voting fell short by one vote (Senator Edmund Ross was the vote that kept him in office). The vote was President Johnson E. M. Stanton E. Ross