Introduction to Reconstruction and Reunion

On his authority as President, Johnson attempted to get the seceded states back into the Union at once. His plan was modeled on Lincoln's procedure for dealing with conquered states during the war. However, the Radical Republicans, a faction favoring harsh treatment of the South, said that Congress, not the President, should determine when, and under what conditions, the Southern states were to be reestablished. A power struggle followed, with Congress upsetting Johnson's program by refusing to seat senators and representatives from Southern states that had formed new governments.

Congress then began enacting the program known as Reconstruction. The major aim was to require Southern states to grant blacks, freed from slavery by the 13th Amendment (1865), the right to vote. Black suffrage was necessary, it was argued, to protect the welfare of the blacks. Some Radicals also hoped to establish the Republican party in the South.

A Civil Rights Act, conferring full citizenship upon the former slaves, was passed in 1866. Congress then proposed the 14th Amendment, which gave the states a choice of enfranchising the blacks or having reduced representation in Congress. The amendment also barred Confederate supporters who had held state or federal office prior to the war from again holding office unless pardoned by Congress; more than 150,000 persons were affected by this provision.Tennessee promptly ratified this amendment and was readmitted to the Union in 1866. When the 10 other former Confederate states refused to ratify, Congress adopted stronger measures in 1867. These states were placed under military rule. The military commanders were authorized to arrange for and supervise conventions to establish new state governments with constitutions that conferred full citizenship on blacks. Blacks and loyal whites—that is, whites who professed loyalty to the Union—were to participate. After the legislatures of the new governments had ratified the 14th Amendment, the states could apply for representation in Congress.

Impeachment of Johnson

Bitterness between Johnson and the Radicals increased. His dismissal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton in seeming violation of the Tenure of Office Act was used by the House of Representatives to vote impeachment. Only one vote in the Senate kept him from conviction.

Before the end of Johnson's term, six Southern states whose governments had been organized while under military rule were recognized by Congress. Some of these states were dominated by a coalition of Northerners (derisively called "carpetbaggers"), loyal whites ("scalawags"), and blacks. Often they governed inefficiently and, at times, corruptly. However, some constructive programs were undertaken.

Radical Reconstruction increased the resentment that most white Southerners felt. Secret societies, such as the Ku Klux Klan, were formed to regain Southern "white supremacy" through intimidation and violence.

Grant As President

General Ulysses S. Grant, who had commanded all the Union armies at the end of the war, was elected President as a Republican in 1868. He cooperated with the Radical Republicans on Southern policy. He also supported their economic policies, including high tariffs and a monetary program that benefited Northern business and financial interests. Grant helped obtain ratification in 1870 of the 15th Amendment, which forbade any state to deny the right to vote on grounds of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The rest of the former Confederate states were readmitted to the Union on the condition that their legislatures would ratify this amendment.

The white supremacy organizations then increased their efforts to overthrow the "reconstructed" state governments. Congress authorized use of the army to suppress violence against black voters. As a result, military rule of Southern states continued after their restoration to the Union.

In the 1872 Presidential election, use of the army in the South was a major issue. Northern Republicans who wanted a more lenient policy toward the South formed the Liberal Republican party to oppose Grant. Both the Liberal Republicans and the Democrats nominated Horace Greeley. Grant won reelection, but the narrowness of his victory indicated waning enthusiasm for Reconstruction.

Grant's second term was marked by several major scandals, which supported charges of corruption brought against his administration in the 1872 campaign. Grant himself was not implicated, but some of the scandals involved members of his cabinet and his private secretary. The Crédit Mobilier scandal, connected with the building of the Union Pacific Railroad, was fully exposed. This affair predated Grant's administration, but much of the public considered the scandal as part of "Grantism," which came to mean a low standard of public morality.

In 1873 a financial panic occurred. It touched off a long depression, marked by business failures and unemployment. The depression intensified unrest among Western farmers who wanted cheaper money (lower interest rates and increased circulation of money) and lower railway freight rates. They founded the Grange, and later the Farmers' Alliances, to seek solutions to their economic problems. In 1874 the Democrats won control of the House of Representatives for the first time since before the Civil War.

Hayes and New Policies

Despite the Democratic trend, Grant was succeeded in the Presidency in 1877 by another Republican, Rutherford B. Hayes. Hayes's victory over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, however, rested on his being awarded 20 disputed electoral votes by an electoral commission, which was dominated by Republicans. Tilden had won a popular vote majority.

Federal troops still remained in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. White Democratic administrations had been elected in those states in 1876. After obtaining from them pledges that the rights of blacks would be respected, President Hayes in 1877 withdrew the troops. However, following the end of military occupation of the South, there was repression of blacks, eventually leading to the institutionalization of segregation.

Hayes moved toward federal civil service reforms by executive orders. He authorized introduction of a merit system in several departments, and forbade assessing federal employees for political funds. Hayes also ruled that federal employees should not manage political campaigns or be leaders in party conventions. By removing Chester A. Arthur as collector of the New York customhouse for violating this rule, Hayes antagonized powerful leaders of his party.

On monetary policy, Hayes was a conservative. A champion of "sound money," he favored redeeming greenbacks, the paper money issued during the Civil War, in gold. He opposed coinage of large amounts of silver dollars, the policy favored both by debtors, who wished to expand the quantity of money in circulation, and by owners of silver mines in the West.