User:Atcovi/VA and US History/Assassination of Mr. Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln's death

 * Who? John W. Booth [Shoots Abraham Lincoln at the back of his head and escapes from the presidential box to the stage and breaks his leg. He shoots Lincoln while the crowd is laughing... so the crowd didn't hear the shot.], John Serot, George Azerodt [VP Johnson; unable to as he gets drunk], Lewis Powell [William Seward, Secretary of State; Powell is not able to kill Seward as he got a cast from a previous accident]
 * Why? Booth was a Confederate who wanted to kill the American government.
 * Plans
 * 1) Kidnap Lincoln (he sees him as the reason for the war) and hold him for ransom in order to get money/Confederate war prisoners released. The second plan is that he will hold him in order to force the US to let go of the Confederacy.
 * 2) Kill Lincoln and other governmental officials.

Booth was shot to death on April 26, 1865.

Lincoln's death sparked widespread support for the reconstruction of the South. Lincoln's VP takes office.

Reconstruction

 * Period of time between 1865-76 which was an attempt to mend the rift between the North and the South. Northerners wanted to reconstruct the South, which is to make something new. Democrats in the South wanted to restore the South.

Politics and Economics

 * Lincoln's Plan
 * Quickly unify the country in a way that is easy for the South.
 * No punishing of the South.
 * Known as the 10% Plan.

In 1863, the state of Tennessee will be ready to go back to the Union. It was militaristically controlled by Lincoln and the government of Tennessee turned into a destroyed state.

Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (10% Plan)

 * Issued by Lincoln in December of 1863.
 * Outlined process for southern states to rejoin the Union.
 * 10% of voters who'd voted in 1860 had to swear allegiance to the U.S. and accept emancipation.
 * The 10% could then form a government.

Excludes blacks (because they had not been voters by 1860) and high-ranking Confederate officials and soldiers until they receive a personal presidential pardon.

Congress Reacts

 * Radical Republicans wanted a slower re-admittance process and wanted to prevent ex-Confederates from political power.
 * Wade-Davis Bill
 * States were to be run by a governor appointed by the president until 50% of citizens must take an "Ironclad Oath" saying they had NEVER supported the CSA. This did not include African Americans.
 * Lincoln pocket-vetoes this bill because it is going to take a long time for this bill's goal to take place.

Andrew Johnson
In 1864, Lincoln had chosen a Democrat, Andrew Johnson, as VP. Why? Johnson was a Unionist and did not support secession. He also wanted a fast, painless reconstruction. Though, Johnson puts back the same Confederates back to the government.
 * Trying to show Southerners that they are represented in the government.

Johnson's Foreign Policy

 * Secretary of State, William Seward, negotiated a treaty whereby the US purchased Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million dollars.
 * Mocked as "Seward's Folly/Ice Box".
 * Appreciated by 1900 as oil and gold were found.

Presidential Reconstruction

 * Johnson's Terms for Reconstruction
 * Citizens can take an oath of allegiance and receive a pardon and their property would be restored. For wealthy confederates, he proposed that if they won more than 20,000 dollars in the property prior to the war, then they would make a personal appeal to him for a pardon. Oath takers could then restructure their governments.

Their state governments would accept the end of slavery, ratify the 13th amendment and you agree to pay back debt.

Emergence of Black Codes (1866)

 * Black codes were the laws passed by Southern state legislatures during Presidential Reconstruction to define the legal place of blacks in society after the Civil War. This required African Americans to sign labor contracts with their former owners. These contracts put great restrictions on African Americans' mobility/freedom.

These laws were seen as "slavery without the chains".

Radical Republican Response

 * RR were led by Thaddeus Stevens.
 * As of 1866, they had enough seats in Congress to override Johnson's vetoes.
 * Wanted to give African Americans suffrage invalidate black codes; ensure African-American civil rights.

Congress Acts in 1866

 * Civil Rights Act of 1866
 * Reaction to Black Codes
 * The CRA 1866
 * Gave African-Americans citizenship
 * Forbade states from passing discriminatory laws


 * Freedman's Bureau Act: Designed to help assist blacks in the transition from slavery to life as a free citizen. Johnson vetoes both measures but Congress overrode his veto.

Impeachment

 * Johnson cannot fire any of his cabinet members because their positions are tenured for the elected presidential term.
 * In 1867: Johson tries to fire his Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Congress then impeaches Johnson on the charge of violating the Tenure of Office Act.
 * Outcome
 * He's found guilty of breaking the law but is not removed from office.

Reconstruction Act of 1867

 * Invalidated all state governments formed under Lincoln's and Johnson's policies.
 * Divided the south into 5 military districts.
 * Set forth requirements for readmission of ex-Confederate states to the Union.
 * Readmission Process
 * Voters would elect delegates to write a Constitution protecting black suffrage
 * Once ratified a new state government could be formed
 * The state then had to ratify the 14th Amendment.
 * When the 14th Amendment got the 3/4 approval necessary to be part of the Constitution, the state would be readmitted.
 * 14th Amendment
 * Anyone born on American soil is a citizen and is guaranteed "equal protection of the laws and due process".

13th

 * 1865: Slavery was abolished permanently in the US.

14th

 * 1868: Defined citizenship; disqualified ex-Confederates from power; forced States to guarantee due process for all citizens

15th

 * 1870: Voting rights were guaranteed regardless of "race, color or previous condition of servitude".
 * Women's suffrage.

Radical Reconstruction's Impact
In June 1868, AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, NC, and SC had met the requirements, and the states were admitted to the Union.

GA then expelled elected black representatives and was once again put under military rule.

GA, along with MS, TX, and VA, had to satisfy an additional condition: ratification of the 15th Amendment.
 * They would rejoin the Union in 1870.

1868 Election

 * Democrats: Horatio Seymour
 * Pledged to get white governments re-established
 * Republicans: Ulysses S. Grant
 * Let us have peace
 * Grant wins with 214 to 80 votes in the EC.
 * He also got over 500,000 African American votes.

Johnson's Last Legacy

 * Granted Amnesty to all Confederates on December 25, 1868.

Grant's Domestic Goals

 * Wanted to quickly reunify the union and minimize federal involvement in the South.
 * Within his first year, all states except GA were back in the Union
 * Wanted the passage of the 15th Amendment.
 * Used federal force to uphold federal laws when they were clearly being violated.
 * Did use federal force to minimize terror of the KKK

Grant's Administration - "His Fraudulency"

 * While popular, he was inattentive to fraud and made many mediocre appointments.
 * Scandals
 * Credit Mobilier - Grant's VP, Schuyler Colfax, was linked to Credit Mobilier, a fraudulent construction company that was given government contracts through Union Pacific RR. The Directors, inc. Colfax, profited.
 * Whiskey Ring - Orville Babcock, Grant's personal secretary was taking money from a group of distillers who bribed federal agents to avoid paying taxes on their product.
 * Indian Posts - Secretary of War, Wm Belknap, had taken bribes to determine which offer to take on Indian trading posts in Oklahoma.

Beginning of the Gilded Age

 * Grantism: Describes fraud, bribery, and political corruption.
 * Spoilsmen
 * Was Grant directly involved with corruption?
 * Not directly involved but is hit with corruption allegations by the public.

Grant's Foreign Policy
Negotiated with Britain a payment of 15.5 million dollars for damages inflicted upon US property by a British built Confederate ship.

He annexed half of Santo Domingo in 1870. Congress rejected the idea.

Panic of 1873

 * Started by a selloff of stocks in RR companies who had outspent themselves.
 * The stock market crashed and unemployment soared.
 * 3 million lost jobs and wages were slashed
 * Recession lasted 5 years.
 * Impact on Reconstruction?
 * This made people lose motivation to fix the country [reconstruction] since the North wanted help from the South rather than paying the army to protect the freedmen [blacks] of the South. Laziness takes over.

Beginning of the ending of the Reconstruction

Reconstruction and The Supreme Court

 * Ex parte Milligan - 1866
 * What had Milligan done?
 * Makes a plan to attack an arsenal in Illinois and sell those weapons to the Confederates [plan]; He's arrested before his plan
 * Where was he tried? Sentence?
 * In a military court. Sentenced to execution. He appeals the sentence, though
 * Supreme Court ruling?
 * Argument: He is a civilian... should not have been tried in a military court; Outcome: Overturns the ruling.
 * Relevancy?
 * Civilians can only be tried in a military court if that is the only justice system available/anyone suspected of being a terrorist will be tried in front of a military court. Obama pushes back this ruling because of this case (civilians are civilians and not soldiers)
 * Slaughterhouse Cases - 1873
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughter-House_Cases

Effects on Southerners
Capitalizing on the misery of the Southerners.
 * Scalawags - Southerners who begin to vote Republican and accept the North's terms of reconstruction.
 * Carpetbaggers

Life in the South during Reconstruction

 * Sharecropping - When a landowner divides his land into small plots and rents the land out to tenants. But rather than pay a monthly rent in cash, the tenant has to pay an annual rent by giving the landowner a share of the crops. Failure to pay the crops mean you can't physically leave the land.

Ku Klux Klan

 * Established by Nathan Forest, a Confederate general from Tennessee.
 * Creates the KKK in the 1860s.
 * Intended as a "social group for Confederates".
 * Systematically targeted successful African Americans.

Impact

 * White rule was reasserted in NC, TN, GA mostly due to the KKK.
 * 1869 - Forrest felt the violence get out of hand.
 * Disbanded the organization but local branches continued to grow.
 * Congress Acts
 * Enforcement Act and KKK
 * Authorize the president to suspend habeas corpus, suppress disturbances by force and to penalize terrorist organizations.

Lynch Law

 * Describes the vigilantes who would abduct and execute, without trial, those they considered wrong-doers.
 * Between 1882-1968, an estimated 4,000 blacks and over 300 whites were lynched in the south.

African Americans during Reconstruction
Freedman migrates from the South to the urban North in order to find new jobs, such as factories. The church becomes a place that is involved in politics. A lot of schools created for African Americans but white Southerners refuse to allow their children to be educated along with the freedman kids. Segregated schools will be created soon.

Political Gains for Freedmen

 * Political power peaked in 1872
 * 320 blacks state and federal legislators
 * Why?
 * 15th Amendment
 * Grant's effective enforcement of the KKK and Force Acts.

Method of Southern States to Block Civil Rights

 * Jim Crow Laws
 * Enforced Segregation
 * Enacted in the Southern and border states; enforced between 1876-65.

Election of 1876

 * Republicans
 * Rutherford B. Hayes
 * Governor of OH
 * Moderate on southern policy
 * Wanted to ensure civil and political rights for all
 * Wanted civil service reform.
 * Democratics
 * Samuel Tilden
 * Governor of NY
 * Political reformer who challenged corruption
 * Civil service reform

End of Reconstruction

 * Tilden had the popular vote and seemed destined to win.
 * Republicans challenged Tilden's victory in SC, FL, LA.
 * Compromise of 1877
 * Democrats accept Hayes' election IF:
 * Remove military presence from South
 * Give patronage to southern democrats
 * Promote internal improvements across the South

Redemption

 * "Redeemers" and Southern Democrats regain control of state legislators.
 * Rise of the Lost Cause.
 * Southern legislatures begin to develop policies that will disenfranchise African-Americans.

Attempts to Block African-American Rights

 * Political Rights
 * Grandfather clauses
 * Poll taxes
 * Literacy Tests
 * Social/Economic Equality
 * Jim Crow laws