1K - The weaknesses of Federal Government: Johnson, Grant and the failure of Radical Reconstruction
Learn why the federal government could abolish slavery and rebuild the Union after 1865, yet failed to secure lasting protection for African-American political equality. Follow Johnson, congressional Reconstruction and Grant before weighing what failed and what survived.
Reconstruction and federal authority
The Union's victory in the Civil War settled that the southern states could not successfully secede, but it left a different question: who would control the reunited South? About four million formerly enslaved people needed to establish free lives. Former slaveholders wanted labour and political authority restored. Northern Republicans disagreed about how far Washington should intervene.
Reconstruction
The process of restoring the former Confederate states to the Union and deciding the rights and position of formerly enslaved people after the Civil War. The usual political period is 1865–1877.
The federal government comprised a president, Congress and federal courts. Congress could legislate and control funding; the president administered laws and commanded the armed forces; the Supreme Court could determine whether laws were constitutional. State governments controlled much everyday policing, criminal justice and election administration. A right written into federal law therefore needed officials willing and able to enforce it locally.
The constitutional changes were substantial. The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery, except as punishment following conviction for crime. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, established national citizenship and required states to provide equal protection and due process. The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibited denial of voting rights on grounds of race, colour or previous servitude. It did not enfranchise women or prohibit every conceivable voting restriction. These provisions created a lasting basis for federal action, rather than automatically making all citizens equal in practice. National Archives: constitutional changes, Fifteenth Amendment.
Johnson's restoration of white government
Andrew Johnson became president after Lincoln's assassination in April 1865. A southern Unionist, he opposed secession but also opposed African-American political equality. His priority was rapid restoration of loyal state governments, not a social revolution in the South.
Johnson required repudiation of secession and Confederate debts and acceptance of abolition. He offered extensive pardons, including individual pardons to many wealthy former Confederates initially excluded from his general amnesty. White electorates then formed state governments. This allowed much of the former ruling class to regain influence while freedpeople lacked the vote.
Southern Black Codes exposed the limits of this settlement. Although provisions differed between states, restrictions on movement, labour contracts and supposedly idle people attempted to force African Americans into dependent agricultural labour. Freedom from ownership was being separated from freedom to bargain, move and participate in government. Violence against black communities and white Unionists further undermined the claim that ordinary southern government could protect all citizens. NPS: Presidential Reconstruction and Black Codes.
Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and legislation extending the Freedmen's Bureau, which assisted former slaves and refugees. Republicans overrode his vetoes. His opposition encouraged resistance in the South and turned many moderate Republicans against him. Consequently, presidential weakness was partly self-created: insisting on a rapid, racially unequal restoration made cooperation with Congress less likely.
Congressional Reconstruction and its limits
Congressional Republicans gained the power to impose a different settlement after the 1866 elections. The Radical Republicans, including Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, sought stronger protection of freedpeople and limits on former Confederate power. Moderates often supported reform because Johnson's policy appeared to threaten both Union victory and Republican political strength; they did not all share the Radicals' objectives.
The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 divided ten former Confederate states into five military districts; Tennessee had already been readmitted. Readmission depended on new constitutions, African-American male participation and ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. Republican southern governments combined black voters, white southern Unionists and northern newcomers. Their public school systems and black officeholding represented genuine political change.
Nevertheless, this was a coalition with vulnerabilities. Many white southerners regarded it as illegitimate. Building schools and infrastructure required taxes in a war-damaged region, creating grievances which opponents could exploit. Most freedpeople did not receive land. Without an independent economic base, a voter could be threatened with dismissal or eviction as well as violence. Constitutional reform and economic security therefore did not advance equally.
Johnson's attempted removal of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton precipitated his impeachment in 1868. The House impeached him, but the Senate fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority required to convict. He remained president until March 1869. This outcome reveals the distinction between obstructing a president and removing one: congressional supremacy was extensive but not unlimited. US Senate: Johnson's impeachment.
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