General Web Resources on Reconstruction

Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction Andrew Johnson, a Tennessee Democrat and Unionist, assumed the presidency upon Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865. Whereas Congress preferred a gradual program involving fundamental reforms for the reconstruction of the South, Johnson favored a rapid process with little social reform. His Amnesty Proclamation of May 29, 1865, was the first step in that direction. All but the richest and most powerful members of the Confederacy would be granted general amnesty. States would be readmitted to the Union when their new governments repudiated the Confederate debt, abolished slavery, and ratified the Thirteenth Amendment. But as the process of Reconstruction unfolded, a deep divide emerged between the president and Congress over the extension of civil and political rights for African Americans.

Freedmen’s Bureau Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau during the war in order to distribute emergency relief to former slaves. In 1866, Radicals in Congress proposed renewing the Bureau and expanding its functions. The bill included a provision for the trial by military tribunals of all persons who deprived freedmen of their civil rights. Johnson vetoed the bill on the ground that it was unconstitutional. But in July 1866 Congress passed an almost identical act over his veto.

The Black Codes The Black Codes were measures passed by the Johnson-reconstructed state governments to keep blacks second-class citizens. The codes criminalized interracial marriage, limited black property rights, and established a legal double standard for whites and blacks. In some states, blacks could not quit their jobs without permission, effectively keeping them in de facto bondage despite emancipation. The patent racism of the codes radicalized northern public opinion and called into question the legitimacy of the state governments established under Johnson’s reconstruction plan.

Civil Rights Acts of 1866 The Civil Rights Act of 1866 attempted to protect southern blacks from the Black Codes. It stipulated that “citizens, of every race and color, without regard to any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall have the same right, in every State and Territory in the United States, to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property, and to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, and penalties, and to none other, any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, to the contrary notwithstanding.” The president vetoed the bill on the ground that the federal government did not have the power to enforce rights not guaranteed by the Constitution. Congress overrode the veto, thus marginalizing the president.

The Fourteenth Amendment Concerns that the Civil Rights Act might be invalidated by the courts prompted the Radicals to incorporate its key provisions into the Constitution through the Fourteenth Amendment. The Amendment overturned Dred Scott by providing that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens thereof and of the states wherein they may reside. It also provided that “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The Radicals made ratification of the amendment a precondition of federal recognition of the reconstructed governments in the South. Johnson urged southerners to reject the amendment, expecting the Radicals to be repudiated in the coming congressional elections. But the opposite happened; the Radicals won a landslide victory, giving them control of Congress and a mandate to take control of Reconstruction.

Radical Reconstruction Congress passed the First Military Reconstruction Act over the president’s veto in 1867. It suspended civil governments in the former Confederate states and divided them into five military districts under army command. The general in command could impose martial law and subject individuals to military trial. In effect, the southern states would be treated as conquered provinces. Civil government would be restored when loyal voters, including blacks but excluding whites who had supported the Confederacy, elected state conventions to draft new state constitutions. The constitutions would be subject to congressional approval and ratification by the voters of the state. The state governments established under the new constitutions would have to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and would be eligible for representation in Congress only when the amendment became effective.

Judiciary Act of 1867 The Judiciary Act of 1867 authorized the federal courts to issue writs of habeas corpus and conferred appellate jurisdiction on the Supreme Court to review such cases on appeal.

Tenure of Office of Act In 1867, the Radicals in Congress attempted to limit Johnson’s role in Reconstruction by passing the Tenure of Office Act and the Command of the Army Act. The Tenure of Office Act prohibited the president from removing officials who had been appointed with the Senate’s consent until a replacement had been approved by the Senate. Under the Command of the Army Act, the president could only issue orders to military commanders through the commanding general of the army (who happened to be General Grant), thus depriving him of effective control over the military authorities responsible for implementing Reconstruction.

The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson Johnson’s dismissal of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton without the consent of the Senate presented Radicals in Congress with an opportunity to remove him from office. The House of Representatives proceeded to impeach the president, citing, among other things, his violations of the Tenure of Office Act. Chief Justice Chase presided over the trial in the Senate. The trial resulted in Johnson’s narrow acquittal by a one-vote margin.

The Supreme Court and the Constitutionality of Reconstruction Southern states made two attempts to challenge the constitutionality the Reconstruction Acts in the courts. In Mississippi v. Johnson (1867), the Supreme Court dismissed a suit brought by the state government of Mississippi to enjoin enforcement of the Acts by the president on the ground that the Court had no jurisdiction to limit the president’s political functions. In Georgia v. Stanton (1868), the Court dismissed a similar suit brought by the government of Georgia against Secretary of War Stanton on the ground that Stanton’s political functions in office were beyond the Court’s jurisdiction. The Radicals in Congress avoided a serious challenge to the constitutionality of military Reconstruction in Ex parte McCardle (1869) by the highhanded expedient of retroactively repealing the Court’s appellate jurisdiction over the case. They avoided a similar challenge in Ex parte Yerger (1870) under an agreement releasing the petitioner from the military to civil authorities in exchange for withdrawal of his habeas corpus petition. Had either case been decided on the merits, the military regime underpinning military Reconstruction most likely would have been declared unconstitutional. The Radicals’ theory that secession had disrupted the Union and reduced the seceded states to the status of conquered territories was rejected by the Supreme Court In Texas v. White (1869). The Court held that secession was unconstitutional, and that the seceded states had never left the Union but had come under the control of lawless elements that rejected the authority of the national government. In effect, the Civil War had been a massive federal police action to restore legitimate government in the South.

Fifteenth Amendment Concerned that the Fourteenth Amendment might not adequately protect the suffrage rights of blacks in the South, the Radicals wrote specific guarantees into the Constitution through the Fifteenth Amendment. The amendment was simple and categorical, providing that the right to vote “shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”