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Reconstruction (Radical Reconstruction (While radicals in Congress…
Reconstruction
Radical Reconstruction
While radicals in Congress successfully passed equal rights legislation for blacks and whites, the southerners essentially ignored these laws, establishing segregated and underfunded public schools for blacks. Black literacy rates improved only marginally.
Republicans also passed the Second Reconstruction Act to safeguard voting rights for former slaves, placing Union troops in charge of voter registration. Johnson's two presidential vetoes were overriden by Congress in order to pass these bills.
Congress declared that southern states needed to redraft their constitutions, ratify the 14th Amendment, and provide black suffrage in order to seek readmission into the Union
Congress began Reconstruction by passing the First Reconstruction Act, or the Military Reconstruction Act, in March of 1867. This bill reduced the secessionist states to nothing but conquered territory that was divided into five military districts governed by Union generals. Congress declared Martial Law in the territories, dispatching troops to keep peace and protect blacks.
After sweeping the elections of 1866, the Radical Republicans got almost complete control over policy making in Congress. They also, along with the moderate Republicans, gained control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, gaining sufficient power to override Andrew Johnson's presidential vetoes.
Lincoln's Plan
This plan, also known as the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction or the 10% Plan, was designed in 1863 to shorten the war and to give more weight to the Emancipation Proclamation.
Confederates who took an oath of allegiance to the Union and the US Constitution and accepted the freedom of slaves were given a full presidential pardon.
As soon as at least 10% of the voters of a state took an oath of loyalty, the state government could be reestablished and legitimized by the president.
This essentially meant that each Southern state would be required to rewrite its state constitution to include the emancipation of slaves.
Johnson's Plan
The President had the power to grant individual pardons to "disloyal" Southerners. As such, many Confederate leaders got back in office by the fall of 1865, since it was a form of an escape clause for wealthy planters.
It provided the loss of right to vote and hold office, or disenfranchisement, of all former leaders and officeholders of the Confederacy, as well as Confederates with more than $20,000 in taxable property.
President Johnson issued his own Reconstruction plan in May of 1865 that was quite similar to Lincoln's plan
The Compromise of 1877
This Compromise resolved the disputes of the 1876 election between Democratic Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes.
The terms were such that the Democrats would allow Hayes to become president. In return, Hayes would end federal support for the Southern Republicans and support the building of a Southern transcontinental railroad. Also, Hayes would withdraw the federal troops protecting African Americans and other Republicans in the Southern states
The end of a federal military presence in the Southern states of Louisiana and South Carolina was one of the primary reasons that Reconstruction came to a close and the system of Jim Crow was issued.