Andrew Johnson
(1808-1875) President of the United States. Appointed Governor of Tennessee in 1862. Johnson, a Southern Democrat loyal to the Union, ran as Abraham Lincoln's vice presidential candidate in 1864 and took over as seventeenth President of the United States in 1865 when Lincoln was assassinated. Johnson was the first United States president impeached.

Reconstruction Raised Three Questions

1. Can the United States be truly united?
2. Can blacks and whites live together?
3. Who runs this country?

What the War had done to the South

1. Physically
2. Legally and Constitutionally
3. Emotionally

Wade-Davis Bill
"This Civil War measure, introduced by two Radical Republicans, Ohio senator Benjamin F. Wade and Maryland representative Henry Winter Davis, asserted congressional power over Reconstruction. It required that a majority of a seceded state's white men take an oath of loyalty to the Constitution and guarantee black equality."

Four Theories of Reconstruction

1. Presidential Theory
2. Southern Theory
3. Conquered Provinces Theory
4. "Forfeited Rights" Theory

Opposing views on Reconstruction

Throughout the summer of 1865 Johnson had proceeded to carry out Lincoln's reconstruction program, with minor modifications. By presidential proclamation he appointed a governor for each of the seceded states and freely restored political rights to large numbers of southern citizens through use of the presidential pardoning power.

In due time conventions were held in each of the former Confederate states to repeal the ordinances of secession, repudiate the war debt, and draft new state constitutions. Eventually the people of each state elected a governor and a state legislature, and when the legislature of a state ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, the new state government was recognized and the state was admitted back in the Union again.

By the end of 1865, this process, with a few exceptions, was completed. But the states that had seceded were not yet fully restored to their former positions within the Union because the Congress had not yet seated their U. S. Senators and Representatives, who were now coming to Washington to take their places in the federal legislature.

Both Lincoln and Johnson had foreseen that the Congress would have the right to deny southern legislators seats in the United States Senate or House of Representatives, under the clause of the Constitution that says: "Each house shall be the judge of the qualifications of its own members." This denial came to pass when, under the leadership of Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, those Congressmen who sought to punish the south refused to seat its duly elected Senators and Representatives. Then, within the next few months, the Congress proceeded to work out a plan of southern reconstruction quite different from the one Lincoln had started and Johnson had continued.

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Radical Republicans
Although the political viewpoints of "radicals" came in many shades and they often disagreed about important national issues, from the 1866 elections on, a Radical Republican was any member of Congress committed to destroying the institution of slavery and to guaranteeing some kind of civil rights for African-Americans.

Thaddeus Stevens
(1792-1868) was one of the most influential political leaders of the Reconstruction era. He served in the United States Congress from 1849 to 1853 and from 1859 to 1868. An adamant abolitionist, Stevens was dissatisfied with the Presidential Reconstruction policies of Andrew Johnson and eventually led the impeachment forces against the president. Stevens sponsored the radical plan of Reconstruction that divided the South into military districts. Stevens favored equal rights for black Americans, and dedicated much of his career to securing those rights.

Johnson's Vetoed Bills

1. Freedman's Bureau Bill of 1866
2. Civil Rights Act of 1866

BIRTH OF A NATION (1915, 90 min.) starring Lillian Gish. Directed by D. W. Griffith. The film was harshly condemned for its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan and pro-southern view of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Based on the novel The Clansman by Thomas Dixon. This Civil War Reconstruction epic became a landmark in American filmmaking, both for its artistic merits and for its unprecedented use of such innovative techniques as flashbacks, fade-outs, and close-ups. Harper's Weekly cartoon by Thomas Nast depicting the plight of African Americans in the Reconstruction South Copyright 1997 State Historical Society of Wisconsin William Jefferson Davis (1808-1889), president of the Confederate States of America Copyright 1997 State Historical Society of Wisconsin Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) President of the Confederate States of America. He was the only military leader of the Confederacy to be placed in prison. His prison sentence lasted two years. "The Lost Cause" In response to Reconstruction, many Southerners embraced the "Lost Cause" - an image of Confederate soldiers battling to maintain Southern traditions and institutions. Many of Southerners believed that the Civil War and Reconstruction had destroyed what they perceived as the fine traditions and culture of the "Old South." Southerners, anxious to regain their economic footing after the devastation of the Civil War, attempted to distinguish the "New South" from the "Old South" during the Reconstruction period. The story of this attempt is certainly a fascinating aspect of American history; so fascinating, in fact, that we'll take it up in Lecture #02: The "New South." Lecture 01  Related Web Links Content Presentation Audience      Link Info College A Hard Shove for a "Nation On the Brink": The Impact of Dred Scott College The Emancipation Proclamation (1863) College Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, June 20, 1866 College The Wade-Davis Manifesto, August 5, 1864 College Opposing Views on Reconstruction College "Reconstruction," by Frederick Douglass College Ingersoll's Nomination Of Blaine College Speeches and Writings of Abraham Lincoln College The Slagg Family of Wisconsin During the Civil War College President Andrew Johnson: The Fates and Follies of Reconstruction  Skip Directly To Lecture:  || 01 || 02 || 03 || 04 || 05 || 06 || 07 || 08 || 09 || 10 ||  || 11 || 12 || 13 || 14 || 15 || 16 || 17 || 18 || 19 || 20 ||  || 21 || 22 || 23 || 24 || 25 || 26 || 27 || 28 || 29 || 30 || Home || Course || Guide || Bios || Photos || Exams || Calendar || Comments/Sign-in © 1999 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System