The North had conquered and, as in any war, to the victor belonged the spoils. Well, what were the spoils? What had the South suffered as a result of the Civil War? There are three ways of answering that question. First, physically. Second, legally or constitutionally. And third, and probably most important of all, emotionally.

Image Right: Four billion dollars in human property were lost as a result of the Civil War.

Physically, the Atlantic coast cities--from Richmond down to New Orleans--lay largely in ruins. Cities were the hardest hit areas of the South. Transportation and communication systems largely were destroyed. In the countryside, there was extensive loss of livestock, tools, homes, and farms. The end of the war also physically destroyed the South's monetary and economic system. Of course, as far as many Southerners were concerned, the greatest property loss of all lay in the loss of somewhere between three and a half million and four million Negro slaves. Somewhere in the neighborhood of perhaps four billion dollars of capital investment in human property disappeared as a result of the war. It's not surprising, then, that most of the memoirs left by Southerners during the days of Reconstruction paint a totally devastated, totally ruined South. And yet, that notion was not correct. Many areas of the South experienced little or nothing of the war. Also, the labor represented by the slaves was not lost; it was simply transformed from one of legal chattel slavery to supposed freedmen. Nonetheless, physically, the war had done a considerable amount of damage.

Legally, as far as the North was concerned, there were eleven states out of the Union that had to be reannexed, as it were, back into the Union. The question of how to accomplish that would become the most vexing question that Americans had to face in the decade or so following 1865.

The third way of answering our question is emotionally. Despite all the physical results of the war, the real tragedy of defeat was overwhelmingly a state of mind. The South saw itself condemned by former friends in England and France for having fought a war to uphold chattel slavery. Most humiliating for Southerners were the some 80,000 blacks slaves who had fled across Union lines to join the Union army to fight against their former masters. Southerners accepted military defeat. They had no choice. They were not ready to accept spiritual defeat. More than ever, Southern leaders returned to the myths of the prewar South. Material defeat had to be turned into social and spiritual victory.

There had been two initial skirmishes between Lincoln and the Congress. Both addressed themselves to our question of who runs this country. Lincoln, according to many Radical Republicans, in both the House of Representatives and in the Senate, was, in a sense, soft on Southernism. That is, he seemed to be far too charitable. He'd even said in his Second Inaugural Address in March of 1865, "With malice toward none. With charity toward all."

Lincoln had had a proposal to bring the South back into the Union once the war came to a conclusion. Back in December of 1863, he had issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. In that, Lincoln argued that the Southern states, even though on a war footing, never had left the Union. Therefore, to restore the South to full partnership in the nation what Lincoln proposed was that Southerners take a very simple loyalty oath, in essence saying, "I have never been disloyal to the Union." He said that if ten percent of the members of a Southern state who had been eligible to vote in 1860 would take that oath, Lincoln would recognize the new government those individuals elected. In his plan of Reconstruction, Lincoln ignored any comment about enfranchising the slaves.

Wade-Davis Bill Passed by Congress in July of 1864, 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.

Congress responded very quickly to Lincoln's proposal. In July of 1864, Radical Republicans in Congress passed they called, what came to be called, the Wade-Davis Bill. That was a bill that set forth a much harsher formula for Reconstruction. In the Wade-Davis Act, the president would appoint a provisional governor for each Southern state. Fifty percent of those eligible to vote in 1860 would have to take what came to be called the "iron-clad loyalty oath." That was an oath that not only said that "I had never been disloyal to the Union," but that "I've never taken up arms against the Union. I've never had the slightest thought in my imagination of being disloyal to the Union." Moreover, the Wade-Davis Bill said that each new state constitution had to include legislation that would take the vote away from all those who had been disloyal, that would henceforth prohibit slavery, and, most important for Northern bankers and financiers, each new Southern constitution had to repudiate the Confederate debt. And so, the issue was struck. Who runs the country? The president or Congress?

CONTINUE TO PAGE 3

Copyright 2004 University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents