Reconstruction

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Reconstruction

tors and representatives. Meanwhile, how-
ever, President Johnson's policy had aroused
much opposition. Before Congress met in
December two 'states,' South Carolina and
Mississippi, passed kBlack Codes' to regulate
the status of the freedom, and not unnatur-
ally caused friends of the negroes to be-
lieve that further guarantees must be secured.
Congress on meeting in December refused to
admit the Southern senators and representa-
tives, and appointed a Joint Committee on
Reconstruction to examine into and report on
conditions in the seceded 'states.' After an
extended investigation this committee brought
in a report recommending the rejection of the
President's work. Many Northern people of
moderate views hesitated before rejecting the
work of the President and reducing the South
to a territorial condition. With regrettable
shortsightedness the other reconstructed leg-
islatures, in the winter of 1865-66, followed
the example of Mississippi and passed 'Black
Codes.5 Equally effective as campaign argu-
ments in influencing Northern public opinion
were frequent outrages upon the blacks.

The Congressional campaign of 1866, with
reconstruction as the main issue, was most
exciting. In Jan., 1867, by a bill passed
over the President's veto, negro suffrage was
initiated in the territories and in the District
of Columbia. On March 2, by the Tenure of
Office Bill, likewise passed over the Presi-
dent's veto, Congress limited the power of
the President in the matter of the dismissal
of officeholders and left him only the power
of suspension. On the same day the first
great Reconstruction Act was passed, and was
quickly supplemented by the acts of March
23 and July 19, passed by the Fortieth Con-
gress. The late Confederate states, except
Tennessee, were divided into five military dis-
tricts, each under a general officer; a new
electorate was to be enrolled without regard
to color, but the upper classes of the whites
were to be disfranchised. Delegates were then
to be elected in each 'state' to a constitutional
convention, which must frame a constitution
in harmony with the Reconstruction Acts;
and these constitutions were then to be sent
to Congress for approval. The army was put
in charge of the electoral machinery. After
the new legislatures had ratified the proposed
Fourteenth Amendment seven 'States' were in
June, 1868, admitted to representation in
Congress. The other 'States' were not re-
admitted until 1870, the ratification of the
proposed Fifteenth Amendment being made

a condition. Meanwhile, in order to get rid
of the President's opposition, several unsuc-
cessful attempts had been made in 1866-7 to
impeach him. When it seemed probable that
the Supreme Court might rule adversely to
the constitutionality of the Reconstruction
Acts, Congress hastened to abolish the statute
under which the case was brought. This and
the Republican victory in the Presidential
election of 1868 made safe the Congressional
plan of reconstruction, and from 1868 to
1876 it was fully worked out.

Led by a few native whites ('scalawags')
and a few whites from the North ('carpet-
baggers'), the negroes for a time controlled
each 'State,' and a vast amount of corruption
followed. Among the white population the
Ku Klux Klan developed into a strongly or-
ganized, secret, revolutionary movement
which assisted in intimidating negro voters. In
some instances these societies no doubt served
a good purpose, but served still further to
prejudice the Northern people against the
South, with the result that governmental in-
terference continued longer than it would
otherwise have done. Enforcement legisla-
tion of 1870 and 1871 gave supervision of
elections to Federal officials, who ordinarily
supported the Radical local leaders. The
whites regained control and restored more
orderly government. The various scandals
which involved the Washington administra-
tion resulted in great gains for the Demo-
crats in 1874, so that by 1875 they controlled
the lower house of Congress, and rendered
further reconstruction legislation impossible.
In 1875 and 1882 the Supreme Court declared
portions of the Enforcement Acts unconsti-
tutional, and these acts in their entirety were
repealed. The court has held that the Four-
teenth and Fifteenth amendments can be in-
voked only against violations by States, not
by individuals. Thus the whites were left
freer to eliminate or control the negro vote.
Results of reconstruction, however, such as
the negro's civil rights and the Southern pub-
lic-school system, which was mainly a prod-
uct of this period, still stand.

Reconstruction, a term used to denote
social, economic, and political change incid-
ent to and following on a war period. Such
problems are: the demobilization of the mili-
tary forces; demobilization of war industries;
problems of the peace settlement; disbanding
of emergency instruments of government es-
tablished under the war power; re-education
of disabled soldiers; replacement of soldiers