Events
1865
Lincoln is assassinated; Johnson becomes president
Congress establishes Joint Committee on Reconstruction
1866
Johnson vetoes renewal of Freedmen’s Bureau charter
Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1866 over
Johnson’s vetoCongress drafts Fourteenth AmendmentJohnson delivers “Swing Around the Circle” speeches
Key People
-
Andrew Johnson
17th
U.S. president; fought Radical Republicans in Congress over key Reconstruction
legislation
Reconstruction After Lincoln
Lincoln’s assassination seemingly gave Radical Republicans in
Congress the clear path they needed to implement their plan for Reconstruction.
The new president, Andrew Johnson, had seemed supportive of
punitive measures against the South in the past: he disliked the southern
planter elite and believed they had been a major cause of the Civil
War. But Johnson surprised Radical Republicans by consistently blocking
their attempts to pass punitive legislation.
Johnson, Laissez-Faire, and States’ Rights
Johnson, a Democrat, preferred a stronger state
government (in relation to the federal government) and believed
in the doctrine of laissez- faire,
which stated that the federal government should stay out of the
economic and social affairs of its people. Even after the Civil
War, Johnson believed that states’ rights took precedence
over central authority, and he disapproved of legislation that affected
the American economy. He rejected all Radical Republican attempts
to dissolve the plantation system, reorganize the southern economy,
and protect the civil rights of blacks.
Although Johnson disliked the southern planter elite,
his actions suggest otherwise: he pardoned more people than any
president before him, and most of those pardoned were wealthy southern landowners.
Johnson also shared southern aristocrats’ racist point of view that
former slaves should not receive the same rights as whites in the
Union. Johnson opposed the Freedmen’s Bureau because
he felt that targeting former slaves for special assistance would be
detrimental to the South. He also believed the bureau was an example
of the federal government assuming political power reserved to the states,
which went against his pro–states’ rights ideology.
Presidential Reconstruction
Like Lincoln, Johnson wanted to restore the Union in as
little time as possible. While Congress was in recess, the president
began implementing his plans, which became known as Presidential
Reconstruction.He returned confiscated property
to white southerners, issued hundreds of pardons to former Confederate
officers and government officials, and undermined the Freedmen’s
Bureau by ordering it to return all confiscated lands to white landowners.
Johnson also appointed governors to supervise the drafting of new
state constitutions and agreed to readmit each state provided it
ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished
slavery. Hoping that Reconstruction would be complete by the time
Congress reconvened a few months later, he declared Reconstruction
over at the end of 1865.
The Joint Committee on Reconstruction
Radical and moderate Republicans in Congress were furious
that Johnson had organized his own Reconstructionefforts
in the South without their consent. Johnson did not offer any security
for former slaves, and his pardons allowed many of the same wealthy
southern landowners who had held power before the war to regain
control of the state governments. To challenge Presidential Reconstruction, Congress
established the Joint Committee on Reconstruction in
late 1865,
and the committee began to devise stricter requirements for readmitting
southern states.
The End of the Freedmen’s Bureau
Early in 1866,
Congress voted to renew the charter that had created the Freedmen’s
Bureau, in retaliation for the fact that Johnson had stripped
the bureau of its power. Congress also revised the charter to include
special legal courts that would override southern courts. Johnson,
however, vetoed the renewed Freedmen’s Bureau, once again
using the states’ rights argument that the federal government should
not deprive the states of their judicial powers. Johnson also claimed
that it was not the federal government’s responsibility to provide
special protection for blacks. Although Congress’s first attempt
to override the veto failed, a second attempt succeeded in preserving
the bureau. The bureau was weakened, however, and Congress finally
terminated it in 1872.
