Johnson was a complicated character.
As a Southern Democrat he supported
unquestioningly the rights of slave-
holders. He was a Unionist, however,
who saw secession as treason and
blamed disunion on the plantation
owners. Johnson’s modest origins
alienated him from the aristocratic elite
who dominated Southern politics. This
helps explain a unique provision of his
Reconstruction policy: Southerners who
owned more than $20,000 in personal
property would not be pardoned except
by special application to the president.
As it turned out, Johnson’s actions
showed no vindictive desire to punish
rich planters. He appointed governors
from their class who in turn readmitted
many members of the Southern elite,
including former
Confederates, to
state offices. On
the issue of land
confiscation,
Johnson ordered
militarily seized lands to be returned to
their previous owners. He also pardoned
large numbers of individuals excluded
under his Reconstruction plan.
Johnson’s racism would not allow
him to elevate blacks to social and
political equality. He imagined wrongly
that freed slaves would remain under
the influence of former masters, voting
as directed and giving more political
power to Southern leaders. He argued
that suffrage was a matter of states’
rights, not to be interfered with by the
Federal government.Johnson’s obstructionism
The desire to enact black suffrage was
the most crucial goal that bound
Radical Republicans together. The two
leading figures in the movement were
the Massachusetts Senator Charles
Sumner and Pennsylvania Congressman
Thaddeus Stevens. After the 1866
elections, the Radical Republican
majority was so unassailable that
Congress could override the President’s
veto. He even tried to veto the
landmark 1866 Civil Rights Bill that
granted citizenship and all its civil rights
and protections to black Americans,The Politics of Reconstruction
In the debate on how to rebuild the Union, Northern politicians disagreed over what cost the South should
pay for disunion and how much Southern society should change as a result. The Democrat President
Johnson clashed with Radical Republicans, who envisioned a new era of African-American freedoms.
LEGACIES OF THE WART
he so-called Radical Republicans
were members of Lincoln’s party
who thought that his attitude
toward the reconquered South had
been far too lenient. Before Andrew
Johnson became president, his fierce
condemnation of rebellion encouraged
Radical Republicans to think he would
help them punish the South and
remake it in the way they wanted.
When Johnson announced his program
for Reconstruction on May 29, 1865, it
was not what they had hoped for.The Reconstruction plan
Most of the presidential proclamation
followed the policies advocated by
Lincoln. An oath of loyalty to the
Union and the promise to support
the Constitution
and obey Federal
laws were required
from all. Property
rights—with the
obvious exception
of slaves—were restored and a
framework was set up for working
toward reestablishing state governments
with new constitutions incorporating
the Thirteenth Amendment.BEFORE
Northern victory had determined that the
Union was indivisible and that slavery was
abandoned forever. But crucial issues of
reconciliation, retribution, and black civil
rights remained to be addressed.
LINCOLN AND RECONSTRUCTION
The Emancipation Proclamation ❮❮ 160–61
of 1863 granted freedom to slaves, but only in
those states in rebellion against the Union.
Lincoln’s “Proclamation of Amnesty and
Reconstruction” of December 1863 pardoned
Rebels who swore loyalty oaths and readmitted
states when ten percent of adult men did so.
However, the proclamation made no demands for
black rights beyond freedom, and would quickly
restore former Confederates to political power.
With the Thirteenth Amendment
❮❮ 308–309, the issue of slavery was finally
resolved, but the conditions under which Rebel
states could be readmitted to the Union was still
to be decided. That task would fall to Andrew
Johnson who had succeeded to the presidency
after Lincoln’s assassination ❮❮ 320–21.
rights that were subsequently enshrined
in the Fourteenth Amendment.
Johnson also opposed any expansion of
Federal assistance to Southern blacks.
In March 1865, Congress created an
organization known as the Bureau of
Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned
Lands—the “Freedmen’s Bureau.”
Employing fewer than 900 agents, the
Bureau dispensed food, medicine, and
supplies to former slaves. It also helped
to establish schools for them and to
mediate labor disputes. President
Johnson opposed continued funding for
the agency, claiming: “A system for the
support of indigent persons in the
United States was never contemplated
by the authors of the Constitution,” but
he failed to stop the agency’s work.
The political feud between the
Radical Republicans and Johnson
culminated in an attempt to impeachPresident Johnson’s impeachment summons
In spring 1868 Johnson became the subject of the
first-ever impeachment proceedings against a U.S.
President. Here he is served with the summons by
George T. Brown, the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate.Thaddeus Stevens
A leading figure of the Radical Republicans during the
Reconstruction era, Stevens was one of the seven
committee members who sought to impeach Johnson.The act was guaranteed to widen the rift
between the Radical Republicans in
Congress and President Johnson. “In
every State and Territory in the United
States“ it granted the same rights enjoyed
by white citizens to all males, “without
distinction of race or color, or previous
condition of slavery or involuntary
servitude.” In March 1866, Johnson
vetoed the bill, declaring that “the
distinction of race and color is by this bill
made to operate in favor of the colored
and against the white race.” The veto was
overturned by a two-thirds majority in
Congress, and passed into law in April.KEY MOMENTTHE 1866 CIVIL RIGHTS ACT
The number of pardons
granting amnesty to
wealthy Southern landowners signed
by President Johnson by 1866.7,000