Following Lincoln's assassination Andrew Johnson was appointed to the Presidency and continued the ongoing battle for power between President and Congress. The tension between these two branches of government slowed the Reconstruction process even more. Johnson in one way was a lot like Lincoln in his extreme loyalty to the Union but unlike LIncoln believed that the ex-confederates should be severely punished. Johnson initiated his policy on May 29th, 1865. Johnson instituted southern politicians that leaned towards the union as state governors. These governors enforced that only loyal whites were permitted to vote for delegates and that former confederate leaders were excluded. In addition, all those who hold $20,000 dollars or more in value are excluded. This prevented wealthy planters from participating in Reconstruction and furthered Johnson's power in the South. The Republicans anger turned to the states when they were passing Black Codes subjecting ex-slaves to special regulations and restrictions on their freedom. To the Republicans, Black Codes were slavery in disguise. Congress and the President remain in a stalemate and Congress began then to take initiative. The struggle of how to reconstruct the union ended with Congress setting policy back to square one. Johnson wanted to restore old policy with the states back to the old system without slavery and secession. In 1866 the President and Congress showed their irreconcilable intentions by Johnson vetoing two bills that Congress had passed. The first bill was to help ex-slaves by extending the life of the Freedmen's Bureau, that would be soon to prove very useful in the future. This was a temporary agency to help freed slaves with food, clothes, etc. The second bill that was vetoed was a civil rights bill against the Black Codes and guarantee equal laws as a white. Even with Johnson's power Congress was able to pass the Fourteenth Amendment, one of the most important amendments. This insured national citizenship, reduced representation in Congress to the number of voters, denied the right to hold office by former confederates and the confederate debt was repudiated. While Congress was taking initiative they passed the First Reconstruction Act over Johnson's veto by separating the region into five part to implement military rule to the souther governors appointed by Johnson. Johnson fired back by dismissing officials who sided against him and Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act. This protected officials from being removed without the approval of the senate. Soon Congress attempted to impeach Johnson and failed. Again, tension between the President and Congress killed the progress of Reconstruction. During Johnson's term Congress' will ended up on top. During this time it would have sped reconstruction if John would have compromised with Congress.
The Civil War had left the south devastated. Southern whites wanted to keep the blacks in limbo between slavery and freedom but economic recovery could not happen until a labor system could replace the old slavery abolition. Blacks soon were found with no land and no work. General Sherman, appointed by Johnson, issued an order in 1865 that set aside land in Georgia and South Carolina. This included 40 acres exclusive to blacks only. The Freedmen's Bureau was given thousands of acres to distribute to blacks on a three year grant period. This boosted the economy in efforts for Reconstruction, one of the few lights in the hazy Reconstruction.
In 1868 Grant was elected President. Grant and Congress faced a financial problem. The controversy was to allow greenbacks or paper money instead of the gold and silver that was circulating. The Grant administration thought that economic expansion would bring in gold and silver until the specie payments. It turned out that he was wrong and it brought about the Panic of 1873. This brought a huge stab at the economy. Congress decided to step up in 1874 and tried to issue greenbacks but Grant vetoed it. In 1875 Congress passed the Specie Resumption Act. This limited reduction of greenbacks and angered most of the farmers and workers who had suffered from deflation. Once more reconstruction is slowed from President and Congress disputing.
One of the amendments to come out of the Grant Administration was the Fifteenth Amendment in 1869. This prohibited any state from denying a citizen the right to vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Even with this Fifteenth Amendment southern states still could limit the suffrage by imposing literacy tests, property qualifications, or poll taxes allegedly applying to all radical groups. This soon provoked a threat to the Republican stance, the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan's main objective was to restore white supremacy and caused more division among the states. In the election of 1868, Grant lost in Louisiana and Georgia due to the Klan. The Klan enforced terrorism that was directed to Republicans. The Klan would go to great lengths to get their point across. The Klan would hurt and kill Republicans in office and those blacks that would vote for them.
This era of Reconstruction ended with the Compromise of 1877. The election of 1876 was mainly between Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio and Samuel J Tilden of New York. The Electoral College had voted in favor of Tilden but there were still three undecided states that had not voted. If they had voted in favor of hayes there would be a tie. Congress appointed a commission for the decision. Republicans struck an informal bargain with conservative democrats. If Republicans restore home rule to the south and pull troops out that they would vote Hayes in. The compromise led to Hayes' election and southern blacks were cast to the wind. National policy on civil rights were abandon so the the freed slaves were almost in a worse situation than before. Lower-class whites were also subject to the landlords of the south.
The Reconstruction era from 1863-1877 was mostly a confused disaster. The struggle between Presidents and Congress slowed the process of reconstruction. The Grant administration threw the economy to its knees. The Republicans threw the amendments to the wind with the Compromise of 1877. The goal to liberate the freed slaves seemed pending due to the everything that led up to the Compromise of 1877. Reconstruction was unsuccessful.
