9.1 Presidential vs. Congressional Reconstruction (1865–1868)

As the American Civil War drew to a close in early 1865, the United States faced an unprecedented constitutional, political, and social crisis. The nation had to resolve fundamental questions: On what terms would the eleven defeated Confederate states be readmitted to the Union? Who held the constitutional authority to determine those terms—the President or Congress? And, most critically, what would be the legal, economic, and political status of four million newly emancipated African Americans? The period from 1865 to 1868 witnessed a bitter power struggle between executive-led Presidential Reconstruction and legislative-led Congressional Reconstruction (also known as Radical Reconstruction).

Wartime Reconstruction: Lincoln's Plan vs. the Wade-Davis Bill

President Abraham Lincoln consistently maintained that secession was legally void because the Union was perpetual. Consequently, he argued that Southern states had never truly left the Union; rather, rebellious individuals within those states had defied federal authority. Because the president possesses the constitutional power to grant pardons, Lincoln asserted that executive authority governed the restoration process.

In December 1863, Lincoln issued his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, introducing the Ten Percent Plan. Under this lenient policy:

• Full presidential pardons were offered to former Confederates who took an oath of allegiance to the Union and agreed to accept emancipation, excluding high-ranking Confederate military officers and civil officials.
• As soon as 10 percent of the voters who had qualified to vote in the 1860 presidential election took this loyalty oath, the state could re-establish a loyal civil government, draft a new state constitution abolishing slavery, and apply for readmission to Congress.

Lincoln's primary wartime objectives were to shorten the war, weaken Confederate resolve, and establish loyal Southern governments in Union-occupied areas like Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee. However, Radical Republicans in Congress fiercely opposed the plan. Led by Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, Radical Republicans insisted that seceded states had committed "state suicide" (Sumner's view) or reverted to "conquered provinces" (Stevens's view), placing their readmission entirely under the constitutional authority of Congress to guarantee a republican form of government.

In July 1864, Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill, co-authored by Senator Benjamin Wade and Representative Henry Winter Davis. This strict alternative required:

1. A majority (50 percent) of a state's white male citizens to take an "Ironclad Oath" swearing that they had never voluntarily borne arms against the United States or aided the Confederacy.
2. State constitutional conventions to formally abolish slavery, disenfranchise former Confederate leaders, and repudiate Confederate war debts.

Lincoln killed the Wade-Davis Bill using a pocket veto (refusing to sign the bill within ten days of Congressional adjournment), warning that forcing states to meet rigid legislative conditions would delay Union restoration. This veto set the stage for an explosive postwar confrontation.

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The Assassination of Lincoln & Accession of Andrew Johnson

On April 14, 1865—five days after Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox—Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre. Vice President Andrew Johnson assumed the presidency. A War Democrat from eastern Tennessee, Johnson was added to Lincoln's 1864 "National Union" ticket to demonstrate bipartisan support. Johnson was a self-made champion of non-slaveholding white yeoman farmers who held deep animosity toward the Southern wealthy planter aristocracy, which he blamed for instigating secession.

Republicans initially hoped Johnson would align with Congress, as he had declared that "treason must be made odious and traitors punished." However, Johnson was a strict constructionist, a staunch defender of states' rights, and an avowed white supremacist who rejected federal protection or political rights for Black Americans. He famously declared, "White men alone must manage the South."

Taking advantage of a eight-month Congressional recess between April and December 1865, Johnson launched Presidential Reconstruction by executive proclamation:

• He offered broad amnesty and pardon to most former Confederates who took a loyalty oath, restoring all property except enslaved human beings.
• He required high-ranking Confederate military officers and wealthy planters with taxable property exceeding $20,000 to apply for individual presidential pardons.
• He appointed provisional governors to supervise state constitutional conventions. To be readmitted, states were merely required to nullify secession ordinances, repudiate Confederate war debts, and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment.

Johnson liberally issued thousands of individual presidential pardons to elite planters. By late 1865, all former Confederate states had formed new civil governments. Southern voters promptly elected prominent ex-Confederates to high office—including Alexander H. Stephens, the former Vice President of the Confederacy, who was elected to represent Georgia in the United States Senate.

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The Freedmen's Bureau & Southern Black Codes

In March 1865, Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (commonly known as the Freedmen's Bureau), headed by Union General Oliver O. Howard. Intended as a temporary relief agency, the Bureau provided food, medical assistance, and clothing to millions of displaced Black and white Southerners. Its most enduring legacy was in education: the Bureau established over 4,000 elementary schools, teacher training institutions, and historically Black colleges (such as Howard University, Fisk University, and Atlanta University), helping reverse decades of forced illiteracy.

When the 39th Congress convened in December 1865, Northern Republicans were appalled by Southern defiance. The newly formed Southern state governments under Johnson's plan had enacted restrictive legal statutes known as Black Codes (1865–1866). Designed to restore white supremacy and maintain a cheap, docile labor force, these codes:

• Subjected African Americans to harsh vagrancy laws: Black individuals without written proof of employment could be arrested, fined, and auctioned off to private landholders for forced labor.
• Prohibited Black citizens from purchasing or renting land outside designated urban areas.
• Barred African Americans from serving on juries, testifying against white citizens in court, or owning firearms.

Congress refused to seat the newly elected Southern representatives, effectively rejecting Johnson's Presidential Reconstruction.

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Radical Reconstruction & Congressional Triumph

Outraged by the Black Codes and Johnson's intransigence, Moderate Republicans joined forces with Radical Republicans to seize control of Reconstruction policy. In early 1866, Congress passed two landmark bills:

1. An extension of the Freedmen's Bureau Act, expanding its funding and judicial authority to override discriminatory state courts.
2. The Civil Rights Act of 1866, which declared all persons born in the United States (except untaxed Native Americans) to be national citizens, granting them equal legal rights to enter contracts, sue, inherit, and own property.

President Johnson vetoed both measures, arguing they infringed upon states' rights and discriminated against white citizens. In April 1866, Congress overrode Johnson's veto of the Civil Rights Act—marking the first time in American history that Congress overrode a presidential veto on a major legislative act.

During the 1866 midterm congressional elections, Johnson conducted a disastrous, inflammatory speaking tour known as the "Swing Around the Circle." His unpresidential attacks on Radical leaders alienated Northern voters. Republicans won overwhelming two-thirds supermajorities in both the House and Senate, enabling them to bypass presidential vetoes completely.

Congress enacted the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 (over Johnson's vetoes):

• Ten former Confederate states (Tennessee was exempted because it had ratified the 14th Amendment) were divided into five military districts, each commanded by a Union army general backed by federal troops.
• Southern state governments established under Johnson were declared illegal.
• To re-enter the Union and regain representation in Congress, states were required to draft new state constitutions granting universal male suffrage (enfranchising Black men), submit those constitutions to Congress for approval, and ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.

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The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (1868)

To prevent President Johnson from interfering with military commanders enforcing Radical Reconstruction, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act in March 1867. This statute prohibited the president from removing civil officials—including cabinet officers—who had been appointed with Senate consent, without obtaining the Senate's approval for their dismissal. Congress specifically sought to protect Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, a Radical ally controlling the War Department.

Believing the law unconstitutional, Johnson deliberately defied Congress in February 1868 by removing Stanton and replacing him with General Lorenzo Thomas. On February 24, 1868, the House of Representatives voted 126 to 47 to impeach Andrew Johnson for "high crimes and misdemeanors," charging him with eleven articles of impeachment centered on the violation of the Tenure of Office Act and bringing disgrace upon Congress.

From March to May 1868, the Senate conducted Johnson's trial, presided over by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. Johnson's legal defense argued that Stanton had been appointed by Lincoln, not Johnson, making the Tenure of Office Act inapplicable. On May 16 and 26, the Senate voted on three key impeachment articles. The result was 35 to 19 in favor of conviction—exactly one vote short of the two-thirds majority required for removal from office. Seven Moderate Republicans, led by Kansas Senator Edmund G. Ross, broke party ranks and voted "not guilty," fearing that removing a president over political disagreements would permanently undermine the constitutional separation of powers. Johnson remained in office, but his political power was completely broken for his remaining months in office.