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End of the Civil War & Beginning of Reconstruction · Saberian History Lectures

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So, we left off with the beginning of the restructuring
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as the union is transitioning from the idea that
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they might win by negotiation. Again, you had
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the three models we talked about on Monday. where
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the first model for the North was, okay, if we
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bloody them, if we bankrupt them, they will submit,
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they will surrender, and that they could arrive
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at some negotiated settlement. That transitions
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to the Anaconda Plan, where, again, through the
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use of the U .S. Navy, cutting them off. from
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external sources of subsistence and industry
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that the Union would basically force the South
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to capitulate because how does an anaconda work?
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It strangles its prey. And so the idea was, okay,
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with the Anaconda Plan, maybe you could apply
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enough pressure that they would eventually submit.
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Now, is the Anaconda Plan itself a conquest model?
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No. But the Anaconda Plan was the first step.
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So what happens is you have the Anaconda Plan
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being put into effect. Once you have operational
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control of the Mississippi, you have Grant and
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his army applying pressure from the north and
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then Sherman and his army going from the west
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to the east. And so then you have what you call
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the conquest model. So you have... Grant and
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Sherman applying this conquest model in the battles
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in the West. Is McClellan applying a conquest
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model? No. He is doing a very much similar to
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a European style limited war, limited ends. He's
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not pressing his advantages when he has it. And
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eventually McClellan is fired. You have other
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officers put in place fighting Joe Hooker and
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General Burnside. They are not experiencing any
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type of success against the strategic intellect
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of Robert E. Lee. is probably one of the, as
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some historians have pointed out, the U .S. Military
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Academy at West Point has really only produced
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three great strategists. Robert E. Lee, Doug
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MacArthur, and Norman Schwarzkopf. In other words,
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people who could achieve a tactical or strategic
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victory with numerically fewer forces against
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an opponent who might have had superior numbers.
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Whereas previously, if you look at American military
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history over the course of... well, pretty much
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from the Civil War on, the American military
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is able to win wars not because of strategy,
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but rather because of numbers. In other words,
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that we are able to deploy more men at the enemy
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and sort of it's the Doritos commercial, crunch
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all you want, we'll make more. And the kill ratios
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show it in the Civil War. I want to say, for
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every Confederate soldier, the Union lost more
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than three people. Now, do you think we would
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stomach those losses now in modern times? No.
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And in fact, we've transitioned from a mass army
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model to a highly skilled professional army.
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In many ways, it's sort of the, oh, we're back
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to the 18th century where you spend years and
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years and years and years training your forces
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to do what they need you to do. Now, so... You
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have the conquest model moving on. Now, here's
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the thing you also have going on on the home
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front. Now remember, warfare is a continuation
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of politics by another means. The war starts
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with the 1861. What month? April. April 1861.
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Fort Sumter Falls. Really, if you think about
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it in some ways, the Colossus Belli for some
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of the Southern Democrats in 1860 is the election
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of Lincoln. Okay, so, Fort Sumter falls in April
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of 1861. That's what they call the start of the
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war, but really, if you think about it, Fort
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Sumter was under attack even when Lincoln had
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become president. So March 1861, Lincoln is inaugurated.
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And so this is very much Lincoln's war. It was
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Lincoln who asked Congress to authorize the use
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of force to put down... By the way, was the Civil
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War ever declared? No. Which branch has the power
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to declare war? Congress has the power to declare
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war. Now, Congress did authorize military action
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against the South. But it wasn't a declaration
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of war because if you declare war against a people,
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what have you done? You have recognized their
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sovereignty. Why would declaring war and recognizing
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the sovereignty of the South be problematic?
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The South would say they're independent and also
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by declaring war against those states, by recognizing
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their existence, then other nations would recognize
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their existence and then they would try and broker
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deals and whatnot. And so you can't declare war
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against the South. So that's not what was done.
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They were declared to be states in rebellion.
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This is why we refer to Confederates as rebels.
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And so Lincoln goes to Congress to ask for a
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use of force doctrine under Congress's power
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to provide for the calling forth of the militia,
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to execute the laws of the Union, to suppress
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insurrection, and to repel invasion. This is
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quite literally the suppression of an insurrection.
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So, Congress approves. Why does Congress approve?
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Who's not in Congress anymore? Southern Democrats.
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And so one of the things you have to start looking
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at this from is a really vicious partisan point
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of view. Oh, good God, y 'all thought you went
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through a partisan election. You have no idea
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how much more vicious the factions can be. This
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one was polite compared to 1860. Oh yes, you
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have a few people in California right now complaining
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about our current president -elect and threatening
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to leave. They won't. But, okay, so, 61. As we
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go into 62 and 63, is the North really starting
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to win yet? So if you're fighting a civil war,
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which is in large ways a negative referendum
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on your president, what might be in jeopardy,
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especially when you talk about 1864 coming along?
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What happens in November 1864? A presidential
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election. Who's up for re -election? Lincoln.
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Now, Lincoln, of course, is a Republican. His
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center of gravity is where? Where is he from?
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What type of man is he? He is from Illinois.
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His center of gravity, the foundation of the
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Free Soil Movement, is coming out of the Midwest.
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Okay? So he's got some of the Midwest. He's got
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the Midwest. He's got abolitionists coming out
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of Pennsylvania. He's got abolitionists coming
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out of Maine, New Hampshire. and whatnot. Now,
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are there Democrats in the North? Yes. Are those
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Democrats tied to plantation agriculture? No.
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Some of them are tied to the political machines
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coming out of the cities. In other words, the
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Irish vote, the ethnic vote, stuff like that.
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And so you do have a strong Democratic Party
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in New York. You do have a strong Democratic
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Party in Boston. And so some of these, if you're
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a Democrat, Do you want your sons and daughters,
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well, not daughters, because we don't let women
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into combat yet. Do you want your sons dying
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for this Republican war? And so the Democratic
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Party becomes... The Peace Party. But it's not
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peace at any price. It's not the, all we're saying,
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give peace a chance. It's not like the hippie
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protesters of the 1960s. Now, is there a religious
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dimension to pacifism? Are there people who are
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against war out of deep religious conviction?
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Yes. But is there also a dimension to the anti
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-war movement in the American North that has
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nothing to do with religion? There's a raw element
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of it. And I want you to think about the draft
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riots of New York. Your major cities in the North,
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who lives in them? Immigrants. Primarily from
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where? Ireland. If you're an Irish factory worker
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and you're working like a slave, do you really
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give a crap about cotton pickers in the South?
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No. Do you really care about abolition? Do you
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really care about the evangelical Protestant
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notion of human equality, especially if you're
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an Irish Catholic? No. And so there is this,
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okay, you know, people talk about the Southerners
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being racist. There were plenty of racists in
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the North, too. You get the idea. Okay, so, when
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you're losing the war and you're up for re -election,
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do the polls favor you? What do you need? You
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need some wins. What would be some things that
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might change the political landscape in your
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favor if you're President Lincoln? First of all,
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when does the Emancipation Proclamation come
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out? January 1st, 1863. 1863, January 1st. Okay,
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why would that be a win? All of the slaves in
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the rebellion states. And it makes the war not
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just about states' rights. What does it make
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the war about? It makes the war about slavery.
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So here you have your Emancipation Proclamation
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in 1863. You don't think that that wasn't a...
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Now, you don't think that that wasn't to keep
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the abolitionists on board with Lincoln? You
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get what I'm saying? Because he needs the abolitionists
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in his coalition or he gets no re -election,
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right? Now, a couple other things Lincoln does
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to hedge his bets. By the way, who did the Democrats
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put up in this war? McClellan. So it's up against
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George McClellan, the Democrat. So Lincoln does
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something kind of interesting. So in the election
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of 1864, are there southern slaveholding states
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that will vote in the election of 1864? Name
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two. Kentucky and Tennessee and Maryland. Enter
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Andrew Johnson. Lincoln taps Andrew Johnson as
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his running mate. Now, here's the fun one. Andrew
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Johnson is a man from Tennessee, and he's no
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Republican. What's he? He's a Democrat. He's
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a Democrat. Balance. Well, not only balance.
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Don't think of it as balance. Who is he taking
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votes from? McClellan. In other words, if I'm
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a Democrat, I might vote for George McClellan
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because I want this war to be over, because I
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don't think that the slaves are worth killing
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people over, that we should just let the Southerners
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go. Right? But now, and you know, George McClellan...
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He's an officer, a lead of the American Army.
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He is a military man of some note, not just as
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the leader in the Civil War. He had a distinguished
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career in the Mexican -American War. He was nothing
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to sneeze at. But if I'm an impoverished person
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on the foothills of Tennessee, and I'm staring
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down the barrel of Kentucky, and I'm looking
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at the war zone is just right there, isn't it?
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Having a vice president from Tennessee might
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cultivate a level of sympathy. You get what I'm
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saying? So, a couple other things happen leading
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up to the election of 1864. First of all, Grant
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takes command of the Army of the Potomac. Why
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is that significant? Because Grant, unlike McClellan,
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is a general who has won battles. He's won them
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at great price. Some people have accused him
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of being a butcher, but he fights. Lincoln famously,
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when he was considering Grant to replace McClellan,
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was informed by someone who knew Grant well that
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Grant was a bit of a drinker, like hardcore whiskey
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drinker. And Lincoln then asked, well, what's
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he drinking? Give it to the rest of my generals
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because this man fights. So you get the idea.
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Sherman pushes through the South. I kind of want
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to show it to you and then we'll get to the march
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to the sea. Okay, so here we go. So Sherman pushes
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to Atlanta. When he takes Atlanta, the election
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hasn't happened. But think about this for a moment.
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You're a wartime president. What do you need
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right before an election? You need a win. And
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the papers record the destruction of Atlanta.
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Now, if you're from the South, you look at the
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destruction of Atlanta. You see it burning. If
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you've ever seen Gone with the Wind, it's a terrible
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scene. But if you're a Northerner and you read
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about Atlanta burning, what do you think? If
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you're a Northern Republican abolitionist and
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you're reading that Atlanta is burning, that's
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not an atrocity. You think those SOBs deserve
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it, don't you? You want to see their empire of
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slavery burned, especially after you've been
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at war for two years, especially if you have
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a relative deployed. I mean, how many of you,
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you've got family in the military, and you hear
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about these things, and you're like, oh, no,
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those people need to get it. I mean, not our
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service personnel, but the other guys, you know
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what I'm saying? Because we like us. We're kind
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of attached to us. Yes, I mean, we don't like
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to admit it. We wear the facade of being civilized
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people. But there is an element of the tribal.
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There is an element of enjoying the suffering
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of what you perceive to be your enemies. The
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braggadocious person in the AP class who makes
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a two. Too soon? Alright, so... You have Sherman
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takes Atlanta and then he pushes to the sea.
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He is destroying everything in his wake. Why?
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Because he's on conquest mode. He's on conquest
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mode. It's also, again, these are people who
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had been raised in the chivalric notion of, okay,
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you spare the women and children, you don't kill
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the peasants, you don't kill the means of subsistence.
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What's he doing if he's torching, burning, twisting
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railroad tracks and destroying everything he
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finds? All questions. Omni -militarism, omnicidal,
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and part of it, well, it's not omnicidal, but
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it is conquest model. It is the idea that anything
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that is left behind that could be useful to the
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enemy can be used against me. This is the total
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war model, which Americans hadn't played with
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yet. Now, Napoleon did, but that's separate.
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So, 1864, Lincoln is elected. 1864, Lincoln is
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elected, and it's fairly obvious that the North
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will win. Okay, a couple of things about that.
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When Atlanta's burning, major center of gravity,
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yes? After what battle was it obvious that the
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South could not mount a major offensive afterwards?
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After Gettysburg. So, you know you've decimated
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your enemy, you know they have to keep going,
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so now, if you know you're going to win, now
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what do you need to plan for? Not the treaty.
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You have to plan for the peace. And what is that
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peace going to look like? So there are some who
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are talking in negotiated treaty, but there are
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others who are saying, no, they need to surrender.
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They need to submit. Because for the union, this
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was about law. Whether a state could lawfully
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leave, and to them, the answer was no. Okay.
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So, it comes to be that Grant and Lee's army
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were in close contact with each other, and at
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this point, remember, does the South grow its
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own food? No. No, so it's cut off from the breadbasket
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because of the anaconda. So, after four years
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of war, you're talking about armies facing starvation,
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you're talking about a civilian population that
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is facing starvation. So, and, you know, because
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of this, and because, you know, Lee knows that
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there is no way to win anymore. He knows he's
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a checkmate, so now they're not trying to win,
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they're trying to mitigate the loss. Now, here's
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the part I want you to keep in mind. So, If you're
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a southerner, what have you done? What have you
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really done? You have committed a very specific
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act. Treason. What is the consequence for treason?
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By hanging. So right now, under the law, What
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happens if you lose? You die. There is no honorable
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way to do this. Now, did the South and the North
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both take prisoners? Yes. But when you're in
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the surrender phase, there is this question,
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am I going to be taken alive? Am I going to be
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treated well? What will happen to me? If I'm
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not to be executed, especially if I'm a higher
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echelon officer, I'm looking at being hanged.
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There were people in the abolitionist North who
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were saying, no, you go to Richmond and you hang
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Jefferson Davis. Okay, if you're a southern officer,
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especially a high -ranking officer, you're staring
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down the barrel of being hanged. You know that.
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If you're a lesser officer, so you're facing
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death by hanging, what else could happen to you?
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You could be imprisoned for the rest of your
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natural lives. Now, if you're Abraham Lincoln,
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is it expedient for you to have these people
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either executed en masse or imprisoned en masse?
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By the way, housing people in penitentiaries
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is rather expensive even then. No. Also, if you're
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Abraham Lincoln, do you want them to fight to
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the bitter end if these are their only two choices?
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So what do you do? You give them an out, don't
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you? So you give them really generous terms.
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Now here's the thing. So Lincoln is in communication
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with Grant, and he instructs him, be very generous
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with the terms. There will be no trial, there
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will be no treason, and that the Confederates
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would be allowed to keep their pistols and their
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mules. Pistols and mules. Why? Those of you who
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use firearms, what's interesting about pistols?
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What is a pistol? It's a sidearm. Is it an offensive
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weapon per se? No. Why would they be allowed
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to keep their pistols? What weapons are they
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surrendering? The mini rifles. The reason they're
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surrendering their mini rifles is as a sign of
21:32
submission. Why would you keep your pistols so
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I'm not attacked on the way home? Which implied
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in this, and also, they were allowed to go home.
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Now think about this for a moment. You've been
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fighting for three, four years. What's the thing
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you most urgently want to do? You want to go
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home. And so one of the terms of the surrender
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is yes, they are free to go home to their farms.
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Now the other thing you need to think about is
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most of the enlisted men in the Southern Army,
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what are their homes? Well, but not just that.
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What type of home did they have? If I'm an enlisted
22:25
man, am I a planter? What are they? They are
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poor yeoman farmers. These were not people fighting
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for their plantation. These were people who thought
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they were fighting for their homes and for their
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way of life. They were fighting for their homes
22:41
and their way of life to avoid northern industrialism.
22:44
They were fighting for their homes and their
22:45
way of life because if you're plain white folk,
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do you get caught in the crosshairs of a slave
22:50
uprising? Yeah. And so one of the great delusions
22:55
that we as modern people have is that we picture
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all of these poor Confederate soldiers as if
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they're wealthy planters. They're not. Most of
23:02
them are simple yeoman farmers pushing pigs up
23:06
the side of really crappy land. And so, yeah,
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those common men were allowed to go home. And
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they were not facing the treason trial. Now,
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there were no trumpets. There were no cheers.
23:23
The band didn't play anything. The Confederate
23:26
soldiers marched in front of their victors, threw
23:29
down their minie rifles, and marched off and went
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home. And ironically enough, For one of the few
23:37
times in American military history, the victors
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saluted the vanquished first. What's the custom?
23:48
The vanquished salute the victims. Now, there
23:53
was a consequence. What can't you have if you
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let these people go home? What can't they do?
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What must they never be allowed to do? Secede?
24:04
And they have no say in the government after
24:08
that. And so the consequence for the Confederates
24:15
who partook of the rebellion from the very high
24:17
to the very low is that they lost the right to
24:20
vote. They were disenfranchised for the rest
24:23
of their lives. So you do not have... have Southerners
24:32
voting in their own elections from 1865 until
24:38
1876. 1876 is what they call the return of home
24:46
rule. I'll get to that in a moment when we get
24:48
to the Reconstruction bits. But the conditions
24:51
of the end inform the Reconstruction. Does that
24:55
make sense? Now here's the thing. If you are
25:00
a northern officer, you're ready to have this
25:03
over with too, and if the politicos say, okay,
25:05
let them go home, you let them go home, right?
25:08
But if you're a northern abolitionist, not in
25:12
the field, what do you want to have happen to
25:15
these people? You either want them here, you
25:18
either want them here. Are you happy about them
25:23
being able to go home? No. Not at all. Now also,
25:28
one of the things that also happens is in the
25:31
elections after secession, there are no southern
25:34
states, so that means the U .S. government, the
25:38
U .S. Congress, goes from being kind of partisan
25:43
split to being one party. One party Republican.
25:49
Kind of make sense? So if you were a radical
25:50
abolitionist, does somebody tell you you're being
25:53
too extreme? No, they tell you you're not going
25:54
far enough. See how that might be interesting
25:57
for the political culture. Yes? Okay. They are
26:05
a minority. In other words, numerically, the
26:09
only reason the Democratic Party came close is
26:11
because of the massive voting bloc in the South.
26:14
But the South seceded. So in the election of
26:17
1864... The only Democrats you had were the few
26:20
Democrats that were in the cities and maybe in
26:22
Kentucky and a few other border states. They're
26:25
not as big of a presence as they were when you
26:28
had the entire South voting as a Democratic bloc.
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To give you a modern analogy, what would happen
26:35
to the Democratic Party if California was not
26:37
a state? There are 54 electors in the state of
26:44
California. They all went for Hillary Clinton.
26:46
Imagine what that does to the presidential election
26:49
cycle or even to the American government if California
26:52
was somehow seceded from the Union and all the
26:55
California delegates and Democrats were gone.
27:00
This would be a very conservative country, wouldn't
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it? Does that get the nuance for you? Yes. Alright.
27:06
Moving on to Reconstruction. Okay. So, we're
27:15
going to do the beginning of Reconstruction.
27:16
I think we'll probably end with the impeachment.
27:20
Okay, so, a couple of things going on. The South
27:24
had its cities annihilated, had its population,
27:31
for the most part, annihilated. I mean, they
27:33
were down to old men and boys. They had a servile
27:37
population of 4 million people now as free. And
27:44
they've all been disenfranchised. Now here's
27:47
the thing that we haven't quite come to grips
27:48
with. Okay, so the North wins the war. Lee surrenders
27:53
at Appomattox. Now what? Alright, so a couple
28:00
of things. In the South, the property values
28:02
go down because obviously it's a war -torn place.
28:05
You have a lot of people dead and wounded. The
28:08
entire economic system that had been built up
28:10
around Confederate money. What's Confederate
28:12
money worth if there's no Confederate States
28:14
of America? Absolutely nothing. And then, of
28:18
course, you have your cities destroyed. Cotton
28:21
production in the South doesn't reach its pre
28:28
-war levels until, like, 20th century. War can
28:33
set you back. Can't it? War can set you back
28:39
technologically. It can set you back industrially.
28:42
It has a huge effect. Alright. So, here we go.
28:47
First thing. 1863 is actually when Lincoln issues
28:51
his proclamation of amnesty and reconstruction.
28:54
Why 1863? First of all, is war over yet in 1863?
28:58
It's before the election. He's trying to make
29:02
it look like I'm being... I'm being a very reasonable
29:05
man. No? The godfather impersonation needs a
29:08
little bit of work. Okay. Now, so, a couple of
29:15
things. He's offering pardon. Now, the other
29:18
thing you've got going on, the people who don't
29:19
get a pardon, officers, judges, congressmen,
29:22
other people who've betrayed their oath. So if
29:24
you were somebody in the Confederate States of
29:26
America, guess what? You ain't going to be somebody
29:28
in the new regime, right? Now, here's the 10
29:31
% rule. is when a state could come back. So,
29:38
the idea was that the states that were taken
29:41
by force of arms, they're not states anymore.
29:44
What are they? Territories. They are military
29:47
districts or provinces. Now, if you are a conquered
29:51
people, do you get a say in the Union? Which
29:55
means those states didn't vote. So the question
29:57
becomes, at what population threshold of eligible
30:02
voters do you let these states vote again? Okay?
30:07
Now, what would cause eligible voters to pop
30:14
up in southern states? How does it... Well, at
30:21
this point... Are they ready to give voting rights
30:24
to blacks? No. Okay, so let me sort of draw you
30:29
a little chart to make you understand life. And
30:31
this is actually something that you probably
30:33
want to take with you when you go into government.
30:36
We are not a stratified society, but we do have
30:39
classes. And I'm not just talking about economic
30:41
classes. So, think about this for a moment. When
30:46
you all reach the majority of your life, when
30:50
you all become adults, You will have the right
30:52
to vote, yes? You will have the right to keep
30:55
and bear arms? What do we call that status where
30:59
you have a say to be armed and to vote in the
31:02
state? You are a citizen. Okay. Are there people
31:11
in the nation state who live in the nation state
31:15
who have no right to vote and no right to be
31:19
armed? What do we call those people? Not all
31:23
of them are illegal. What is the status for a
31:26
person who is not a citizen but is allowed to
31:29
live in the territory? A resident. A permanent
31:35
resident. So, for example, I have a family friend
31:37
who he is a British national. He is not a citizen
31:43
of the United States. He is a British citizen.
31:49
He is a professor of mathematics at the University
31:51
of Texas. And I asked him, I was like, Dr. Gordon,
31:54
you've lived in this country longer than I've
31:56
been alive. Why haven't you become a citizen?
32:01
He's like, I didn't need to. Now, he's a distinguished
32:08
professor of mathematics. We don't have to worry
32:11
about somebody taking his job. I mean, you know,
32:13
he's kind of a specialized case, isn't he? Embedded
32:18
in the population of residents, now we have illegal
32:20
immigrants, but that's separate. These are people
32:22
who have a legal status, don't they? What's the
32:26
third type of person? People we don't trust with
32:29
arms, people we don't trust with the vote, and
32:32
people who we don't entirely trust to be free
32:35
in the land. Felons. Well, in some ways, yes,
32:40
we don't entirely trust you minors either. Felons.
32:49
If you're a felon, why are you a felon? You committed
32:54
a crime. Quite literally, the term felony was
32:57
a medieval term for a person who had betrayed
33:00
their lord. And so it's a person that you don't
33:03
trust worth anything. If you're a felon, you
33:06
don't get to sign your own contracts. Why? Because
33:08
your name is mud. Right? Okay, so here's the
33:12
thing. And then you had slaves. But, proclamation,
33:20
emancipation proclamation in the southern territories
33:24
in rebellion, what were there no longer? Slaves.
33:28
So slaves are gone. Well, they're not gone, they're
33:31
just not slaves. So here you have four million
33:36
people who used to be slaves, and now you have
33:38
to ask yourself, what are they going to be? They're
33:43
not felons. They didn't do anything wrong, are
33:45
they? Do you want them being armed and voting?
33:52
Some, yes. Some, no. And I don't mean some people.
33:56
I'm saying some people in America, in the American
33:59
political class, wanted them to have full citizenship.
34:04
Okay, so this is where the party line comes in.
34:06
So you've got the radical Republicans who were
34:09
the abolitionists. They were the ones who wanted
34:12
the southern officers hanged. They want the African
34:16
Americans to have citizenship. Is that the only
34:21
people in Lincoln's coalition? Who else is in
34:25
Lincoln's coalition? Andrew Johnson, for one.
34:29
And Andrew Johnson's a Democrat. Also, there
34:33
are some abolitionists who are thinking, oh,
34:36
we'll emancipate the slaves and we'll send them
34:38
to Liberia. They just didn't want them enslaved.
34:45
They didn't want them being voters. They didn't
34:48
want them being jurors. They didn't want them
34:50
being armed. They didn't want them being here.
34:55
So... You've got some Republicans who you were
34:59
like, okay, you want them free, you want them,
35:02
but maybe we don't want them here, yes? And then,
35:06
of course, you have the Democrats. The Democrats
35:10
who didn't secede. And so the consensus was when
35:15
Lincoln was, before Lincoln's assassination,
35:18
that the slaves would move into this state. That
35:25
they would not be citizens, that they would be
35:26
residents. By the way, what happened to all the
35:30
southern citizens who took up arms against the
35:32
Union? They became felons. They were treated
35:37
as felons. En masse. You have an entire countryside
35:41
of people you regard as traitors. It is just
35:44
not expedient for you to execute them. Okay.
35:48
So. So yeah, on the one hand you have the African
35:52
Americans being elevated from slaves to being
35:54
residents, and then you have the southern citizens
35:56
being demoted down to felons. You see how that
35:58
works. Alright, so. Now, here's the thing you've
36:03
got going on. Lincoln's Reconstruction Plan,
36:06
here's how you get people voting in the states.
36:09
So Lincoln wanted 10 % of the population that
36:14
voted in the election of 1860 to pledge their
36:17
allegiance to the American Republic. So how do
36:20
you get new voters in the South? Well, you've
36:22
got two ways of doing it. You're not counting
36:24
the African Americans. They haven't been given
36:25
citizenship rights. You've got two types of people
36:28
coming in. One is the carpetbaggers. Carpetbaggers
36:32
were northerners who moved south to... exploit
36:37
the fact that the land was just now made cheap
36:39
and they're trying to actually, they're investors.
36:42
These are northern people headed south. Children.
36:58
Now I don't mean children get to vote. When are
37:05
you a legal adult in the American South in 1860?
37:12
21. You are a citizen of the United States at
37:17
21. The voting age doesn't get moved down until
37:19
the late 20th century. Okay? So, if you're 12
37:26
in 1865, did you fight? No. Did you take up arms
37:34
against the Union? No. What can you do by 1874?
37:43
That's one of the reasons why Reconstruction
37:47
goes from 1865 to 1876. What happens is in 1876,
37:53
the sons of the South who did not participate
37:56
in the Civil War are now eligible to vote. because
38:03
they, do we punish children for the crimes of
38:07
their fathers in our legal system? If you are
38:09
the son of a felon, are you a felon? No, that's
38:12
actually a very important distinction of... I
38:18
want to say it's English common law, but anyway,
38:20
the crimes of the father are not passed down
38:22
to the son. But our values? Our sentiments? Our
38:28
old wounds? Yes. And so, keep that in mind. So,
38:34
now, that was Lincoln's plan, so that when the
38:36
threshold of the population reached 10%, is that
38:40
a high number? No. Why such a low number? No,
38:48
in other words, you only have to have 10 % of
38:51
your electorate back. Before that state has a
38:56
say in the government. If you're a radical Republican,
38:58
do you want the Southerners ever to have a say
39:01
in the American Republic? No. You get the idea.
39:06
Why does he set the threshold so low? Because
39:09
he wants them back. Does that make sense? Okay.
39:15
Okay. Now. Second reconstruction plan, by the
39:19
way, this keys into one of your essays on, the
39:21
narrow essays on chapter 15, is the Republicans.
39:27
In other words, the rest of his party, or we
39:29
can call this congressional. They want greater
39:40
than 50%. They want the majority of the population
39:43
to take an oath of allegiance to the United States.
39:47
They want citizenship for the African Americans.
39:59
And they want no pardon. No pardon for the senior
40:04
officers. If you're actually a southerner, how
40:23
does that look like to you? That looks really
40:27
unreasonable. Here's the thing. If you're a southerner,
40:31
if you're letting these people become citizens,
40:35
you are allowing them to be voters, you're allowing
40:37
them to be jurors, you're allowing them to bear
40:38
arms. And if you are a southerner, whether you
40:42
are a plantation owner or whether you're a poor
40:45
white yeoman farmer, do you regard... African
40:50
Americans is even humans. No. I mean, just because
40:54
you lost a war doesn't mean you gave up the dehumanization
40:56
thesis. You get what I'm saying? Alright. Now.
41:02
I think I got that on the next slide. No, no.
41:07
That's alright. We'll get there. Okay. Freedmen's
41:09
Bureau. Freedmen's Bureau. Alright. So remember,
41:12
the South was devastated. Now, by the way, let's
41:15
go back just for a moment to the slaves being
41:18
freed. If you're a slave in Southern society,
41:22
what did you do for a living? Beforehand. Before
41:26
the war. Or during the war. If you're a slave,
41:30
what did most of the slaves do? Cotton, plantation,
41:34
agriculture, right? So if you're a slave that
41:37
has now become a resident or a freed person,
41:40
you're now a freed man. Go back to the slave
41:47
codes for a moment. Did you know how to read?
41:51
So, no literacy. Did you have any mathematical
41:56
talents? No. So, no math. You were an unskilled
42:04
laborer. Right? Plantation life was the only
42:12
thing you had ever known. And what happened to
42:14
plantation life? It was gone. It was gone. And
42:18
so you have 4 million people with no job skills
42:21
in a country that's been torched and torn apart.
42:27
Everyone in the South, but especially your African
42:30
American population, was more or less refugees
42:32
in the American South. So what they do is they
42:34
come up with a bureau. It's under the Department
42:38
of the Army. help integrate these African Americans
42:42
into society. What's the first way that you would
42:44
integrate African Americans into society? You'd
42:46
have to teach them how to read and write. Because
42:51
how do you integrate people in society, language,
42:53
culture, sense of history? They set up schools,
42:56
they negotiated work contracts, they provided
42:58
health care to, by the way, if you're a slave,
43:01
do you have a good health insurance policy? Probably
43:02
not. I was going to make a crass joke about the
43:07
Affordable Care Act, but I don't want to do that
43:09
right now. Alright, so here's a freedman's school
43:11
in Virginia. Nice little sketch drawing there.
43:15
Alright. 1865. Abraham Lincoln is assassinated
43:21
at Ford's Theater. Literally, John Wilkes Booth
43:23
got up close and personal, put the small caliber
43:26
handgun right next to his skull. Took him a while
43:28
to bleed out. Not getting into all the details.
43:31
By the way, it was reported... This was one of
43:35
the earliest. It was reported by Telegraph. The
43:38
Associated Press. How many of you have heard
43:40
of the Associated Press? Those of you in journalism,
43:43
you've all heard of it, yes? It was a thing back
43:46
then! So whereas it took months for the country
43:51
to learn of the death of Washington, it took
43:53
less than a day for the country to learn of the
43:56
death of Lincoln. So he's dead. Who's next? Andrew
44:03
Johnson. The Democrat. The Southerner. Now here's
44:12
the thing. Before Lincoln died, did Andrew Johnson
44:17
need to get along with Congress? No. He was part
44:22
of Lincoln hedging his bets. And so, here's a
44:26
guy. who has a combative personality, he's from
44:30
the other party, and now he's president. So here
44:36
we go. Johnson is a pro -union Democrat. He saw
44:40
planters as exploiting the omen farmers, and
44:43
you can tell just by this picture he's not very
44:45
happy. And so one of the things that he did was
44:48
he tacked on a couple of things. He wanted to
44:51
appoint provisional governors rather than...
44:55
Let them reach that 10 % threshold to be elected.
44:58
And also, he wanted to bar anyone who had more
45:01
than $20 ,000 from holding office. Now, it makes
45:04
sense because he himself was born into poverty.
45:06
Here's how he's looking at the war. Does he blame
45:10
the yeoman farmers for the war? No. He thinks
45:14
that they were tricked or manipulated by the
45:15
wealthy planter elites. He hadn't read Mazzini.
45:26
He didn't think that actually this was a deeper
45:28
cultural thing. Alright, so let me get to this
45:31
one last point and then we'll call it a day.
45:33
I know we're on the time. So here's your basic
45:35
idea. Johnson, the Democrat, does not get along
45:39
with the Republicans in Congress because the
45:43
Republicans in Congress are trying to do this.
45:50
And as a son of the South... and as due to his
45:55
own nature, he could not bring himself to do
45:58
this. He was good with this, but he wasn't ready
46:01
for this jump. And so the antagonism between
46:05
the Democrat Andrew Johnson and the Republicans
46:08
that dominated Congress will come to a loggerhead
46:11
when it comes to running the Reconstruction,
46:14
and eventually Andrew Johnson will be impeached.
46:17
More on that probably Monday. Thank you.