Many Northerners were incensed by Johnson’s reconstruction and watched with outrage as Southern legislatures passed laws restricting the newly attained freedom for blacks. Known as Black Codes, these laws basically replaced the old slave codes. The inability of Southern society to accept emancipation coupled with Johnson’s failure to force the South to comply, undermined Northern support for Presidential reconstruction. Johnson by late 1865 announced that reconstruction of the Southern states was complete, but the war was just beginning.
Johnson’s battle with the Radical Republicans began in December 1865, when Congress came back into secession. Congress refused to seat the congressmen and senators from the Southern states. Early in 1866 they passed the Freedman’s Bureau, designed to help slaves with the transition to freedom, and civil rights bills, which granted blacks full legal equality. Johnson refused to sign either bill but Congress was able to override the veto (Marking the first time a Presidential veto had been overridden on such an importance piece of legislation). Once on a speaking tour, Johnson described the Radicals as “factious, domineering, tyrannical” men. They portrayed Johnson as a “ludicrous boor” and a “drunken imbecile.” Thus the battle began between the two branches to see who would administer reconstruction of the South.
In March 1867, the Radicals enacted their own plan of Reconstruction, dividing the South into five districts and placing them under military rule. Before these states could be re-admitted to the Union it was required that they adopt new state constitutions which ratified the 14th amendment and guaranteed freedmen the right to vote. Congress also passed laws placing restrictions upon the President. When Johnson allegedly violated one of these, the Tenure of Office Act, by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the House voted eleven articles of impeachment against him. He was tried by the Senate in the spring of 1868 and acquitted by one vote.
Radical Reconstruction, as it was known, would not officially end until 1877 when military forces were finally removed from the Southern states. Nevertheless, Reconstruction left the country more divided than ever and it would take several generations before the bitterness passed.
For more information about Andrew Johnson and the Radical Republicans click on: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/impeach2.h...
STAY TUNED: NEXT MONTH WILL FOCUS ON ANDREW JOHNSON AND HIS IMPEACHMENT.
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