WEBVTT 00:03.410 --> 00:07.670 Professor David Blight: Reconstruction is that period of 00:07.672 --> 00:11.252 American history that I think still--I know still--is 00:11.246 --> 00:15.026 short-shrifted in the ways people tend to learn American 00:15.027 --> 00:19.747 history in this society, for whatever the reasons. 00:19.750 --> 00:22.510 Part of the reason may be that it's messy and complicated, 00:22.506 --> 00:25.356 and part of the reason may be that it's full of violence, 00:25.360 --> 00:30.280 and part of the reason may be that it's just not as easy to 00:30.278 --> 00:34.438 find good heroes, and part of the reason may be 00:34.442 --> 00:38.052 that it comes after such a total, all out, 00:38.050 --> 00:42.240 and some may say, in so many ways a glorious war. 00:42.240 --> 00:46.150 Or as Kenneth Stampp, a great historian, 00:46.154 --> 00:49.974 once put it, until 1865 there was glory 00:49.968 --> 00:54.788 enough to go around, but after 1865 where was the 00:54.785 --> 00:57.745 glory? It's also been a period in 00:57.745 --> 01:01.655 which we've almost insisted--and I wonder just how you have 01:01.661 --> 01:05.701 learned about this before; if this were a smaller class I 01:05.703 --> 01:09.183 would ask you--but it's as though our culture still 01:09.176 --> 01:12.466 insists, from this period of our 01:12.469 --> 01:19.289 history, that it be a melodrama, some kind of melodrama with, 01:19.290 --> 01:25.750 well, a sufficient number of heroes and a sufficient number 01:25.750 --> 01:31.880 of villains, and a melodrama that usually ends up with a 01:31.875 --> 01:36.825 story of an oppressed South, much in need of our sympathy. 01:36.830 --> 01:40.840 01:40.840 --> 01:44.090 Now, I've put a piece of words up here in front of you. 01:44.090 --> 01:45.950 I walked back to see if you could read it. 01:45.950 --> 01:49.650 I do think most of you in the room can read it. 01:49.650 --> 01:52.950 Just hold onto the papers until the end, please. 01:52.950 --> 01:56.550 This is the Thirteenth Amendment. 01:56.550 --> 01:59.290 We're going to look at the Thirteenth and the Fourteenth 01:59.286 --> 02:02.516 today, or at least I'll get you up to the Fourteenth Amendment. 02:02.519 --> 02:06.609 If the Civil War and Reconstruction were a second 02:06.605 --> 02:10.175 founding--and I'll put the "if" on that, 02:10.180 --> 02:13.670 although for the next three weeks I'm going to argue 02:13.673 --> 02:16.143 that--if it was a second founding, 02:16.139 --> 02:21.329 a second revolution of some kind, that second founding is in 02:21.333 --> 02:23.653 the Thirteenth, the Fourteenth, 02:23.648 --> 02:26.158 the Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. 02:26.160 --> 02:27.840 Read the Thirteenth with me. 02:27.840 --> 02:30.990 It's the simplest, shortest--other than the actual 02:30.989 --> 02:33.949 parts of the Bill of Rights--it's the simplest, 02:33.945 --> 02:35.865 shortest amendment in the U.S. 02:35.873 --> 02:38.533 Constitution. It outlaws slavery and 02:38.531 --> 02:41.881 involuntary servitude, except for imprisonment for 02:41.875 --> 02:45.815 crime. And then it has that very, 02:45.822 --> 02:52.612 very simple Section Two: "Congress shall have power to 02:52.614 --> 02:59.154 enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 02:59.150 --> 03:01.910 That is almost, in some ways, 03:07.219 --> 03:15.949 What will constitute appropriate legislation to 03:15.953 --> 03:20.513 enforce black freedom? 03:20.509 --> 03:24.069 I put it up today in part, too, because just this weekend 03:24.068 --> 03:26.418 I was out lecturing in Springfield, 03:26.419 --> 03:31.329 Illinois at the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library; 03:31.330 --> 03:35.110 and it's a magnificent place if you haven't been there. 03:35.110 --> 03:38.050 It's a museum full of lots of wax figures. 03:38.050 --> 03:42.230 There's at least one life size wax of Lincoln in every bloody 03:42.229 --> 03:45.619 room, sometimes two of them, and then they use holograms and 03:45.620 --> 03:46.920 he appears all over the place. 03:46.920 --> 03:50.140 It's a little weird and scary. 03:50.139 --> 03:56.129 But at the end of the whole day and evening they took me down in 03:56.125 --> 04:01.155 the vault and asked me if I wanted to see some special 04:01.159 --> 04:04.769 documents and special possessions. 04:04.770 --> 04:08.440 They showed me one of Lincoln's three existing top hats, 04:08.436 --> 04:10.966 they showed me the cast of his hand; 04:10.970 --> 04:17.150 I got to touch. They showed me personal notes 04:17.151 --> 04:23.501 he wrote to pardon deserters from the Union Army. 04:23.500 --> 04:26.620 They showed me all kinds of things. 04:26.620 --> 04:30.460 But one of the things they showed me was the original 04:30.459 --> 04:34.589 draft, the handwritten draft by the clerk of the House of 04:34.593 --> 04:38.723 Representatives, of the Thirteenth Amendment, 04:38.720 --> 04:40.800 and then signed by "A. 04:40.803 --> 04:45.063 Lincoln" and most of the members of the House, 04:45.063 --> 04:48.853 at least those who chose to sign it. 04:48.850 --> 04:55.260 And I realized, "damn, that thing is real." 04:55.259 --> 05:00.659 And maybe someday I can live to see the Fourteenth Amendment. 05:00.660 --> 05:04.850 Back to the Fourteenth in a moment. 05:04.850 --> 05:08.880 Sorry about that, that's not the Fourteenth 05:08.879 --> 05:12.429 Amendment, that's just the outline. 05:12.430 --> 05:16.680 Now, a few overall thoughts on Reconstruction, 05:16.682 --> 05:22.452 to just give you some hooks to hang your hat on before we look 05:22.447 --> 05:28.587 back again at this question of Reconstruction during the war, 05:28.589 --> 05:32.369 and then after Lincoln's death the fight that ensues, 05:32.370 --> 05:35.060 quickly, between the new president, 05:35.060 --> 05:37.850 Andrew Johnson, and the Congressional 05:37.853 --> 05:42.513 leadership that the Republican Party--soon now to be known as 05:42.508 --> 05:46.538 the Radical Republicans--and what will become a great 05:46.543 --> 05:51.283 constitutional crisis over who will control Reconstruction and 05:51.276 --> 05:54.066 what Reconstruction will be. 05:54.069 --> 05:58.469 Reconstruction, though, is often seen--it is 05:58.472 --> 06:03.492 indeed an era of almost gargantuan aspirations, 06:03.490 --> 06:08.140 if you think about what they were trying to achieve, 06:08.135 --> 06:10.135 and tragic failures. 06:10.139 --> 06:16.209 But it's also an era of sudden and unprecedented legal, 06:16.207 --> 06:20.587 political, and constitutional change. 06:20.589 --> 06:24.519 It's also a period of tremendous social and political 06:24.518 --> 06:26.708 violence. We've never experienced 06:26.709 --> 06:29.429 anything in America--other than sanctioned war, 06:29.428 --> 06:32.678 which the Civil War of course had been--we've never, 06:32.680 --> 06:36.110 ever experienced social and political violence on the scale 06:36.111 --> 06:38.301 which you'll see in Reconstruction. 06:38.300 --> 06:41.390 In fact there's a whole batch of books coming out now on 06:41.389 --> 06:44.799 Reconstruction violence, and I suspect this has a lot to 06:44.797 --> 06:47.307 do with living in the age of terrorism; 06:47.310 --> 06:49.870 publishers are really promoting the subject. 06:49.870 --> 06:54.050 You're reading one of them that's just been out a year or 06:54.054 --> 06:57.794 two by Nicholas Lemann called Redemption. 06:57.790 --> 07:01.270 More on that in a week or two. 07:01.269 --> 07:04.839 In another way, Reconstruction was one long, 07:04.836 --> 07:09.646 ten, eleven year agonizing referendum on the meaning of the 07:09.646 --> 07:12.356 war. What had the war meant? 07:12.360 --> 07:16.190 That's what Reconstruction was trying to explain, 07:16.194 --> 07:19.154 trying to settle, trying to codify. 07:19.150 --> 07:23.250 07:23.250 --> 07:28.030 What had actually been the verdict at Appomattox? 07:28.029 --> 07:32.309 When Lee surrendered and then Johnston surrendered and the 07:32.305 --> 07:36.275 Confederate Army surrendered, what was the verdict? 07:36.280 --> 07:39.080 Who got to determine it? 07:39.079 --> 07:46.479 Who had really won the war, and what had they won? 07:46.480 --> 07:50.180 What cause had lost? 07:50.180 --> 07:53.770 Now, someone really won this war and someone really lost this 07:53.770 --> 07:55.540 war. This is not one of those wars 07:55.538 --> 07:57.818 where you can say, "You know, nobody ever wins a 07:57.821 --> 08:00.831 war." Nonsense. 08:00.829 --> 08:05.829 Union victory is real, Confederate defeat was 08:05.829 --> 08:10.259 virtually total, in a military sense. 08:10.260 --> 08:14.760 But what was the South to lose? 08:14.759 --> 08:18.409 One of the greatest challenges of Reconstruction was to 08:18.410 --> 08:20.980 determine how you take this massive, 08:20.980 --> 08:25.890 national blood feud, of unimaginable scale that's 08:25.894 --> 08:31.324 beginning, and then reconcile it into a new nation? 08:31.320 --> 08:40.400 08:40.399 --> 08:43.519 The problem, in part, is that the survivors 08:43.519 --> 08:48.049 on both sides in this war would still have to inhabit the same 08:48.051 --> 08:50.281 land and the same country. 08:50.279 --> 08:53.639 It wasn't as though an actual foreign country had been 08:53.636 --> 08:55.216 conquered and defeated. 08:55.220 --> 09:01.150 It was part of North America, it was part of the U.S.--or 09:01.146 --> 09:03.156 soon to be New U.S. 09:03.156 --> 09:06.926 of some kind. And the side that lost is going 09:06.933 --> 09:10.163 to have to in time inhabit the same government. 09:10.160 --> 09:14.400 How? Where do you go in precedent? 09:14.400 --> 09:15.930 Where do you in history? 09:15.929 --> 09:17.789 Where do you go in the Constitution? 09:17.789 --> 09:21.109 Where do you look this up, to put Humpty Dumpty back 09:21.112 --> 09:22.222 together again? 09:22.220 --> 09:29.570 09:29.570 --> 09:33.650 Put another way, the task was how to make the 09:33.649 --> 09:38.929 eventual logic of sectional reconciliation--knitting North 09:38.934 --> 09:44.224 and South back together--how to make the eventual logic of 09:44.218 --> 09:49.778 sectional reconciliation somehow compatible with the logic of 09:49.781 --> 09:55.071 that revolution that was put in place in 1863--or in other 09:55.066 --> 09:58.336 words, Emancipation? 09:58.340 --> 10:01.360 And by logic, I mean you have to put North 10:01.357 --> 10:05.257 and South back together, but you also now have to deal 10:05.259 --> 10:09.969 with the fact the slaves have been freed to some new status. 10:09.970 --> 10:11.440 Got to do both. 10:11.440 --> 10:15.630 10:15.629 --> 10:19.519 Put another way, how do you square black freedom 10:19.520 --> 10:24.490 and all the stirrings of--the possibility at least--of racial 10:24.488 --> 10:28.758 equality now with that cause, in the South, 10:28.761 --> 10:33.981 that had lost everything--except its faith in 10:33.977 --> 10:38.967 white supremacy? How do you fold black freedom 10:38.970 --> 10:41.050 into white supremacy? 10:41.049 --> 10:45.419 How do you fold white supremacy into black freedom? 10:45.419 --> 10:49.139 Can they ever be--could those ever be reconciled? 10:49.140 --> 10:52.970 And what if they can't? 10:52.970 --> 10:57.420 Lincoln spoke of a testing in the Gettysburg Address--if you 10:57.416 --> 11:00.956 remember the famous speech--testing whether that 11:00.959 --> 11:05.179 nation or any nation so conceived could long endure. 11:05.179 --> 11:10.019 The testing of the war in some ways would become easier than 11:10.018 --> 11:15.018 the testing the country would now face with Reconstruction. 11:15.019 --> 11:19.519 Or finally put yet another way--and I wrote about this at 11:19.518 --> 11:24.338 too much length in a book called Race and Reunion--the 11:24.339 --> 11:29.839 challenge of Reconstruction, and it's the challenge we've 11:29.842 --> 11:34.452 had ever since, is how do you do two profound 11:34.451 --> 11:37.281 things at the same time? 11:37.279 --> 11:42.929 One was healing and the other was justice. 11:42.930 --> 11:45.480 How do you have them both? 11:45.480 --> 11:49.990 What truly constitutes healing of a people, of a nation, 11:49.985 --> 11:54.405 that's suffered this scale of violence and destruction, 11:54.408 --> 11:57.028 and how do you have justice? 11:57.030 --> 11:57.960 And justice for whom? 11:57.960 --> 12:02.590 12:02.590 --> 12:06.240 Here's what Lincoln said, next-to-the-last day of his 12:06.238 --> 12:10.328 life; no, three days before he was 12:10.328 --> 12:12.588 shot. It was his last public 12:12.594 --> 12:15.724 utterance, from a balcony at the White House. 12:15.720 --> 12:19.170 He was discussing Reconstruction. 12:19.169 --> 12:22.679 His audience that day wanted to just hear about the glories of 12:22.679 --> 12:25.499 the ending of the war, and he gave them a little mini 12:25.502 --> 12:28.152 lecture on Reconstruction because it's precisely what he 12:28.148 --> 12:29.108 was dealing with. 12:29.110 --> 12:33.300 He said this: "Reconstruction is pressed much 12:33.295 --> 12:36.905 more closely upon our attention now. 12:36.909 --> 12:39.319 It is fraught with great difficulty. 12:39.320 --> 12:43.150 Unlike the case of a war between independent nations, 12:43.154 --> 12:46.994 there is no authorized organ for us to treat with. 12:46.990 --> 12:51.500 No one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any 12:51.502 --> 12:54.992 other man. We simply must begin with, 12:54.988 --> 12:58.958 and mold from, disorganized and discordant 12:58.959 --> 13:01.089 elements, with all. 13:01.090 --> 13:07.580 So new and unprecedented is the whole case that no exclusive and 13:07.580 --> 13:13.350 inflexible plan can safely be prescribed as to detail, 13:13.350 --> 13:18.400 but important principles must be inflexible." 13:18.400 --> 13:21.910 That's classic Lincoln. 13:21.909 --> 13:24.829 "No one plan must we necessarily commit to, 13:24.829 --> 13:27.609 but we must stick to some principles." 13:27.610 --> 13:32.880 It's Lincoln the pragmatist trying to figure it out. 13:32.880 --> 13:33.370 And then he's dead. 13:33.370 --> 13:38.070 13:38.070 --> 13:41.920 But back to wartime, at least for a few minutes. 13:41.919 --> 13:45.499 The debate over Reconstruction, as it will play out through the 13:45.502 --> 13:49.012 next three years, four years, really five years, 13:49.013 --> 13:52.153 up to 1870/71, is the debate that ensued 13:52.152 --> 13:56.982 between Lincoln and his own party leadership in Congress, 13:56.980 --> 14:00.030 as early as late 1863. 14:00.029 --> 14:03.129 Here's Lincoln's plan again, and you can read all of this in 14:03.134 --> 14:05.244 Foner's Short History of 14:05.239 --> 14:08.299 Reconstruction, but let me give it to you at 14:08.303 --> 14:09.763 least in brief terms. 14:09.759 --> 14:15.709 You'll remember I said the other day that Lincoln wanted 14:15.705 --> 14:19.265 Reconstruction to be presidential, 14:19.273 --> 14:21.763 lenient, and quick. 14:21.759 --> 14:25.629 He was openly friendly to Southerners his whole life, 14:25.631 --> 14:27.941 as I suppose everybody knows. 14:27.940 --> 14:31.900 His four brother-in-laws had fought for the Confederacy, 14:31.902 --> 14:33.562 et cetera, et cetera. 14:33.560 --> 14:35.850 He was born in Kentucky. 14:35.850 --> 14:39.850 He did not really have any kind of personal vindictiveness 14:39.852 --> 14:44.212 towards Southerners the way many others in the Republican Party 14:44.206 --> 14:48.216 will have; and they'll have reasons to 14:48.216 --> 14:50.756 have that. Some have argued, 14:50.762 --> 14:54.932 as Kenneth Stampp once did, that Lincoln actually had a 14:54.929 --> 14:58.479 deep personal need for personal absolution; 14:58.480 --> 15:02.110 that he carried this horrifying burden of all that death, 15:02.112 --> 15:05.552 and that he took it as his personal responsibility, 15:05.549 --> 15:09.019 and that this charity for all and malice toward none, 15:09.019 --> 15:13.019 and the leniency in Lincoln's Reconstruction ideas is somehow 15:13.022 --> 15:16.892 rooted in that sense of personal responsibility for all the 15:16.892 --> 15:19.052 suffering. There may be something to that. 15:19.050 --> 15:22.480 15:22.480 --> 15:26.570 But his Reconstruction policy, such as he put it in place, 15:26.566 --> 15:29.216 at least for awhile, was rooted in his 15:29.219 --> 15:31.369 Constitutional philosophy. 15:31.370 --> 15:35.290 Lincoln, number one, believed secession had never 15:35.293 --> 15:39.463 happened, that secession was essentially impossible, 15:39.463 --> 15:43.063 a state could not secede from the Union. 15:43.059 --> 15:46.489 He chose language carefully, as a good lawyer. 15:46.490 --> 15:49.090 He said as states, the Southern states, 15:49.091 --> 15:52.311 the Confederate states, were still in the Union, 15:52.309 --> 15:54.499 technically, during the war. 15:54.500 --> 15:57.530 Even though they seceded, they were simply, 15:57.526 --> 16:00.046 in his language, out of their normal 16:00.048 --> 16:04.458 relationship to the Union; whatever the hell that's 16:04.455 --> 16:06.135 supposed to mean. 16:06.139 --> 16:09.349 And they fought this total war against the United States but 16:09.352 --> 16:11.532 they were not really out of the Union. 16:11.529 --> 16:17.009 Now that's a legal position, rest assured. 16:17.009 --> 16:19.979 He made a distinction between states and governments. 16:19.980 --> 16:24.610 He said that governments may have failed and committed--he 16:24.606 --> 16:28.656 never used the word treason--made rebellion against 16:28.664 --> 16:31.714 the United States, but as states, 16:31.712 --> 16:34.782 an Alabama never ceased to exist. 16:34.780 --> 16:39.590 Okay. He's famous for saying things 16:39.589 --> 16:42.549 like "physically we cannot separate." 16:42.549 --> 16:49.109 His idea was to squash the rebellion, let a number of loyal 16:49.113 --> 16:53.983 citizens, in one of those seceded states, 16:53.980 --> 16:58.080 create a new loyal government, restore that state to the Union 16:58.079 --> 17:01.839 as quickly as possible, even before the war ends, 17:01.838 --> 17:06.658 by presidential authority, under presidential war powers, 17:06.660 --> 17:10.890 and begin a process before you'd ever have a surrender of 17:10.888 --> 17:14.058 what he was already calling restoration, 17:14.060 --> 17:15.600 or reunification. 17:15.600 --> 17:19.090 17:19.089 --> 17:22.319 He wanted it done by executive authority. 17:22.319 --> 17:26.259 That wasn't necessarily a personal power grab by any means 17:26.264 --> 17:30.074 but he wanted to do it under presidential war powers, 17:30.069 --> 17:33.129 because he did understand, to the extent anybody could 17:33.129 --> 17:35.899 predict the future, that once the war did end, 17:35.900 --> 17:38.670 Congress's powers would rise. 17:38.670 --> 17:41.930 A president is never so powerful as in time of war. 17:41.930 --> 17:45.170 17:45.170 --> 17:52.040 Now, pause with me for a moment. 17:52.039 --> 17:54.539 What they're all thinking about now--Lincoln, 17:54.543 --> 17:56.823 the Republican leadership of Congress, 17:56.819 --> 17:58.849 anybody thinking about Reconstruction, 17:58.852 --> 18:02.092 during the war or even in the immediate aftermath--is really 18:02.092 --> 18:04.182 thinking about a set of questions, 18:04.180 --> 18:07.230 somewhat like those big questions I started with, 18:07.226 --> 18:08.746 but more specifically. 18:08.750 --> 18:10.840 This is what they have to think about now. 18:10.839 --> 18:14.279 And if you think American statesmen have been challenged 18:14.283 --> 18:18.103 at other times in our history, how would you like to have this 18:18.103 --> 18:20.303 challenge? Three main questions. 18:20.299 --> 18:30.599 (1) Who would rule in the South, who? 18:30.600 --> 18:31.980 Who gets to vote? 18:31.980 --> 18:35.310 Who gets to hold office; ex-Confederates, 18:35.313 --> 18:38.883 black people, whites who'd been loyal? 18:38.880 --> 18:42.190 How do you determine this? 18:42.190 --> 18:46.140 (2) Who will rule in the federal government, 18:46.138 --> 18:51.008 Congress or the President, in this unprecedented blank 18:51.006 --> 18:53.206 slate set of issues? 18:53.210 --> 18:55.720 The country had never faced this before. 18:55.720 --> 18:57.130 How do you reconstruct a Union? 18:57.130 --> 19:01.780 How do you re-admit states into the Union? 19:01.779 --> 19:03.669 There's no blueprint in the Constitution. 19:03.670 --> 19:07.270 There are hints, depending on how you interpret 19:07.268 --> 19:11.058 it. And (3) what will the 19:11.055 --> 19:20.755 dimensions of black freedom be, in law and in practice and in 19:20.756 --> 19:27.866 social life, on the ground, in the South? 19:27.869 --> 19:33.879 All the while remembering this all must occur now in these 19:33.876 --> 19:38.716 desperate conditions of poverty, destruction, 19:38.720 --> 19:44.390 starvation and tremendous untold, as yet not even fully 19:44.390 --> 19:50.080 fathomed, bitterness and hatred. 19:50.079 --> 19:54.749 Or let me give you one last little question. 19:54.750 --> 19:58.870 I love asking questions I don't have to stand up right now and 19:58.871 --> 20:02.291 answer. Would Reconstruction be a 20:02.292 --> 20:08.822 preservation of something old, or the creation of something 20:08.817 --> 20:12.467 truly new? And if it's going to be new, 20:12.467 --> 20:13.167 how new? 20:13.170 --> 20:19.320 20:19.320 --> 20:22.990 Back to the war years. 20:22.990 --> 20:25.640 Lincoln issued, on December 8,1863, 20:25.635 --> 20:29.675 his State of the Union or annual message--part of his 20:29.680 --> 20:34.430 annual message--what he called the Proclamation of Amnesty and 20:34.426 --> 20:37.746 Reconstruction. It was issued December '63. 20:37.750 --> 20:41.580 Remember the dates here, because this first major debate 20:41.580 --> 20:45.340 on Reconstruction is going to occur in some of the most 20:45.341 --> 20:50.121 terrible months of the war, and yet in Washington they're 20:50.120 --> 20:52.380 also having this debate. 20:52.380 --> 20:55.970 There were several parts to this, but three main ones. 20:55.970 --> 20:59.850 It's Lincoln's classic lenient, rapid, moderate and 20:59.851 --> 21:02.181 presidential Reconstruction. 21:02.180 --> 21:05.300 It's called the Ten-Percent Plan. 21:05.299 --> 21:08.139 He, number one, would pardon all 21:08.137 --> 21:11.617 ex-Confederates, with a certain list of 21:11.616 --> 21:14.776 exceptions. High-ranking Confederate 21:14.784 --> 21:18.824 officials--although he didn't entirely clarify how high 21:18.821 --> 21:22.711 ranking--they wouldn't be pardoned, at least yet. 21:22.710 --> 21:27.210 He would not pardon those who had resigned commissions in the 21:27.207 --> 21:31.327 judiciary or in Congress, to support the Confederacy. 21:31.330 --> 21:35.030 21:35.029 --> 21:39.509 And he put in a clause that said he would not pardon those 21:39.513 --> 21:43.843 who could be convicted of mistreating black soldiers, 21:43.839 --> 21:46.609 of which there'd been a great deal of, and he was under some 21:46.607 --> 21:48.387 pressure to do something about that, 21:48.390 --> 21:54.190 by late '63. And then he said when ten 21:54.193 --> 21:59.163 percent of the voting population of a given Southern state--and 21:59.161 --> 22:03.811 that voting population was determined by how many voters in 22:03.808 --> 22:08.618 1860--when ten percent of the male voting population--because 22:08.616 --> 22:13.656 that's the only people who could vote--would take an oath to the 22:13.664 --> 22:17.354 Union and establish a new government, 22:17.349 --> 22:21.589 then he as president, under presidential war powers, 22:21.586 --> 22:25.986 would recognize them and readmit them to the Union, 22:25.990 --> 22:31.680 just like that. Blacks were excluded from the 22:31.678 --> 22:35.138 entire process. There was no mention, 22:35.144 --> 22:38.974 at that point, of any black suffrage. 22:38.970 --> 22:41.950 He wants ten percent. 22:41.950 --> 22:46.080 Now, right away members of his own party and Congress are 22:46.076 --> 22:47.986 saying, "Wait a second Mr. 22:47.992 --> 22:51.752 President, what about the other ninety percent?" 22:51.750 --> 22:57.370 Well Lincoln's idea was if you can establish a pocket of people 22:57.372 --> 23:00.912 in lower Louisiana or upland Alabama, 23:00.910 --> 23:04.510 or part of Virginia that the Union troops occupy, 23:04.509 --> 23:07.589 and you get, if you can get ten percent of 23:07.585 --> 23:11.705 that state to take a loyalty oath and elect some kind of 23:11.710 --> 23:15.760 little rump legislature that can meet somewhere, 23:15.759 --> 23:17.809 like Wheeling, West Virginia, 23:17.810 --> 23:21.690 where they did for awhile, then he would call that the 23:21.691 --> 23:24.741 real Virginia, or the real Louisiana, 23:24.741 --> 23:27.341 and they'd be back in the Union. 23:27.339 --> 23:32.009 And his idea was that you would begin then a political process 23:32.006 --> 23:33.456 of reunification. 23:33.460 --> 23:37.300 A political process would already be in place, 23:37.296 --> 23:41.986 as messy as it might be, as seemingly undemocratic as it 23:41.985 --> 23:45.305 might be, before the war would end. 23:45.310 --> 23:47.980 This actually happened. 23:47.980 --> 23:51.130 Well he didn't--they didn't get admitted to the Union, 23:51.133 --> 23:54.233 but so-called Lincoln governments were established in 23:54.228 --> 23:57.078 three states, again where Union armies had 23:57.080 --> 24:01.090 significant occupation of the soil of that state--Louisiana, 24:01.089 --> 24:05.869 Tennessee and Arkansas--and so-called Lincoln governments 24:05.868 --> 24:12.378 were created there, in 1864 and early 1865. 24:12.380 --> 24:15.040 They were pitifully weak governments. 24:15.039 --> 24:18.899 They would've collapsed entirely without federal troops 24:18.903 --> 24:22.053 to protect them, and Lincoln did this utterly 24:22.052 --> 24:24.702 without consulting with Congress. 24:24.700 --> 24:27.460 And we like to make a great deal of Abraham Lincoln as the 24:27.461 --> 24:29.061 greatest president, and he was; 24:29.060 --> 24:33.310 a political genius, and he was; magical with the music of 24:33.307 --> 24:36.427 words, and he was; et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. 24:36.430 --> 24:40.950 And I was just out at the Lincoln Library where you can be 24:40.953 --> 24:42.703 sure Lincoln is God. 24:42.700 --> 24:47.590 But not consulting with Congress on this one wasn't the 24:47.586 --> 24:50.026 wisest thing he ever did. 24:50.029 --> 24:53.969 Congress began to react with great hostility, 24:53.965 --> 24:56.495 in 1864. Some Radical Republicans 24:56.500 --> 25:00.670 sincerely believed that these new Lincoln governments were not 25:00.670 --> 25:04.450 only wrong and undemocratic, but dangerous, 25:04.448 --> 25:10.488 and they wanted much, much more to even consider the 25:10.489 --> 25:14.989 reconstruction of a Southern state, 25:14.990 --> 25:21.230 on any basis. They were led--they being the 25:21.227 --> 25:29.187 Republicans in Congress--by the two men on your right, 25:29.192 --> 25:38.812 Thaddeus Stevens on the top and Charles Sumner on the bottom. 25:38.809 --> 25:43.379 Stevens, a Congressman from Pennsylvania who grew up and 25:43.384 --> 25:47.234 lived near Gettysburg; fascinating, 25:47.231 --> 25:52.011 interesting, driven, passionate, 25:52.013 --> 25:56.953 complicated, club-footed man; 25:56.950 --> 25:59.900 a brilliant lawyer, and a radical, 25:59.901 --> 26:03.841 and an old abolitionist, although he had some 26:03.837 --> 26:06.697 complications along the way. 26:06.700 --> 26:08.750 Stevens and Sumner. 26:08.750 --> 26:13.470 Sumner the great Senator from Massachusetts--the Sumner who 26:13.474 --> 26:18.614 had had the brains nearly beaten out of him by Preston Brooks in 26:18.606 --> 26:22.046 the Senate in 1856, who left the Senate for nearly 26:22.048 --> 26:25.188 three and a half years and went all over the world to spas to 26:25.185 --> 26:27.115 try to put his head back together, 26:27.119 --> 26:31.459 including spending most of a year in Switzerland--was very, 26:31.458 --> 26:34.748 very much back in the game during the war; 26:34.750 --> 26:39.120 and he rose in power, of course, as the emancipation 26:39.123 --> 26:42.643 issue rose to the fore, as did Stevens. 26:42.640 --> 26:45.980 26:45.980 --> 26:49.870 And the two of them led the response to Lincoln's ideas on 26:49.871 --> 26:53.901 Reconstruction from the two different houses of Congress. 26:53.900 --> 26:56.800 They had different names for their proposals, 26:56.797 --> 26:59.757 but they essentially argued the same thing; 26:59.759 --> 27:01.369 although Sumner's, you could argue, 27:01.372 --> 27:02.512 was even more radical. 27:02.509 --> 27:07.079 Stevens called his approach, or his constitutional approach, 27:07.084 --> 27:08.794 conquered provinces. 27:08.789 --> 27:14.349 He said not only did the Southern states secede from the 27:14.349 --> 27:20.209 Union, they should be reverted to the status of unorganized 27:20.212 --> 27:24.202 territories; or, even further he went, 27:24.197 --> 27:29.597 he said now they're not only going to have to be put under 27:29.596 --> 27:33.486 territorial status, but they should be treated like 27:33.493 --> 27:36.713 a foreign nation that the United States has conquered, 27:36.710 --> 27:40.540 a conquered province of a foreign land. 27:40.539 --> 27:44.879 They had been reduced by force of arms, they had made war upon 27:44.877 --> 27:48.467 the United States, and under international law, 27:48.471 --> 27:51.651 Stevens argued, they should be treated as, 27:51.651 --> 27:54.991 quote, his words, "conquered foreign 27:54.991 --> 28:00.641 land," subject to whatever the United States shall choose to do 28:00.638 --> 28:03.538 with it. Sumner, for his part, 28:03.540 --> 28:08.970 called this theory--it was even more direct--State Suicide. 28:08.970 --> 28:11.310 That was pretty clear. 28:11.309 --> 28:14.199 He said not only had the Southern states seceded from the 28:14.195 --> 28:16.355 Union, they committed political suicide. 28:16.360 --> 28:18.440 They do not exist. 28:18.440 --> 28:22.460 They experienced what he called, in his words, 28:22.456 --> 28:26.826 "instant forfeiture of their status as states." 28:26.829 --> 28:31.209 They therefore must be reverted to what he called "the status of 28:31.211 --> 28:35.931 unorganized territories," as though Alabama was back in 28:35.925 --> 28:41.105 1820, Virginia was back in 1787, or whatever year they 28:41.108 --> 28:45.018 officially became a state--I'm sorry, 28:45.019 --> 28:48.219 before that even, during the Revolution. 28:48.220 --> 28:50.430 And therefore, in both cases, 28:50.426 --> 28:54.676 Stevens or Sumner's plan, all authority to re-admit any 28:54.682 --> 28:58.152 Southern state or determine the process, 28:58.150 --> 29:01.760 the means by which, the laws by which a state would 29:01.763 --> 29:06.823 be re-instituted into the Union, came under Congressional 29:06.821 --> 29:13.221 authority because only Congress has the power to readmit new 29:13.216 --> 29:15.576 states. Take that, Abraham Lincoln. 29:15.580 --> 29:19.230 29:19.230 --> 29:25.840 They issued this theory to Lincoln in what was known as the 29:25.841 --> 29:32.681 Wade-Davis Bill in July--4^(th) of July to be exact--1864. 29:32.680 --> 29:36.670 Note the date. This is in the midst of the 29:36.665 --> 29:41.595 stalemate in Virginia; it's just after Cold Harbor; 29:41.599 --> 29:46.819 Grant has just begun to put Petersburg under siege; 29:46.819 --> 29:50.249 the terrible bloodletting in Virginia is coming in and the 29:50.245 --> 29:53.425 thousands and thousands of names on casualty lists, 29:53.430 --> 29:57.800 and Congress issues what's known as the Wade-Davis Bill, 29:57.795 --> 30:01.125 named for Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio, 30:01.130 --> 30:05.410 a strong anti-slavery Radical Republican, and Henry Winter 30:05.411 --> 30:08.191 Davis, a Congressman from Maryland, 30:08.190 --> 30:12.590 also of at least moderate anti-slavery credentials. 30:12.589 --> 30:15.959 What you have here is the blueprint of Radical 30:15.955 --> 30:18.715 Reconstruction, at least the beginning 30:18.722 --> 30:21.512 blueprint. The Wade-Davis Bill said, 30:21.507 --> 30:25.327 they took--the first part of it--was they took Lincoln's 30:25.329 --> 30:28.859 Ten-Percent idea, ten percent of the voting 30:28.860 --> 30:34.170 population of a Southern state, and they required a majority of 30:34.168 --> 30:38.618 white male citizens of a Southern state who must, 30:38.619 --> 30:42.059 secondly, take what the Radicals called an Ironclad 30:42.063 --> 30:45.993 Oath, and that oath said that they had to get up and swear 30:45.988 --> 30:50.048 they had never participated in the Confederate war effort or 30:50.050 --> 30:51.910 aided and abetted it. 30:51.910 --> 30:54.410 30:54.410 --> 30:58.150 Now, immediately you're wondering how in hell are you 30:58.150 --> 31:02.250 going to find a majority of the white males of Georgia, 31:02.250 --> 31:06.240 or Alabama, or Mississippi, or any other Confederate state 31:06.240 --> 31:08.830 that can get up and take that oath? 31:08.830 --> 31:11.010 The answer is you couldn't. 31:11.009 --> 31:15.379 To the congressional leadership that was just fine for now. 31:15.380 --> 31:18.030 The Ironclad Oath was a political message, 31:18.026 --> 31:19.636 it was a symbolic oath. 31:19.640 --> 31:23.530 They knew you'd never get a majority of whites who could 31:23.531 --> 31:25.581 take this. The third part, 31:25.577 --> 31:29.647 they said all officers above the rank of lieutenant, 31:29.647 --> 31:34.357 and all civil officers of all kinds in the Confederacy would 31:34.355 --> 31:38.835 not only be not pardoned, they would be disfranchised 31:38.841 --> 31:43.491 forever, declared not--the actual language in the bill was, 31:43.490 --> 31:45.900 "not a citizen of the United States." 31:45.900 --> 31:49.980 It was almost as though they were giving every office holder, 31:49.981 --> 31:52.401 every officer, lieutenant and above, 31:52.399 --> 31:55.879 who was still alive in the South, an invitation to leave 31:55.880 --> 31:59.050 the country, because if they stayed in 31:59.047 --> 32:03.037 America they would be men without a country. 32:03.039 --> 32:07.769 They did not set up, in spite of the lore that's set 32:07.768 --> 32:11.008 in over the years, a plan of arrest, 32:11.013 --> 32:13.983 indictments, and executions. 32:13.980 --> 32:15.950 They didn't do that at all. 32:15.950 --> 32:22.240 But they did decide they were going to treat the Southern 32:22.240 --> 32:25.610 states as conquered enemies. 32:25.609 --> 32:30.279 They sent the bill to Lincoln, and Lincoln did what many 32:30.279 --> 32:34.439 presidents have done, he gave it a pocket veto. 32:34.440 --> 32:36.500 You know what that is. 32:36.500 --> 32:41.030 He simply let the bill die without either signing it, 32:41.031 --> 32:44.171 or vetoing it, or to some extent even 32:44.168 --> 32:48.368 answering it; although he did finally answer 32:48.367 --> 32:50.557 it. He answered it actually four 32:50.559 --> 32:53.169 days after the bill was delivered to him, 32:53.173 --> 32:56.573 in what he titled "The Proclamation on the Wade-Davis 32:56.571 --> 32:59.211 Bill." And this was a classic 32:59.208 --> 33:01.998 Lincolnesque statement as well. 33:02.000 --> 33:03.640 It was conciliatory. 33:03.640 --> 33:08.090 He thanked them profusely for their work on this sensitive and 33:08.091 --> 33:11.451 terrible issue, and he didn't completely reject 33:11.449 --> 33:13.779 it. He refused, he said, 33:13.776 --> 33:17.496 to be, quote, "inflexibly committed to any 33:17.499 --> 33:22.589 one plan." "Okay Abe, but what are you 33:22.588 --> 33:27.888 committed to?" is what congressmen began to 33:27.890 --> 33:31.060 say. He was verbally willing to 33:31.059 --> 33:36.279 listen, but he really did not placate the Radicals. 33:36.279 --> 33:39.259 They had an impasse here, a big impasse. 33:39.259 --> 33:42.979 And note how deep the impasse is, it's constitutional. 33:42.980 --> 33:45.330 Who's going to run Reconstruction? 33:45.329 --> 33:48.949 Me, the president, or you the Congress? 33:48.950 --> 33:53.010 Well, the congressional leadership followed Lincoln's 33:53.012 --> 33:57.392 little Proclamation on the Wade-Davis Bill with what they 33:57.387 --> 34:02.047 called The Wade-Davis Manifesto, and they published it in 34:02.050 --> 34:03.670 national newspapers. 34:03.670 --> 34:06.630 It was published on August 5,1864. 34:06.630 --> 34:11.010 It was an unprecedented, vehement attack on a sitting 34:11.005 --> 34:15.965 president by the leadership in Congress of his own party. 34:15.970 --> 34:19.390 They lambasted Lincoln. 34:19.389 --> 34:23.669 They attacked him on two grounds. 34:23.670 --> 34:26.570 They said his approach to Reconstruction was simply way 34:26.565 --> 34:29.885 too lenient--and they're arguing this now in August of 1864, 34:29.889 --> 34:33.759 with these thousands upon thousands of casualties flowing 34:33.764 --> 34:35.794 in. This is the very time Lincoln 34:35.788 --> 34:38.738 comes to believe he's not likely to be re-elected. 34:38.739 --> 34:41.709 And there were some members in particularly the Radical wing of 34:41.714 --> 34:44.594 the Republican Party who'd been laboring to dump Lincoln from 34:44.592 --> 34:48.322 the ticket all summer, and probably could've succeeded 34:48.315 --> 34:51.985 in doing it if there wasn't so much at stake. 34:51.990 --> 34:55.230 34:55.230 --> 34:56.560 And they went a second step. 34:56.559 --> 35:00.529 They actually accused him of usurpation of presidential 35:00.526 --> 35:05.006 powers, an impeachable offense if anyone ever cared to take it 35:05.007 --> 35:06.547 any further step. 35:06.550 --> 35:09.850 35:09.849 --> 35:14.749 Here's the key, as the dispute emerged that 35:14.750 --> 35:18.310 summer. Lincoln viewed Reconstruction 35:18.313 --> 35:23.603 as a means to weakening the Confederacy and winning the war. 35:23.599 --> 35:27.229 Think of it as a political strategy, that ten percent idea, 35:27.228 --> 35:30.728 trying to get some fledgling little state legislature and 35:30.731 --> 35:33.221 government, somehow get two or three of 35:33.222 --> 35:34.432 them into the Union. 35:34.429 --> 35:39.509 It was a strategy, and not a blueprint written in 35:39.506 --> 35:44.896 stone for the way Reconstruction would always be. 35:44.900 --> 35:50.160 But to the Radical Republicans, they viewed this as a much more 35:50.157 --> 35:55.837 far-reaching transformation in a building really of a new nation, 35:55.840 --> 36:02.310 when and if they could win the war. 36:02.310 --> 36:04.830 They really were at an impasse. 36:04.829 --> 36:09.789 Now you know from our previous lectures and your reading that 36:09.790 --> 36:12.850 the fall of Mobile Bay on August 5, 36:12.849 --> 36:16.639 the same day as the Wade-Davis Manifesto, Admiral Farragut took 36:16.644 --> 36:19.104 Mobile Bay. That had a tremendous impact on 36:19.095 --> 36:21.895 public opinion. Then on September 3 or 4 36:21.901 --> 36:24.251 Atlanta fell. It had an even greater impact 36:24.248 --> 36:25.038 on public opinion. 36:25.039 --> 36:28.579 And of course you've got the presidential race now happening 36:28.579 --> 36:31.039 in the fall, and Lincoln is re-elected. 36:31.039 --> 36:37.699 This impasse on Reconstruction, though, basically just sat 36:37.696 --> 36:41.196 there until Lincoln's death. 36:41.199 --> 36:45.459 In the meantime he cooperated, and so did they, 36:45.462 --> 36:50.282 on two tremendous pieces of legislation, on two great 36:50.280 --> 36:53.010 enactments. One is the Thirteenth 36:53.014 --> 36:55.324 Amendment, which we just discussed; 36:55.320 --> 36:59.560 and I want to come back to that in a moment. 36:59.559 --> 37:05.389 Well actually I'll mention it now. 37:05.389 --> 37:08.969 The fact that it got passed is fairly remarkable; 37:08.969 --> 37:11.959 that it got passed at all is fairly remarkable. 37:11.960 --> 37:16.560 It is, first of all, an amendment that Lincoln 37:16.555 --> 37:20.635 himself by late '64 began to advocate, 37:20.639 --> 37:23.179 especially after his re-election, vehemently 37:23.182 --> 37:26.262 advocate, and it's something exactly that the Radical 37:26.258 --> 37:27.498 Republicans want. 37:27.500 --> 37:30.440 They were absolutely on the same page on it. 37:30.440 --> 37:34.380 And the reason Lincoln was--well he had moral reasons 37:34.380 --> 37:39.150 to believe slavery should now be eradicated in the Constitution, 37:39.154 --> 37:43.084 make no mistake. But he also had reason to want 37:43.081 --> 37:47.021 this Constitutional Amendment because he feared, 37:47.019 --> 37:51.299 and rightly so, that if the war ended, 37:51.303 --> 37:57.213 with only the Emancipation Proclamation as the legal 37:57.208 --> 38:01.838 sanction for all those freed slaves, 38:01.840 --> 38:06.300 that there would be nothing to stop Southerners from thousands 38:06.300 --> 38:09.810 upon thousands of law suits in federal courts, 38:09.809 --> 38:14.609 suing under Fifth Amendment for their property. 38:14.610 --> 38:18.180 And it would've--it did happen, to some extent anyway, 38:18.178 --> 38:22.218 but if you can get it in the Constitution as a constitutional 38:22.217 --> 38:24.407 amendment, then they would have no right 38:24.410 --> 38:26.480 to sue for property that is no longer property. 38:26.480 --> 38:30.590 38:30.590 --> 38:32.410 So a lot was at stake. 38:32.409 --> 38:35.789 They wanted a Thirteenth Amendment because of the 38:35.791 --> 38:39.451 potential invalidity of the Emancipation Proclamation 38:39.454 --> 38:42.754 legally; they wanted to remove legal 38:42.745 --> 38:45.585 doubt. And you'll remember that the 38:45.589 --> 38:49.529 Proclamation had only freed slaves in the states in 38:49.534 --> 38:53.704 rebellion. Technically slaves in Kentucky, 38:53.703 --> 38:58.673 Missouri, Delaware, Maryland, were still in a kind 38:58.673 --> 38:59.893 of limbo. 38:59.890 --> 39:06.130 39:06.130 --> 39:10.270 It passed the House of Representatives on January 39:10.273 --> 39:12.953 31,1865, but it was not easy. 39:12.949 --> 39:16.069 You might think you live in the United States of America and of 39:16.071 --> 39:18.691 course there'd be a Thirteenth Amendment--finally, 39:18.690 --> 39:22.420 of course, we would outlaw slavery in the Constitution. 39:22.420 --> 39:27.730 The vote was 119 to 56; it passed by two votes--it 39:27.731 --> 39:32.031 takes a two-thirds majority for a constitutional amendment--it 39:32.029 --> 39:33.649 passed by two votes. 39:33.650 --> 39:37.680 Lincoln began to twist arms; he began to have personal 39:37.677 --> 39:40.807 meetings with a select little list of Democrats. 39:40.809 --> 39:45.159 They didn't have a two-thirds majority of Republicans. 39:45.159 --> 39:48.039 They needed some Democrats to vote for this. 39:48.039 --> 39:52.379 And by far the majority of Democrats wanted nothing to do 39:52.375 --> 39:55.625 with outlawing slavery in the Constitution, 39:55.627 --> 39:58.567 but about eight of them came over. 39:58.570 --> 40:03.340 And on the day that it was passed there was unprecedented 40:03.341 --> 40:07.091 rejoicing in the House of Representatives. 40:07.090 --> 40:09.920 The whole hall was full; congressmen, 40:09.922 --> 40:15.672 we're told, started yelling, crying, hugging each other, 40:15.665 --> 40:21.195 dancing on the tops of their desks--God knows why, 40:21.199 --> 40:24.649 in part because of the importance, the gravity of the 40:24.647 --> 40:28.427 issue, and in part perhaps because they'd lived through so 40:28.426 --> 40:32.366 much agony in the war, they truly had something to 40:32.373 --> 40:35.613 celebrate. You have to go to individual 40:35.609 --> 40:38.769 diaries and letters to really see it. 40:38.769 --> 40:43.469 There was a Republican who recorded in his diary that day, 40:43.465 --> 40:48.485 quote, "Members joined in the shouting and kept it up for some 40:48.491 --> 40:51.171 minutes. Some embraced one another. 40:51.170 --> 40:52.960 Others wept like children. 40:52.960 --> 40:58.500 I have felt ever since the vote as though I live in a new 40:58.501 --> 41:01.301 country." Frederick Douglass's son, 41:01.304 --> 41:04.394 Lewis, veteran of the 54^(th) Massachusetts, 41:04.389 --> 41:07.879 in his uniform was sitting in the balcony, on the afternoon 41:07.876 --> 41:10.156 the Thirteenth Amendment was passed. 41:10.159 --> 41:12.799 His father was back home in Rochester. 41:12.800 --> 41:16.800 He immediately wrote his father a note, that I've read. 41:16.800 --> 41:19.750 It said, "Father, you should've been here today. 41:19.750 --> 41:21.790 Today was your day." 41:21.790 --> 41:25.990 41:25.989 --> 41:30.859 And then at the same time that Congress, with Lincoln's strong 41:30.864 --> 41:35.744 approval, worked on a bill to create the Freedmen's Bureau, 41:35.739 --> 41:39.129 an unprecedented agency in American history, 41:39.129 --> 41:41.099 certainly to that time. 41:41.099 --> 41:46.329 Formerly called the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned 41:46.328 --> 41:50.698 Lands, it passed Congress on the 3^(rd) of March, 41:50.699 --> 41:55.139 1865, just a day before Lincoln's Second Inaugural. 41:55.139 --> 42:01.329 It was social reform by military force. 42:01.329 --> 42:05.239 Americans had never done this before--a national, 42:05.239 --> 42:10.039 federal, social welfare agency, in a land that had lived and 42:10.044 --> 42:13.144 breathed laissez-faire government; 42:13.139 --> 42:18.139 in a land that had lived and breathed this idea that 42:18.136 --> 42:24.106 governments don't provide food for people, people provide food 42:24.112 --> 42:27.642 for people, healthcare, schools. 42:27.639 --> 42:30.689 Well the war, of course, had forced a new 42:30.688 --> 42:34.048 kind of history. The basic purposes of the 42:34.045 --> 42:36.975 Freedmen's Bureau, when it was set up, 42:36.984 --> 42:40.164 was to aid refugees and displaced people, 42:40.161 --> 42:43.601 black or white. And the estimate--and I may 42:43.601 --> 42:47.371 have used this before--the estimate on the ground in the 42:47.372 --> 42:49.402 South, by late winter 1865, 42:49.404 --> 42:53.154 was that there were at least a quarter million totally 42:53.154 --> 42:59.684 displaced starving white people; much less the four million soon 42:59.682 --> 43:02.822 to be liberated slaves. 43:02.820 --> 43:06.210 The Freedmen's Bureau was to provide all kinds of physical 43:06.208 --> 43:09.358 supplies, medical services, schools where it could. 43:09.360 --> 43:14.060 Its purpose was also legal, to supervise contracts between 43:14.059 --> 43:17.769 freedmen and employees--more on that later. 43:17.769 --> 43:23.059 And its job--and this was an impossible task--but its job and 43:23.062 --> 43:28.092 its title was to manage confiscated and abandoned land. 43:28.090 --> 43:31.650 43:31.650 --> 43:38.710 Yes, property. But who really owns it now? 43:38.710 --> 43:41.950 If the Union Army took your plantation, who owns it? 43:41.949 --> 43:46.589 And there is nothing more primal, of course, 43:46.587 --> 43:51.007 especially to Americans, than property. 43:51.010 --> 43:54.480 Now, more on the Freedmen's Bureau later, 43:54.475 --> 43:59.235 but it was a terribly important piece of legislation. 43:59.239 --> 44:02.159 It passed with majorities in both houses, of course, 44:02.164 --> 44:04.864 because the Republicans had those majorities, 44:04.860 --> 44:08.650 and Lincoln gladly signed it, and it established, 44:08.652 --> 44:13.632 at least, an agency to be put in place once the war was over. 44:13.630 --> 44:17.210 44:17.210 --> 44:25.060 Now, let me take the last few minutes and set up what is now 44:25.058 --> 44:33.038 to happen between old Andrew Johnson and this same leadership 44:33.039 --> 44:40.089 of the Radical Republicans once Lincoln was gone. 44:40.090 --> 44:43.470 This is the classic struggle of Reconstruction, 44:43.473 --> 44:45.463 Johnson and the Radicals. 44:45.460 --> 44:49.480 Now first of all, how did Andrew Johnson get on 44:49.479 --> 44:51.139 Lincoln's ticket? 44:51.139 --> 44:55.119 Why did Abraham Lincoln choose Andrew Johnson as his running 44:55.118 --> 44:57.358 mate? I've often put this to major 44:57.355 --> 44:58.485 Lincoln scholars. 44:58.489 --> 45:02.929 Now look, I confess, I'm a great admirer of Lincoln, 45:02.934 --> 45:04.594 like most people. 45:04.590 --> 45:07.890 But he couldn't do everything perfectly. 45:07.889 --> 45:12.999 And he gave us Andrew Johnson, and we've never held him 45:12.995 --> 45:15.165 responsible for that. 45:15.170 --> 45:18.900 And I'm not willing to give him a total pass on that one, 45:18.904 --> 45:22.844 because Andrew Johnson ranks down there just about minus two 45:22.839 --> 45:26.019 on the list of presidents, I think, of all time. 45:26.020 --> 45:29.450 45:29.450 --> 45:30.570 Well how's that for directness? 45:30.570 --> 45:31.230 Sorry about that. 45:31.230 --> 45:38.870 If you're an Andrew Johnson fan, you're lonely. 45:38.869 --> 45:42.479 [laughter] He's on the ticket in '64 45:42.483 --> 45:48.683 because--you know this?--he's the only senator from a seceded 45:48.678 --> 45:54.148 Confederate state who didn't secede with a state. 45:54.150 --> 45:57.010 He stayed in the Union, from Tennessee. 45:57.010 --> 46:01.040 He's a complicated guy. 46:01.039 --> 46:05.359 God, he could've been interesting. 46:05.360 --> 46:07.500 He had some big flaws. 46:07.500 --> 46:10.610 I'm going to leave you with a little background on Andrew 46:10.605 --> 46:12.505 Johnson. As you can tell from the 46:12.509 --> 46:15.829 syllabus I've put myself nearly a full lecture behind in the 46:15.827 --> 46:18.127 course, but don't you worry, 46:18.128 --> 46:22.908 because we're planning for Reading Week a special review 46:22.911 --> 46:26.651 session when I can give another lecture. 46:26.650 --> 46:30.420 Aren't you happy? 46:30.420 --> 46:34.460 There's an old saying about Andrew Johnson that, 46:34.456 --> 46:38.916 quote, "old Andy never went back on his raisin'," his 46:38.921 --> 46:42.051 raising up. He's from East Tennessee. 46:42.050 --> 46:44.250 He was born in North Carolina. 46:44.250 --> 46:47.980 He grew up illiterate. 46:47.980 --> 46:52.200 He once owned eleven slaves, although he did free them. 46:52.199 --> 46:54.679 He moved to East Tennessee with his wife, Polly, 46:54.678 --> 46:56.258 who taught him his literacy. 46:56.260 --> 46:59.690 46:59.690 --> 47:02.660 He grew up a Jacksonian Democrat. 47:02.660 --> 47:05.430 His God was Andrew Jackson. 47:05.429 --> 47:11.339 If lovers of the New Deal believe FDR was somehow the son 47:11.342 --> 47:17.682 of God, as my grandparents did, Andrew Johnson thought Andrew 47:17.677 --> 47:20.947 Jackson was the son of God. 47:20.949 --> 47:23.969 In 1861 he was the only Southern senator who did not 47:23.969 --> 47:25.389 secede with his state. 47:25.389 --> 47:29.609 In 1862 Lincoln appointed him the War Governor of Tennessee, 47:29.612 --> 47:32.262 in the occupied parts of Tennessee, 47:32.260 --> 47:36.460 out of which Lincoln eventually was going to--he did try to 47:36.458 --> 47:38.338 create a new government. 47:38.340 --> 47:41.170 Andrew Johnson was his governor. 47:41.170 --> 47:46.080 It took tremendous courage to be a Unionist in Tennessee 47:46.077 --> 47:48.127 during the Civil War. 47:48.130 --> 47:52.090 There was a lot of Unionism in East Tennessee, 47:52.086 --> 47:57.006 and in '64 Lincoln needed a border state running mate. 47:57.010 --> 47:58.950 After all, who had been his running mate before? 47:58.950 --> 48:02.330 Totally forgettable I realize; no one ever remembers the 48:02.325 --> 48:05.415 vice-presidents from--anybody remember vice-presidents from 48:05.424 --> 48:06.764 the twentieth century? 48:06.760 --> 48:10.990 Only those who get Nobel Prizes do we really remember I guess. 48:10.989 --> 48:14.749 But Hannibal Hamlin of New Hampshire had been Lincoln's 48:14.754 --> 48:17.184 running mate. Now what good is a New 48:17.178 --> 48:19.308 Hampshirite on the ticket in '64? 48:19.309 --> 48:22.739 A New Hampshirite was useful in '60 but not in '64. 48:22.739 --> 48:29.329 So he dumps Hannibal Hamlin, in spite of the alliteration of 48:29.327 --> 48:34.237 his name, and goes for a political choice. 48:34.239 --> 48:37.729 What could send a better Unionist message to the border 48:37.733 --> 48:41.363 states than Andrew Johnson, the only Southern senator who 48:41.355 --> 48:43.485 doesn't secede from his seat? 48:43.490 --> 48:47.130 48:47.130 --> 48:51.650 Well, all was pretty well, at least until the 48:51.649 --> 48:54.029 inauguration. Andrew Johnson, 48:54.031 --> 48:56.441 unfortunately, was drunk at his inauguration 48:56.443 --> 48:58.803 as Vice-President of the United States. 48:58.800 --> 49:02.260 Now his explanation for that is that he had a terrible tooth 49:02.255 --> 49:05.765 infection and he'd been sloshing down whiskey all morning. 49:05.769 --> 49:09.029 But they literally had to stand him up, prop him up and point 49:09.027 --> 49:12.337 him in the right direction, and practically raise his hand. 49:12.340 --> 49:16.430 On the day he was inaugurated, when Lincoln delivered the 49:16.434 --> 49:19.874 Second Inaugural, AJ had to be removed to a back 49:19.871 --> 49:23.191 room. Not an auspicious beginning. 49:23.190 --> 49:26.250 49:26.250 --> 49:30.390 Last thought. By far the most important thing 49:30.389 --> 49:34.019 about Andrew Johnson though, in spite of his early comments 49:34.018 --> 49:36.648 when he said, "Treason must be made odious," 49:36.652 --> 49:39.102 and Charles Sumner said, "Oh, he's speaking my 49:39.102 --> 49:42.212 language," the thing we must know about 49:42.212 --> 49:46.672 Andrew Johnson is number one, he was a virulent white 49:46.673 --> 49:50.353 supremacist, he was an ardent states' 49:50.345 --> 49:54.465 rightist. Yes he was a states' rightist 49:54.465 --> 49:59.345 and a Unionist. It's entirely possible to be 49:59.352 --> 50:03.642 that. He also hated the southern 50:03.644 --> 50:08.294 planter class. He was never anti-slavery. 50:08.289 --> 50:10.509 He was not only not anti-slavery, 50:10.512 --> 50:12.182 he was an open racist. 50:12.179 --> 50:15.379 He believed the United States should remain, 50:15.384 --> 50:18.294 in his own words, "a white man's country 50:18.291 --> 50:22.161 forever." And he had a disposition that 50:22.157 --> 50:27.647 could best charitably be described as hypersensitive and 50:27.651 --> 50:31.731 obstinate. He was not a flexible 50:31.730 --> 50:36.040 politician. Well, I'll leave you with old 50:36.036 --> 50:40.246 Andrew Johnson, now into the story and messing 50:40.252 --> 50:44.002 things up, and I'll see you Thursday.