Chapter XX
After Lincoln was killed, the vice-president, Andrew Johnson, became the new president. Andrew Johnson came from the South. His friends and relatives lived in the South. But unlike most other people in the South, he very much wanted to keep the United States as one country. During the Civil War, he supported the North and did everything he could to help the North win.
When the war ended, the majority in Congress wanted to punish the South for starting the war. Johnson became the leader of those people who wanted to forgive the South. He knew that the South would never again want to be an independent country. He wanted to give power back to the white men of the South. He wanted to put the United States back together. He said the United States should have a new united beginning. In the summer of 1865, Congress decided to go home for a long vacation. At this time, there were no congressmen or senators from the South. After Congress went home, Johnson announced that he would let the South become part of the United States again. He would allow them to have new elections to set up their state governments. At that time, only the Thirteenth Amendment, which ended slavery, had been passed. Slavery had been ended, but as yet, Black people could not vote. The former leaders of the Confederacy won the elections in the South. They immediately decided they would keep the old laws that said that Black people were not citizens. They accepted the 13th Amendment, but they interpreted this as meaning that Black people could no longer be bought or sold. They passed a new law called the Black Codes, which said the Black people had to work for white people.
The people of the North were shocked. They remembered all that the Black people had done to help the United States during the war. Many people who at first had believed that the South should be forgiven now became angry. Many more people began to think the South should be punished.
When Congress came back from their vacation, they said President Johnson did not have the right to let the Southern states back into the United States. Congress nullified the elections in the Southern states. Instead, they adopted a new system called Reconstruction. Congress divided the South into five military districts, which were to be ruled by the army. However, the army itself was rapidly changing in character. At the end of the war, the white soldiers in the US army wanted to go home. But the Black soldiers had nowhere to go, so they wanted to stay in the army. Therefore, the American army became more and more Black.
Congress and President Johnson quarreled more and more. President Johnson was not interested in the problems of the Black people of the South. He thought it was enough to end slavery. However, the central political problem was the status of Black people in the South. They were almost half of the population in that region. When Congress would pass a law, Johnson would veto it. Nothing could be done. There was deadlock. A new Congress was elected in 1866. The Southern states were not allowed to vote in this election. The new Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment, which made the Black people American citizens. In 1867, more than two-thirds of the new Congress favored punishing the South. Now if Johnson vetoed a law, Congress would pass it over his veto.
Johnson did not like the new laws. He thought some of them were unconstitutional. He said he would not abide by one of them until the Supreme Court ruled whether it was constitutional or not. Congress said that he must abide by the law during the period that he was waiting for the Supreme Court to decide.
Congress said that because Johnson was not abiding by this law while he was waiting for a ruling, that he was not doing his work properly. The American constitution says that the President should carry out the laws. Some people said that because Johnson was not abiding by the law while he was waiting for a Supreme Court decision, he should be impeached and removed from office. Before the vote, the Senators talked among themselves and found that 36 favored impeachment and 18 were against. But that was exactly enough to remove Johnson.
However, on the day of the impeachment vote, one of the Senators that was for impeachment became seriously ill. Thaddeus Stevens was so ill that he could not get out of bed. He could not stand up. So they had to get a group of men to carry Stevens in his sick bed into the Senate. However, when the vote came, it was 37 to 19. At the last minute, one of the other Senators that had been for impeachment changed his mind. President Johnson remained in office by that one vote.
In 1868, new elections were held. General Grant was elected the new president of the United States. Soon after he was elected, Congress passed the 15th Amendment, which gave all black men the right to vote. This was in the period before women had the right to vote.
In 1860, when Lincoln was first elected president, the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments could not have been passed. Most people would not have supported them. But within five years of his death, all of them became part of the American constitution. The Civil War marked a complete change in American politics.