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Lincoln sets forth 10 percent Reconstruction plan.
The Ten Percent Plan provided that once 10% or more of the voting population of any occupied state had taken the oath, they were authorized to set up a loyal government. -
Wade-Davis Bill passes Congress but is pocket-vetoed by Lincoln.
This legislation required that 50% of the voters take an oath of future loyality before the restoration could begin. The final form of the bill did not demand black sufferage, but it did give federal courts the ability to enforce emancipation. -
Johnson moves to reconstruct the South on his own initiative.
Johnson was urging conventions to do three things: declare the ordinances of sucession illegal, repudiate the Confederate debt, and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery. -
Congress refuses to seat representatives and senators elected from states and reestablished under presedential plan.
They refused to seat the recently elected southern delegation. Congress established a joint committee to review Reconstruction policy. -
Republicans increase their congressional majority in the fall elections.
The Republican majority in Congress increased to a solid two- thirds in both houses, and the Radical wing of the party gained strength at the expense of moderates and conservatives. -
Johnson vetos Freedmen's Bureau Bill.
Freedmen's Bureau was a temporary agency set up to aid the former slaves by providing relief, education, legal help, and assistance in obtaining land or employment. -
Johnson vetoes Civil Rights Act; it passes over his veto.
Congress overruled Johnson with a two- thirds majority. This signified that the president was at odds with the majority of congressmen who were supposed to be apart of his party. -
Congress oasses the 14th Amendment
The amendment gave federal government responisibility for guaranteeing equal rights under the law to all American's -
First Reconstruction Act is passed over Johnson's veto.
The act placed the South under the rule of the army by reorganizing the region into five military districts. -
Southern blacks vote and serve in constitutional conventions.
The new state constitutions guaranteed the right of black adult males to vote and run for public office. For the first time, some blacks won election to Southern state legislatures and to Congress. -
Grant wins presidential election, defeats Horatio Seymour.
Grant defeats Seymour in both the popular and electoral vote. -
Johnson is impeached; he avoids conviction by one vote.
Effort to convict Johnson fell one vote short because seven Republican senators broke with the party leadership and voted for acquittal. -
Congress passes Fifteenth Amendment, granting African Americans the right to vote.
The amendment prohibited any state from denying a male citizen the right to vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. -
Congress passes Ku Klux Klan Acts to protect black voting rights in the South.
The Ku Klux Klan was a secret terrorist society that's goals were to disfranchise African Americans, stop Reconstruction, and restore the prewar social order of the South. -
Grant re-elected president, defeating Horace Greeley, candidate of Liberal Republicans and Democrats.
Greeley died before the electoral vote was made. -
Financial panic plunges nation into depression.
This financial panic was the most important event of Grant's second term. -
Congress passes Specie Resumption Act.
The bill provided for the redemption of American “greenbacks” in gold and revived American currency. -
"Whiskey Ring" scandal exposed.
Whiskey Ring was a group of distillers and public officials who defrauded the federal government of liquor taxes. -
Disputed presidential election resolved in favor of Republican Hayes over Democrat Tilden.
The election of Hayes was ensured in the agreements of the Compromise of 1877. -
Compromise of 1877 ends military intervention in the South and causes fall of last Radical governments.
The Compromise of 1877 was an informal bargain between the Republican leaders and the conservative southern Democrats who were eager to have troops removed from the South and begin restoration.
