November 20, 2024 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in our 32nd episode of our Story of America Series, Dr. Bill McClay, author of Land of Hope, tells the story of how Lincoln's assassination derailed the rebirth of a more free and radically different nation—and explains why his successor wasn't up to the massive job at hand.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories.
Up next another installment of our series about us, the
Story of America series, with Hillsdale College professor an author
of Land of Hope, Bill McLay. We begin in Washington
during a time of celebration. The end of the Civil
War had come. It was good. Friday eighteen sixty five,
(00:32):
Abraham Lincoln was set to attend the play Our American
Cousin at the Ford's Theater. Let's get into it.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
It may have been one of the happiest moments of
Lincoln's last.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Few years, if not his entire life.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
At ten o'clock PM in the play's third act, John
Wilkes Booth entered the President's box, pistoled in his After
firing a shot at Lincoln's head at close range, the
actor leapt onto the stage and shouted, sick semper turanus torontos,
(01:24):
thus always to tyrants. Never before had such a true
believer done more damage to his own cause.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Because the South could not have had.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
A better advocate than Lincoln, there were still many unresolved
issues to address after the Civil War. What was a
reunification of the nation going to look like? Should Southern
rebels be punished, and if so, hah, which ones should
(01:57):
the leaders of the Confederacy face treason charges? And what
about all those Confederate soldiers what should happen to them?
If anything? The war ravaged the South, devastating the region economically,
with many of their great cities reduced to mere ruins.
(02:18):
Their production capacities too were ravaged. Property values had plummeted.
No money made its way into the South to help
rebuild Slavery had been gutted from the region, and with
it much of the production capacity was gutted too, as
slave labor had been the backbone of the South's most
(02:39):
valuable crop, cotton. Last, but not least, there was the
issue of the recently freed slaves. As a great abolitionist
Frederick Douglass said he was free from the old plantation,
but he had nothing but the dusty road under his feet.
(02:59):
These were big questions. There would be two different approaches,
broadly different approaches among and between Northerners. There were some
who wanted to bring the Southern states back into the
Union with the least number of complications, including punishment, as possible,
so the South could rebuild. There was another contingent of
(03:21):
Northerners who believed the South should be punished, punished severely,
and with it create a total and complete transformation culturally
and socially of the whole region. It was a kind
of scorched earth approach. Well, Lincoln had been thinking about
(03:43):
this issue ever since before becoming president, before secession occurred.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
He was always mindful.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Of the preservation of the Union, and he came up
with a very interesting solution to the problem. He concluded
that because secession itself had been illegal, the Southern Confederate
states had never actually left the Union, as Euclidean logic
(04:13):
would have it, and Lincoln was a great admirer of Uclid.
If the South never left the Union, what would it
require for the South to return to the Union?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Not very much.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Indeed, Lincoln as early as eighteen sixty three was thinking
not just conceptually about this idea, but practically. He came
up with a plan to pardon any one member of
the Confederacy who would take an oath loyalty to the
Constitution and the Union itself and swore to agree to
(04:45):
the end of slavery as a practice in the South.
The state could then be readmitted of ten percent of
the voters. Ten percent of the voters made these pledges.
It was a remarkably generous plan. It was generous, was graceful,
It was aimed towards a unstinting reunion of the states
(05:09):
and even strengthening of the idea of the American Union. Well,
a lot of Republicans didn't like it. They thought it
was not merely far too lenient, but just plain ill conceived.
They were more convinced that the entire social system and
(05:31):
network of the South, the class society, the planter society
that drove it, had to be destroyed and replaced with
something new and better. Moreover, these same Republicans believed this
was a decision for Congress to make, not the executive branch.
(05:52):
They passed a bill, the Way Davis Bill, which required
a majority of voters in each state, not ten percent
of majority of voters in these states just where not
just allegiance to the Union, but that they had never
been disloyal to the Union. Lincoln exercised his pocket veto power,
which meant that he simply didn't sign the bill allowed
(06:15):
it to expire. Unsigned Republicans who put forward the bill
were incensed at this, they accused him of exceeding his
constitutional authority, though on what ground was unclear. He was
precisely exercising his constitutional authority by pocket vetoing.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
The legislation that he opposed. He clearly had the right
to do it.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
But it was trickier than that because the actual authority
on the issue what to do with the states that
seceded for the Union, did not have a clear constitutional authority.
This was an eventuality that no one had anticipated in
seventeen eighty seven.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
So how to bring them back into the Union.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
He had no real or clear guy within the text
of the Constitution. America was sailing into uncharted.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Waters and uncharted orders. Indeed, whoever makes the claim today
that we've never been more divided or never faced more
difficult tasks and challenges in front of us, has to
listen to this story. More of this story here on
our American Stories. This is Lee Hibib, and this is
(07:33):
our American stories, and all of our history stories are
brought to us by our generous sponsors, including Hillsdale College,
where students go to learn all the things that are
beautiful in life and all the things that matter in life.
If you can't get to Hillsdale. Hillsdale will come to
you with their free and terrific online courses. Go to
(07:53):
Hillsdale dot edu. That's Hillsdale dot edu. And we returned
to our American stories in our Story of America series
with Hillsdale College professor and author of Land of Hope
(08:16):
Bill McLay. When we last left off, Bill was covering
the huge questions about what would happen to the South
and what would happen to America after the Civil War.
The biggest question of all how should the states that
left the Union be treated. Let's return to the story
here again is Bill McLay.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Lincoln's very last public address, just two days before General
Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, took the issue
head on. The subject of the day for Lincoln was
whether or not the State of Louisiana should be accepted
back into the Union. The state's new constitution abolished slavery.
(08:57):
That pleased Lincoln, but it was enough for the Republicans
looking to reconstitute and recreate the South. Those Republicans wrote
to Lincoln to express their dissatisfaction and outrage. Lincoln's speech
included a masterful rebuttal. We all agree that the seceded
(09:18):
states so called, are out of their proper relation with
the Union, and that the sole object of government, civil
and military in regard to those states is to again
get them into that proper practical relation. I believe it
is not only possible, but in fact easier to do
(09:38):
this without deciding or even considering whether these states have
ever been out of them, than with it finding themselves
safely at home. It would be utterly immaterial whether they
had ever been abroad.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
What a wonderful phrase.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I just had to stop and say, let us all
join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper
practical relations between these states and the Union, each forever
after innocently indulged his own opinion whether in doing the acts,
he brought the states from without into the Union or
(10:19):
only gave them proper assistance they never having been out
of it. Lincoln, the masterful lawyer he was, and a
man prone to precision and wordsmithing and definitions from his
professional background as a lawyer, argued brilliantly for a more
generous view of these matters, a more.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Impractical view, as he stressed the.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Key to America's future lies not in defining things too precisely.
Sometimes that is true. And by the way, anyone who
categorically condemns lawyers ought to take a look at Lincoln
and the degree to would Lincoln's greatness as a president
owes to his skill as a lawyer. On the day
(11:11):
of Lincoln's assassination, he spoke to his cabinet. He spoke
preciently about the future of the Union and reunification. Here's
what he said. I hope there will be no persecution,
no bloody work after the war is over. Enough lives
have been sacrificed. We must extinguish our resentment if we
(11:36):
expect harmony and union. There has been too much of
a desire on the part of some of our very
good friends to be masters, to interfere with and dictate
to those states, to treat people not as fellow citizens.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
There is too little respect for their rights.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I do not sympathize with these feelings. Such a great
thing for him to say, and noted that he says
that our very good friends are in danger of becoming masters.
He clearly means that word to sting a little bit,
(12:16):
because it makes reference to the very institution that his
very good friends, and he had devoted their lives to
abolishing We will never know how things might have been
with Lincoln at the Helm. He died that Easter weekend
at a boarding house across the street from Ford's Theater,
(12:38):
in a.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Day of white rain.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
If anything, Lincoln's murder only made things worse for the
South as national feelings turned against the former.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
States of the Confederacy.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
And it made matters worse that his vice president Andrew Johnson,
who was a Southerner, who was from Tennessee, who was
a Democrat, who'd been chosen as a unity candidate. Well,
Johnson had none of Lincoln's statesmanship, eloquence, or grace or generosity.
(13:14):
So who was Andrew Johnson? He hailed from Tennessee. He
grew up like Lincoln, humbly. He deeply resented I think
hated is not too strong a word, the wealthy planters,
(13:34):
whom he held responsible for the plight of the South.
That would in turn be the reason the Republicans in
Congress embraced him. Many in Congress thought he'd be such
an improvement over Lincoln. But these Republicans miscalculated Johnson's hostility
(13:56):
towards Southern aristocrats.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
It turns out, was not due.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
To his empathy for poor Southern farmers. He just resented
his social superiors. Status, not justice, powered much of Johnson's resentment.
He also agreed with the prevailing Southern prejudices against black
people and had little if any objection to slavery, and
(14:19):
he most certainly did not share his fellow republicans desire
to see the South humiliated and punished. Johnson reserved had
desire for the rich Planders and the rich planters alone.
So Johnson was a wrong man for the wrong time,
and he was wrong for other reasons as well. Though
(14:41):
the job required a man with a view towards the
long term and a temperament that was suited to withstand
the bumps and bruises, slings and arrows of everyday political life,
Johnson was not that man. He was insecure. He was
filled with anxiety and paranoia, and his paranoia extended to
(15:04):
his being an outsider and feeling that all the organized
forces of society were against him. Johnson, unlike Lincoln, proved
that not all common men can rise to the occasion,
no matter how ambitious they might be.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
So Johnson's problems.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Began in May of eighteen sixty five, not long after
his accession to the presidency, when he put forward a
reconstruction plan that was only slightly tougher than Lincoln's. By
the time Congress convened in December, all eleven of the
ex Confederate states had met the conditions that they were
(15:47):
allowed to return to the Union, including ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment,
which abolished slavery, and electing senators and representatives. What remained
was for Congress to accept and to seat them, but
that was not to be. First, none of the Southern
states had extended voting rights to blacks, and second, there
(16:08):
were a number of former Confederate leaders in the new
congressional delegations, including the former Vice President of the Confederacy,
Alexander Stevens. Many Southern legislatures were also passing new Black codes,
so called, that restricted the rights of former slaves, making
life for many freed blacks nearly indistinguishable from slavery. Johnson's
(16:32):
approach was summarily dismissed by Congress in fact, and a
Joint Committee on Reconstruction was formed.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
To review the matter.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Highlighted was evidence of the mistreatment of blacks in the
Southern States also settled was where the power to settle
the issue of reconstruction and reunion rested in Congress. That's right,
Congress decided it was Congress's role to determine how the
Southern States might be restored, not And Johnson didn't help
(17:05):
his own cause he vetoed a civil rights law designed
to challenge the black codes.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
What happened next, though, with what made history.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Congress overrode Johnson's veto and the bill became law. It
was the first time in American history that that had happened.
What soon happened the second time, as Congress overrode Johnson's
veto on the extension of the Freedman's Bureau. It was
the beginning of a new era, and not just on
the reconstruction front, but also in the definition of relations
(17:38):
between Congress and the executive branch. And it was the
beginning of the end for the Johnson Presidence.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
The story of Reconstruction and we're just getting started. Our
Story of America series continues here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories.
Up next another installment of our series about us, the
Story of America series, with Hillsdale College professor an author
of Land of Hope, Bill McLay. We begin in Washington
during a time of celebration. The end of the Civil
War had come. It was good. Friday eighteen sixty five,
(00:32):
Abraham Lincoln was set to attend the play Our American
Cousin at the Ford's Theater. Let's get into it.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
It may have been one of the happiest moments of
Lincoln's last.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Few years, if not his entire life.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
At ten o'clock PM in the play's third act, John
Wilkes Booth entered the President's box, pistoled in his After
firing a shot at Lincoln's head at close range, the
actor leapt onto the stage and shouted, sick semper turanus torontos,
(01:24):
thus always to tyrants. Never before had such a true
believer done more damage to his own cause.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Because the South could not have had.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
A better advocate than Lincoln, there were still many unresolved
issues to address after the Civil War. What was a
reunification of the nation going to look like? Should Southern
rebels be punished, and if so, hah, which ones should
(01:57):
the leaders of the Confederacy face treason charges? And what
about all those Confederate soldiers what should happen to them?
If anything? The war ravaged the South, devastating the region economically,
with many of their great cities reduced to mere ruins.
(02:18):
Their production capacities too were ravaged. Property values had plummeted.
No money made its way into the South to help
rebuild Slavery had been gutted from the region, and with
it much of the production capacity was gutted too, as
slave labor had been the backbone of the South's most
(02:39):
valuable crop, cotton. Last, but not least, there was the
issue of the recently freed slaves. As a great abolitionist
Frederick Douglass said he was free from the old plantation,
but he had nothing but the dusty road under his feet.
(02:59):
These were big questions. There would be two different approaches,
broadly different approaches among and between Northerners. There were some
who wanted to bring the Southern states back into the
Union with the least number of complications, including punishment, as possible,
so the South could rebuild. There was another contingent of
(03:21):
Northerners who believed the South should be punished, punished severely,
and with it create a total and complete transformation culturally
and socially of the whole region. It was a kind
of scorched earth approach. Well, Lincoln had been thinking about
(03:43):
this issue ever since before becoming president, before secession occurred.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
He was always mindful.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Of the preservation of the Union, and he came up
with a very interesting solution to the problem. He concluded
that because secession itself had been illegal, the Southern Confederate
states had never actually left the Union, as Euclidean logic
(04:13):
would have it, and Lincoln was a great admirer of Uclid.
If the South never left the Union, what would it
require for the South to return to the Union?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Not very much.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Indeed, Lincoln as early as eighteen sixty three was thinking
not just conceptually about this idea, but practically. He came
up with a plan to pardon any one member of
the Confederacy who would take an oath loyalty to the
Constitution and the Union itself and swore to agree to
(04:45):
the end of slavery as a practice in the South.
The state could then be readmitted of ten percent of
the voters. Ten percent of the voters made these pledges.
It was a remarkably generous plan. It was generous, was graceful,
It was aimed towards a unstinting reunion of the states
(05:09):
and even strengthening of the idea of the American Union. Well,
a lot of Republicans didn't like it. They thought it
was not merely far too lenient, but just plain ill conceived.
They were more convinced that the entire social system and
(05:31):
network of the South, the class society, the planter society
that drove it, had to be destroyed and replaced with
something new and better. Moreover, these same Republicans believed this
was a decision for Congress to make, not the executive branch.
(05:52):
They passed a bill, the Way Davis Bill, which required
a majority of voters in each state, not ten percent
of majority of voters in these states just where not
just allegiance to the Union, but that they had never
been disloyal to the Union. Lincoln exercised his pocket veto power,
which meant that he simply didn't sign the bill allowed
(06:15):
it to expire. Unsigned Republicans who put forward the bill
were incensed at this, they accused him of exceeding his
constitutional authority, though on what ground was unclear. He was
precisely exercising his constitutional authority by pocket vetoing.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
The legislation that he opposed. He clearly had the right
to do it.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
But it was trickier than that because the actual authority
on the issue what to do with the states that
seceded for the Union, did not have a clear constitutional authority.
This was an eventuality that no one had anticipated in
seventeen eighty seven.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
So how to bring them back into the Union.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
He had no real or clear guy within the text
of the Constitution. America was sailing into uncharted.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Waters and uncharted orders. Indeed, whoever makes the claim today
that we've never been more divided or never faced more
difficult tasks and challenges in front of us, has to
listen to this story. More of this story here on
our American Stories. This is Lee Hibib, and this is
(07:33):
our American stories, and all of our history stories are
brought to us by our generous sponsors, including Hillsdale College,
where students go to learn all the things that are
beautiful in life and all the things that matter in life.
If you can't get to Hillsdale. Hillsdale will come to
you with their free and terrific online courses. Go to
(07:53):
Hillsdale dot edu. That's Hillsdale dot edu. And we returned
to our American stories in our Story of America series
with Hillsdale College professor and author of Land of Hope
(08:16):
Bill McLay. When we last left off, Bill was covering
the huge questions about what would happen to the South
and what would happen to America after the Civil War.
The biggest question of all how should the states that
left the Union be treated. Let's return to the story
here again is Bill McLay.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Lincoln's very last public address, just two days before General
Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, took the issue
head on. The subject of the day for Lincoln was
whether or not the State of Louisiana should be accepted
back into the Union. The state's new constitution abolished slavery.
(08:57):
That pleased Lincoln, but it was enough for the Republicans
looking to reconstitute and recreate the South. Those Republicans wrote
to Lincoln to express their dissatisfaction and outrage. Lincoln's speech
included a masterful rebuttal. We all agree that the seceded
(09:18):
states so called, are out of their proper relation with
the Union, and that the sole object of government, civil
and military in regard to those states is to again
get them into that proper practical relation. I believe it
is not only possible, but in fact easier to do
(09:38):
this without deciding or even considering whether these states have
ever been out of them, than with it finding themselves
safely at home. It would be utterly immaterial whether they
had ever been abroad.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
What a wonderful phrase.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I just had to stop and say, let us all
join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper
practical relations between these states and the Union, each forever
after innocently indulged his own opinion whether in doing the acts,
he brought the states from without into the Union or
(10:19):
only gave them proper assistance they never having been out
of it. Lincoln, the masterful lawyer he was, and a
man prone to precision and wordsmithing and definitions from his
professional background as a lawyer, argued brilliantly for a more
generous view of these matters, a more.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Impractical view, as he stressed the.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Key to America's future lies not in defining things too precisely.
Sometimes that is true. And by the way, anyone who
categorically condemns lawyers ought to take a look at Lincoln
and the degree to would Lincoln's greatness as a president
owes to his skill as a lawyer. On the day
(11:11):
of Lincoln's assassination, he spoke to his cabinet. He spoke
preciently about the future of the Union and reunification. Here's
what he said. I hope there will be no persecution,
no bloody work after the war is over. Enough lives
have been sacrificed. We must extinguish our resentment if we
(11:36):
expect harmony and union. There has been too much of
a desire on the part of some of our very
good friends to be masters, to interfere with and dictate
to those states, to treat people not as fellow citizens.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
There is too little respect for their rights.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I do not sympathize with these feelings. Such a great
thing for him to say, and noted that he says
that our very good friends are in danger of becoming masters.
He clearly means that word to sting a little bit,
(12:16):
because it makes reference to the very institution that his
very good friends, and he had devoted their lives to
abolishing We will never know how things might have been
with Lincoln at the Helm. He died that Easter weekend
at a boarding house across the street from Ford's Theater,
(12:38):
in a.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Day of white rain.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
If anything, Lincoln's murder only made things worse for the
South as national feelings turned against the former.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
States of the Confederacy.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
And it made matters worse that his vice president Andrew Johnson,
who was a Southerner, who was from Tennessee, who was
a Democrat, who'd been chosen as a unity candidate. Well,
Johnson had none of Lincoln's statesmanship, eloquence, or grace or generosity.
(13:14):
So who was Andrew Johnson? He hailed from Tennessee. He
grew up like Lincoln, humbly. He deeply resented I think
hated is not too strong a word, the wealthy planters,
(13:34):
whom he held responsible for the plight of the South.
That would in turn be the reason the Republicans in
Congress embraced him. Many in Congress thought he'd be such
an improvement over Lincoln. But these Republicans miscalculated Johnson's hostility
(13:56):
towards Southern aristocrats.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
It turns out, was not due.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
To his empathy for poor Southern farmers. He just resented
his social superiors. Status, not justice, powered much of Johnson's resentment.
He also agreed with the prevailing Southern prejudices against black
people and had little if any objection to slavery, and
(14:19):
he most certainly did not share his fellow republicans desire
to see the South humiliated and punished. Johnson reserved had
desire for the rich Planders and the rich planters alone.
So Johnson was a wrong man for the wrong time,
and he was wrong for other reasons as well. Though
(14:41):
the job required a man with a view towards the
long term and a temperament that was suited to withstand
the bumps and bruises, slings and arrows of everyday political life,
Johnson was not that man. He was insecure. He was
filled with anxiety and paranoia, and his paranoia extended to
(15:04):
his being an outsider and feeling that all the organized
forces of society were against him. Johnson, unlike Lincoln, proved
that not all common men can rise to the occasion,
no matter how ambitious they might be.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
So Johnson's problems.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Began in May of eighteen sixty five, not long after
his accession to the presidency, when he put forward a
reconstruction plan that was only slightly tougher than Lincoln's. By
the time Congress convened in December, all eleven of the
ex Confederate states had met the conditions that they were
(15:47):
allowed to return to the Union, including ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment,
which abolished slavery, and electing senators and representatives. What remained
was for Congress to accept and to seat them, but
that was not to be. First, none of the Southern
states had extended voting rights to blacks, and second, there
(16:08):
were a number of former Confederate leaders in the new
congressional delegations, including the former Vice President of the Confederacy,
Alexander Stevens. Many Southern legislatures were also passing new Black codes,
so called, that restricted the rights of former slaves, making
life for many freed blacks nearly indistinguishable from slavery. Johnson's
(16:32):
approach was summarily dismissed by Congress in fact, and a
Joint Committee on Reconstruction was formed.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
To review the matter.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Highlighted was evidence of the mistreatment of blacks in the
Southern States also settled was where the power to settle
the issue of reconstruction and reunion rested in Congress. That's right,
Congress decided it was Congress's role to determine how the
Southern States might be restored, not And Johnson didn't help
(17:05):
his own cause he vetoed a civil rights law designed
to challenge the black codes.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
What happened next, though, with what made history.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Congress overrode Johnson's veto and the bill became law. It
was the first time in American history that that had happened.
What soon happened the second time, as Congress overrode Johnson's
veto on the extension of the Freedman's Bureau. It was
the beginning of a new era, and not just on
the reconstruction front, but also in the definition of relations
(17:38):
between Congress and the executive branch. And it was the
beginning of the end for the Johnson Presidence.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
The story of Reconstruction and we're just getting started. Our
Story of America series continues here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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