On his “Swing Around the Circle” in summer 1866 to drum up support for his party before that year’s midterms, President Andrew Johnson denounced Congress as an illegal body, called certain Republican members of Congress traitors who should be hanged, and compared himself both to his martyred predecessor Abraham Lincoln and to Jesus Christ.
asserted
who → swe → Christ
In those days, the Democrats were the party of slavery and secession, while the young Republican Party stood firm on the Declaration of Independence.
asserted
Party → stand → Independence
Johnson was a former Democrat from Tennessee, placed on the 1864 “National Union Party” ticket to emphasize unity in the fight to save the United States, and became an accidental president after Lincoln’s assassination.
asserted
Johnson → place → assassination
Johnson had broken from his Confederate neighbors because he was happy to see the end of the institution of human enslavement even though he had enslaved people himself until 1863.
asserted
he → break → 1863
He believed slavery enabled a few rich men to monopolize the nation’s wealth, shutting out poorer white men like him.
asserted
slavery → believe → him
When he became president in April 1865, in the last days of the Civil War, he supported the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
asserted
he → become → Constitution
But that was as far as he went with the Republican plans for a future in which every man, regardless of race, would have the right to the fruits of his own labor.
asserted
man → go → labor
Johnson opposed the party’s growing support for Black rights and intended to reconstruct the United States on the basis of white supremacy.
asserted
Johnson → oppose → supremacy
In one of the nation’s most unfortunate series of events, Johnson took office while Congress was out of session.
asserted
Congress → take → session
It would not reconvene until December.
asserted
It → reconvene → December
After Lincoln’s death, Republican members of Congress rushed to Washington, D.C., expecting Johnson would call them into special session as Lincoln had done in summer 1861, but Johnson declined to do so, intending to “restore” the nation on his own terms.
asserted
Johnson → rush → terms
Johnson set out to resuscitate the prewar political system dominated by the Democratic Party, with himself at its head.
asserted
Johnson → set → head
Over the course of the summer, he pardoned all but about fifteen hundred former Confederates, either by proclamation or by presidential pardon, returning them to positions of authority in southern society.
asserted
he → pardon → society
He required only that southern states ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, declare secession illegal, and default on Confederate debts before they could be readmitted to the Union.
uncertain
they → require → Union
Since he pardoned ex-Confederates and refused to endorse Black voting, Johnson guaranteed that the same men who had taken the South out of the Union would be responsible for bringing it back in.
asserted
who → pardon → it
Southern leaders half-heartedly met the president’s demands, then joined him in trying to re-create the world of the Old South.
asserted
leaders → meet → South
Within each state, through a series of laws together dubbed “Black Codes,” they bound formerly enslaved people to white employers and guaranteed the dominance of white people in the South.
asserted
they → dub → South
In Mississippi, for example, Black men could be arrested and fined if they did not sign yearlong contracts, then “hired out” to anyone who paid their fines—a system
uncertain
who → arrest → fines
Nowhere could a Black person testify against a white person in court, so they had no recourse against theft, rape, assault, or even murder.
uncertain
they → testify → theft
Republicans looked on, aghast, as Johnson and white southerners took only months to erase the hard-earned fruits of victory in the Civil War.
asserted
Johnson → look → War
Adding insult to injury, the 1870 census would count Black Americans as whole persons rather than three-fifths of a person, as they had been counted before the war, meaning the South’s representation in the House of Representatives would increase.
asserted
representation → add → Representatives
If Johnson’s plan were permitted to go forward unchallenged, wealthy southern whites would be more powerful after the Civil War than they had been before it.
asserted
they → permit → it
When Congress reconvened in early December, Johnson cheerfully informed the members that the country had been reconstructed.
asserted
country → reconvene → members
All that remained to do, he announced, was for Congress to admit newly elected southern representatives—including many of the same men who had taken the South out of the Union—to their seats.
asserted
who → remain → seats
They were already in Washington, marveling at the changes the war years had wrought on what only four years before had been a sleepy southern town.
asserted
what → marvel → changes
Republicans had no intention of allowing the South to win the peace after losing the war.
asserted
South → have → war
Congress refused to seat the South’s representatives and appointed a committee of fifteen members to come up with a better plan than Johnson’s for rebuilding the nation.
asserted
Congress → refuse → nation
The Committee of Fifteen spent months hearing testimony from southerners, white and Black, about conditions in their war-torn region.
asserted
Committee → spend → region
Finally, on the last day of April 1866, members of the committee introduced the joint resolution that would become the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
asserted
that → introduce → Constitution
The amendment recognized that every man was equal before the law and that any person born or naturalized in America—except “Indians not taxed”—was an American citizen.
asserted
man → recognize → Indians
To address the problem of the upcoming 1870 census, the committee proposed that congressional representation for the southern states be based on population, as with all states, but that southern representation be reduced in proportion to the number of men a state refused to allow to vote.
asserted
state → address → men
The committee prohibited from holding elected office anyone who had sworn to support the Union and then broken that oath in order to join the Confederacy.
asserted
who → prohibit → Confederacy
The amendment also closed loopholes that southern states had found to protect their war debt.
asserted
states → close → debt
Finally, like the amendment that preceded it, the Fourteenth Amendment increased the strength of the federal government by giving Congress the power to enforce its provisions.
asserted
Amendment → precede → provisions
Both chambers of Congress agreed to the amendment on June 18, 1866, and sent it off to the states for ratification.
asserted
chambers → agree → ratification
Congress required southern states to ratify the amendment before being readmitted to the Union.
asserted
Congress → require → Union
Johnson hated the proposed Fourteenth Amendment.
asserted
Johnson → hat → Amendment
He hated its broad definition of citizenship; he hated its assertion of national power; he hated its disfranchisement of the southern leaders he backed.
asserted
he → hat → leaders
Most of all, though, he hated that it offered a moderate route to reunification that could be supported by most Americans.
uncertain
that → hat → Americans
If it were ratified by the states, it would destroy his chances of rebuilding a dominant national Democratic Party.
asserted
it → ratify → Party
…and 18 more, not listed.
The Aporia
