2. The Post civil-war period : a new balance of power

• After the Civil War, it was very important to defines how to reintagret the confederate states into the Union.
• Civil war was won by the North.
• Question the federal gov had to tackle after the Civil War : 

  • How to re-integrate the Confederate States into the Union ? 
  • Which status should be given to the freed slaves ?
• Conditions for the Southern States to re-integrate the union was the obligation for them to ratify the so called “Reconstruction amendments”
• Renconstruction amendment : The 13th Amendment 


  (adopted in 1865, abolishing slavery).
• Reconstruction amendments : The 14th amendment


  (adopted in 1868, granting citizenship to all men)
• Reconstruction Amendments : The 15th Amendment 


  (adopted in 1870, granting the right to vote to all men)
• As any amendment to the U.S. constituion the Reconstruction amendments had to be ratified by ¾ of the states.
• Meaning of being re-integrated :

  to send representatives and senators to the US congress (then you have a day in the decision progress)
• Lincoln died in 1865
• The purpose of the republican party was

  to build the american society anew based on the principles of the founding fathers.
• In the South, some states tried to circumvent the federal legislation by adopting state laws trespassing on the rights of african americans (Black codes, Jim Crow Laws).
• Reaction from the federal Congress after southern states tried to circumvent the federal legislation by adopting state laws : adoption of further acts (1866, 1871, 1875 Civil Rights Acts)
• Why did the Congress adopted further acts ?

  
  

  • To punish any infringement on the newly freed slaves's rights
  • To reaffirm their judicial protection
  • To protect African-Americans from the violences of the KKK
• The US congress thus asserted the precedence of the federal laws over any state laws.