A radical reconstruction

WI, following the murders of Lincoln, Johnson and others; this amendment were passed by the Congress called into special session in May 1865 and ratified by special State Conventions elected in November 1865 (at the same time as Thaddeus Stevens was elected President )


'“14th Amendment

Preamble

The people of the United States have grievously suffered from a Civil War.

We the People of the United States recognize that said Caivil War was caused treasonous rebellion.

Whereas the said Treasonous rebellion was initiated, promoted and continued to serve the interest of that small class of persons who benefited from property in human beings and unpaid labor never the less many other persons were persuaded or forced to assist said rebellion.

Whereas law and tradition provides for death for those who commit treason never the less these United States has already lost too much blood.


Where as slavery was lawful in certain States and aided and abetted by the Federal Government and by the Constitution, we the people of the United States do hereby confess that property in human beings and forced unpaid labor is now, has ever been and will ever be at once a crime against humanity and an offence against our Just creator.

We acknowledge that the denial of education was an additional injustice of slavery, which should be undone.

Wherefore we do make the following Amendment to the Constitution of the United States:’


1) Persons who assisted treasonous rebellion between November 1860 and April 1865 shall not suffer the normal penalties for treason. However any person who aided and assisted the said rebellion and owned more than 10 slaves shall forfeit all real property in excess of $250. No person who served in any of purported government, of any state which sought to rebel against the lawful government, all officers of former rebel governments and any person owning more than 10 slaves between 1860 and 1865 who gave any material support or comfort to the treasonous rebellion shall absent themselves from all states where slavery was lawful from 1st February 1866 and 31st of January 1881. Nothing in this section shall prevent the prosecution of persons who committed acts outside the normal customs of war or who took part in the conspiracy which murdered our beloved President, Vice President and War Secretary.

2) It is affirmed that slavery, property in human beings, forced Labor other than, as a punishment for properly adjudicated crimes is unlawful. No resolution in any assembly or governmental body tending to reintroduce slavery shall be in order. The government of the United States shall use its best endeavors with other Civilized Nations to see the end of that accursed practice throughout the Earth.

3) The proceeds of property confiscated in accordance with section 1) shall be used to compensate former slaves and loyal persons who suffered persecution or disadvantage during the treasonous rebellion.


4) For the avoidance of doubt it is declared that any purported secession from the United States has always been unlawful It is further declared that where governments of states had sought to promote war against the United States do forfeit all the sovereign rights of states and come directly under such laws as the United States Congress shall ordain. Congress shall have the power to admit states in lands where treasonous rebellion had taken place, to create new states or alter boundaries of former states.

5) Former slaves and the descendents thereof shall have the right to vote in all Federal, State or local elections on land of any state or territory where slavery was lawful on 1st January 1860. This right shall apply in perpetuity.


6) Former slaves and their descendants born up to 1 January 1901 shall have the right to a public education in any land where slavery was legal on January 1 1860.

7) Congress shall have the power to enforce this Amendment with appropriate legislation. The executive branch shall have duty to enforce this amendment.”


One factor in the passing of this amendment was the decision to arrest as many Confederate officers and high officials as possible and the decision to start treason trial on 1 February 1866 unless the amendment was passed.

Also getting accepted by the North would be increased by the incentives in this amendment for former slaves to stay in the South
 
A good way to cause another rebelion but without any state government backing. The US might be forced to move entire Southern towns into the southwestern desert to kill the second rebelion.
 

Germaniac

Donor
The South was utterly destroyed. No infrastructure, No industry, Mass amounts of Ex Slaves wandering around, and millions dead. The South had ZERO ability to launch another rebellion. Without slavery as an effective backbone there was no way the southern economy could continue if another rebellion broke out. What most people, especially in the south, is that the North could have put anything they wanted into action.

I propose the Alexandria War Crimes Trial
 
The South was utterly destroyed. No infrastructure, No industry, Mass amounts of Ex Slaves wandering around, and millions dead. The South had ZERO ability to launch another rebellion. Without slavery as an effective backbone there was no way the southern economy could continue if another rebellion broke out. What most people, especially in the south, is that the North could have put anything they wanted into action.

I propose the Alexandria War Crimes Trial

I think an irregular war could be fought, at least for a while. I admit it would be a matter of time before it stops.
 
WI, following the murders of Lincoln, Johnson and others; this amendment were passed by the Congress called into special session in May 1865 and ratified by special State Conventions elected in November 1865 (at the same time as Thaddeus Stevens was elected President )


'“14th Amendment

Preamble

The people of the United States have grievously suffered from a Civil War.

We the People of the United States recognize that said Caivil War was caused treasonous rebellion.

Whereas the said Treasonous rebellion was initiated, promoted and continued to serve the interest of that small class of persons who benefited from property in human beings and unpaid labor never the less many other persons were persuaded or forced to assist said rebellion.

Whereas law and tradition provides for death for those who commit treason never the less these United States has already lost too much blood.


Where as slavery was lawful in certain States and aided and abetted by the Federal Government and by the Constitution, we the people of the United States do hereby confess that property in human beings and forced unpaid labor is now, has ever been and will ever be at once a crime against humanity and an offence against our Just creator.

We acknowledge that the denial of education was an additional injustice of slavery, which should be undone.

Wherefore we do make the following Amendment to the Constitution of the United States:’


1) Persons who assisted treasonous rebellion between November 1860 and April 1865 shall not suffer the normal penalties for treason. However any person who aided and assisted the said rebellion and owned more than 10 slaves shall forfeit all real property in excess of $250. No person who served in any of purported government, of any state which sought to rebel against the lawful government, all officers of former rebel governments and any person owning more than 10 slaves between 1860 and 1865 who gave any material support or comfort to the treasonous rebellion shall absent themselves from all states where slavery was lawful from 1st February 1866 and 31st of January 1881. Nothing in this section shall prevent the prosecution of persons who committed acts outside the normal customs of war or who took part in the conspiracy which murdered our beloved President, Vice President and War Secretary.

2) It is affirmed that slavery, property in human beings, forced Labor other than, as a punishment for properly adjudicated crimes is unlawful. No resolution in any assembly or governmental body tending to reintroduce slavery shall be in order. The government of the United States shall use its best endeavors with other Civilized Nations to see the end of that accursed practice throughout the Earth.

3) The proceeds of property confiscated in accordance with section 1) shall be used to compensate former slaves and loyal persons who suffered persecution or disadvantage during the treasonous rebellion.


4) For the avoidance of doubt it is declared that any purported secession from the United States has always been unlawful It is further declared that where governments of states had sought to promote war against the United States do forfeit all the sovereign rights of states and come directly under such laws as the United States Congress shall ordain. Congress shall have the power to admit states in lands where treasonous rebellion had taken place, to create new states or alter boundaries of former states.

5) Former slaves and the descendents thereof shall have the right to vote in all Federal, State or local elections on land of any state or territory where slavery was lawful on 1st January 1860. This right shall apply in perpetuity.


6) Former slaves and their descendants born up to 1 January 1901 shall have the right to a public education in any land where slavery was legal on January 1 1860.

7) Congress shall have the power to enforce this Amendment with appropriate legislation. The executive branch shall have duty to enforce this amendment.”


One factor in the passing of this amendment was the decision to arrest as many Confederate officers and high officials as possible and the decision to start treason trial on 1 February 1866 unless the amendment was passed.

Also getting accepted by the North would be increased by the incentives in this amendment for former slaves to stay in the South

If the US Congress passes this sort of trash there is every reason to suspect a second rebellion and the US deserves to 'perish from the earth'.

1. "No person who served in any of purported government, of any state which sought to rebel against the lawful government, all officers of former rebel governments and any person owning more than 10 slaves between 1860 and 1865 who gave any material support or comfort to the treasonous rebellion shall absent themselves from all states where slavery was lawful from 1st February 1866 and 31st of January 1881."

Since slavery was legal in the United States until the passing of the 13th Amendment on December 16th 1865 wouldn't most of the US have to move? There is also the problem of the 'border states' which while occupied by the Union Army were still slave states and were not covered by the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.

2. Former slaves and the descendents thereof shall have the right to vote in all Federal, State or local elections on land of any state or territory where slavery was lawful on 1st January 1860. This right shall apply in perpetuity.

You are extending the right to vote to woman former slaves but not extending the vote to white women?

3. "Where as slavery was lawful in certain States and aided and abetted by the Federal Government and by the Constitution,"

Slavery was technically lawful in ALL states until abolished by the Federal Government.

4. "crime against humanity"

Too out of place for the time period, since undoubtedly they wouldn't apply the same standard to the Native American Indians.

5. "many other persons were persuaded or forced to assist said rebellion."

What about those blacks - both free and slaves - that DID assist the Confederate Army on their own accord?

Mainly the amendment is a political revisionist tract by the victorious Radical Republicans.
 
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If the US Congress passes this sort of trash there is every reason to suspect a second rebellion and the US deserves to 'perish from the earth'.

1. "No person who served in any of purported government, of any state which sought to rebel against the lawful government, all officers of former rebel governments and any person owning more than 10 slaves between 1860 and 1865 who gave any material support or comfort to the treasonous rebellion shall absent themselves from all states where slavery was lawful from 1st February 1866 and 31st of January 1881."

Since slavery was legal in the United States until the passing of the 13th Amendment on December 16th 1865 wouldn't most of the US have to move? There is also the problem of the 'border states' which while occupied by the Union Army were still slave states and were not covered by the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.

2. Former slaves and the descendents thereof shall have the right to vote in all Federal, State or local elections on land of any state or territory where slavery was lawful on 1st January 1860. This right shall apply in perpetuity.

You are extending the right to vote to woman former slaves but not extending the vote to whie women?

3. "Where as slavery was lawful in certain States and aided and abetted by the Federal Government and by the Constitution,"

Slavery was technically lawful in ALL states until abolished by the Federal Government.

Where do you get that from? It was illegal in all states north of the Ohio except Missouri.
 
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Germaniac

Donor
It was illegal in Northern State, BUT it was the states decision to make it illegal. It was not a federal law but state law, AND that is probably one of the top 3 reason the war was fought.

Yes, I admit if this bill passed there would be a good amount of time where a guerrilla war would be fought. The so called second southern war of independence would eventually be snuffed out just because the Northern Army would in no way allow it to survive. After a while the North would continue its scorched earth policy to a point where the guerrilla's food supply would be effectively destroyed ending any rebellion. The North could have been completely relentless in their approach to reconstruction and the south could do nothing to stop it.
 
Yes, I admit if this bill passed there would be a good amount of time where a guerrilla war would be fought. The so called second southern war of independence would eventually be snuffed out just because the Northern Army would in no way allow it to survive. After a while the North would continue its scorched earth policy to a point where the guerrilla's food supply would be effectively destroyed ending any rebellion. The North could have been completely relentless in their approach to reconstruction and the south could do nothing to stop it.

A good amount of the guerrilla war would be Northern states dominated by Democrats that recognize that the Republicans in Congress were passing some very bizarre laws.
 
West Virginia went in as a free state. Is Maryland north of the Ohio? In any case slavery was banned by the northern tier of states.

West Virginia was not admitted as a 'free state'. It had to amend its constitution to outlaw slavery in 1863. Kentucky and Delaware apparently didn't outlaw slavery until the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865.
 
West Virginia was not admitted as a 'free state'. It had to amend its constitution to outlaw slavery in 1863. Kentucky and Delaware apparently didn't outlaw slavery until the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865.


It didn't get in until it amended its constitution to do so.
 
In OTL what happened in 1865 was that the defeated South was allowed to elect governments on the basis of its previous constitutions. The legislatures so elected seemed to the North to be an insult to those who had fought to save the Union,

However if different things had been done in the immediate aftermath of the war the white South might have been a lot less truculant.

In OTL Congressional reconstruction did not happen until several years later.

If Governors appointed in the aftermath of the war had been clever at distinguishing between the slave power and ordinary Southerners that could have made a difference.


It is quite possible that you would quickly have found it as hard to find a white guy in Alabama in say 1870 who 'really' supported sessession and slavery as it would be to find open Nazis in West Germany in 1950.

The amendment I am imagining would have had the intention of destroying the class that had done so much damage to the US and creating a class of property owning middle class black citizens.

Further it would have been much harder to have disefrachised black people if they had been less poor and thus less dependent on the old ruling class.


I am glad someone spotted to point about women voting. I imagine a judicial decison making enfranchising former women slaves very quickly resulting in adult suffrage in most of the South.


By the way people still spread the myth that the South was harshly treated in OTL. It was not. Racists successfully used this lie (plus terrorism) to regain power for 90 years
 
Who is running the country in the wake of those assassinations? Because if the conspiracy was fully completed then it would be Seward, not Stanton, who would be the dead Cabinet Secretary. Schuyler Colfax, the Speaker of the House at the time of Lincoln's assassination, would have become the Acting President, though I don't know whether he would carry out the rest of Lincoln's term.

With this kind of POD, I think you would see harsh reprisals against the South, but I think it would probably be in form of treason trails for the leading members of the Southern rebellion. Lee, Davis, a few other top Southern political and military leaders, put on trail for capital charges of treason. Plus a blanket, lifetime, disenfranchisement of all officers colonel and up in the Southern Army and all elected officials from the State House on up. I don't think you would see Constitutional Amendments, but rather legislation like that seen in the Radical Reconstruction that denied the rebellious state re-entry to the Union until certain guidelines had been met.

Combine those harsh penalities with land confiscations and redistribution (with ex-Confederate soldiers from Lt. Colonel on down who swear an oath of allegiance to the Union eligible to receive land) for freedman. By enacting that stuff on a federal level the states can't overturn it, and you've shut out the former ruling class from ever taking office again. Also, by enacting that kind of stuff in Congress, it becomes far harder to end Reconstruction, because that legislation is going to have to overturned by Congressional votes and Presidential signature. I can see the campaign slogan for the Radical Reconstructionists now: "We will NEVER let the murderers of Lincoln and Johnson and Seward and 400,000 of our fellow countrymen vote!" If the land has already been redistributed, then the whole social system has been broken, and I think the Redeemers are going to have a much tougher time of it on the ground in the South.
 
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I am glad someone spotted to point about women voting. I imagine a judicial decison making enfranchising former women slaves very quickly resulting in adult suffrage in most of the South.

I should hope that the franchise be extended to women both North and South and West.

However, realistically, its likely that such a decision would be 'imagined'.
 
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