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 Five days after the Civil War, President Lincoln was shot by 

 John Wilkes Booth while he was watching a play at Ford's Theater. 

Lincoln then died the next day on April 15th, 1865.

Once President Lincoln died Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's Vice President, 

became President. It was now President Johnson's job to reconstruct the 

United States.

Johnson and Congress had many fights over how to rebuild the country. This led 

to Johnson vetoing and not supporting many decisions that congress made. 

Eventually, Congress created the fourteenth amendment that said that all citizens 

would be granted "equal protection of the laws" and African Americans could be 

American citizens and be treated as if they were American citizens. Soon, 

President Johnson was impeached due to some of these arguments.

Even though African Americans were free of slavery, they still had a 

very tough life. They had trouble finding good, well paying jobs and 

were taken advantage of in various ways. In addition, they were 

treated differently and poorly by people or groups, such as the 

Ku Klux Klan [KKK].

Ulyses S. Grant became President in the 1868 election due to the fact 

that African Americans voted for Grant because they could now vote. 

When this happened Southerners wanted to keep African Americans 

from voting, so that they could not vote again. To keep this from 

happening, the 15th Amendment, which stated that citizens could not be 

stopped from voting due to race, color, or previously being slaves. This 

amendment was ratified in 1870

Even though African Americans could vote, they were 

terrorized by the Ku Klux Klan in the south. As a result of 

this, President Grant urged congress to pass a tough law 

against the KKK. Congress approved the Anti-Klan Bill in 

1871, and thousands of klansmen were arrested. 

Because of this, the 1872 election was both fair and 

peaceful and Grant was elected president once again. 

After this however, support for Republicans and 

reconstruction weakened due to several events. First, the 

Panic of 1873 lead to a five year depression where banks, 

railroads, and other businesses went bankrupt. In addition, 

supreme court rulings undid things created during the 

reconstruction and basically prohibited African Americans 

from gaining equality.

The final event that led to the end of Reconstruction was the 1876 

Presidential Election. The election was between Samuel J. Tilden 

(Democrat) and Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican). The election 

was very close and came down to the votes of South Carolina, 

Florida and Louisiana. Then, seven democrats and eight 

republicans made a deal, the Compromise of 1877. 

Under the Compromise of 1877, Rutherford B. Hayes, a 

republican, became President. In return, Republicans and 

Southern Democrats agreed on several issues. First, the 

government would remove federal troops from the South. Second, the 

government would provide land grants and loans so that the south could 

build railroads to the west coast. Third, southern 

officials would receive government money to rebuild the South. Next, 

Hayes promised he would appoint a democrat to his 

cabinet. Lastly, the democrats promised to respect Africans Americans 

rights.

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