Chapter Five Summary and Analysis

From 1866 to 1868, the Ku Klux Klan grew by leaps and bounds. President Andrew Johnson was fighting the Congress about Reconstruction. Johnson would weaken the Reconstruction side of the question every time he could. In 1868, Johnson fired Edwin Stanton and overstepped the Tenure of Office Act of 1867. The Congress decided to impeach Johnson. The impeachment proceedings lasted more than three months. Johnson was acquitted by one vote. Johnson lost all strength in the Congress. Johnson became a lame duck president—a man with no power for the next eleven months. By the summer of 1868, seven of the Southern states had been readmitted to the Union. The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified which made it mandatory for the Supreme Court to honor an amendment. The Court could overturn a law.

The presidential election was going to have more black men voting...