Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Lincolns reconstruction plan success or failure essay
Political impacts that the civil war had
Lincolns reconstruction plan success or failure essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Abraham Lincoln and the Beginnings of Reconstruction
Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, the rapidly growing white population and the equally increasing slave population had been heightening the conflict between slave-free Northern states and the slave-holding cotton belt
South. Hopelessly divided over the issue of slavery, thirty-one million American citizens were in 1860 called upon to elect the sixteenth President of the United States of America. When the anti-slavery Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected on November 6, 1860, no fellow American could have even imagined what great burden would lay upon the highest office in the years to come.[1] Lincoln’s election was the ultimate trigger for eleven Southern states to withdraw from the Union and begin a desperate civil war that lasted for four years. Once it became clear the South could not win the war, the president was confronted with the question of Reconstruction, that is, to restore Federal authority and establish loyal free state governments in the occupied areas of the rebellious South. In the early phase of the war,
Lincoln had favored a simple and rapid restoration of all areas conquered by Union armies. However, when Lincoln failed to restore the states’ old allegiances, he shifted his plan towards a much more radical proposal. By 1864, after the bloody campaigns of Gettysburg and Vicksburg have sacrificed the lives of tens of thousands men, Lincoln resolved that he would only allow slave states to reenter the Union if they supported both the abolishment of slavery and the establishment of black suffrage.
In the months following Lincoln’s election, the country fell to pieces, beginning with South Carolina in
December, 1860. Within four months, the states of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas,
North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee had all seceded and formed the new Confederated State of America.[2]
Was the secession of these states legal? Even more, was their secession constitutional? While the secessionists thought themselves to be fully within their constitutional rights, Lincoln persistently believed that “the
The United States began to dissatisfy some of its citizens and so the concerns of sectionalism, or the split of the country began to arise. There was a continuous riff between the south and the north over a few issues, a major one being slavery. The south argued that the slaves were necessary to support the southern economy. According to document A, the south were angry that the north was creating taxes that hurt the southern economy, thus increasing the need for slavery since they had to make up for the expense of the taxes. The south felt that the north was able...
South Carolina seceded from the Union on December of 1860, General Robert Anderson and his troops were stationed out at Fort Moultrie. They did not think Fort Moultrie was safe enough so then he had a plan to move his troops to Fort Sumter. The Commander of the Union was Robert Anderson, and the Confederate commander was P.G.T. Beauregard. Anderson had moved his troops from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter. Soon after coming to the fort Anderson realized he only had a couple week’s supply of food left. The confederate soldiers came and surrounded the fort and demanded Anderson had over the fort to them. Anderson was starting to run out of supplies for fighting and food. General Beauregard thought the Union would leave the South Carolina fort but Anderson refused. Beauregard threatened the Union to surrender but they would not, then the firing began. Anderson eventually realized there was no hope for them winning this battle, he then surrender the Southern for...
... by the war and fight more viciously. Lincoln was very careful not to underestimate his enemies in the South and sternly advised the American public not to get overconfident, “Let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy final triumph. Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that just God, in His good time, will us the right result.” The siege of Vicksburg was in many ways the hardest blow to the South, because they lost their control of the river there, and lost communication with their western territories. In many respects, this was the day that I believe most of the southern soldiers believed the war had ended, and with Sherman making his march, the psychological impact was devastating. Without their beliefs, their way of life taken away, they had no reason to fight, and no reason to continue fighting because if Old Dixie could fall, so could anyone else.
In the spring 1861, years of building tensions between the northern states and southern states resulted in the American Civil War. In 1680 an anti-slavery Republican, Abraham Lincoln was elected president causing seven southern states to secede from the union. These seven states included--Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas--. These seven states formed the Confederate States of America. The American Civil War lasted from April 12, 1861 to May 9, 1865 and claimed more than roughly 620,000 lives.
After years of a cruel war that pitted brother against brother, the United States of America entered into a period of time called Reconstruction. Reconstruction was an act implemented by Congress to help rebuild the majorly devastated southern states. Another of its goals was help newly freed slaves successfully merge into life as a free people among many hostile whites.
The election of Abraham Lincoln, an anti-slavery advocate, in 1860 resulted in the secession of the South from the United States of America. The South seceded from the Union and encouraged others to do the same, as Abraham Lincoln was against popular sovereignty and the Constitution. (Doc 7) Abraham Lincoln condemned the institution of slavery, which led the the secession of the South upon his presidential nomination.
Although Lincoln and Johnson both passed Reconstruction plans that helped reunite the north and the south, ultimately Congress was not satisfied and passed its own plan. Lincoln passed a rather forgiving Reconstruction plan because in his opinion, the Confederate states had never seceded from the Union. The Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction included a ten percent plan, which “ would recognize them as people of the states within which they acted, and aid them to gain in all respects full acknowledgement and enjoyment of statehood, even though the persons who thus acted were but a tenth part of the original voters of their states” (W...
Reconstruction is known as the period after the Civil war. The whole country was separated in two, people didn’t know what to do, the south was completely destroyed, and there were a lot of decisions to be made by the president. It lasted four years, and there was over half a million casualties between the union (North) and the confederate states (South). The north was declared the winner of the war after General Lee surrender in the Appomattox court house on April 9, 1865. The causes of the war was the secession of several southern states, they argued that it was up to them and it was in their rights to decide whether they should make slavery legal or illegal in their own boundaries. But the Union had other things in mind, the union wanted to decide whether or not the states were going to have slaves. This was just to make sure the country was equal on slavery and non-slavery on both sides, but states thought the union was abusing their power and being too strict on them, and that is when they decided to secede. The first state to secede was south Carolina, then they were followed by six other states, among those states were Florida, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. These states got together and created the confederate states of America in February 4, 1861, and the president was Jefferson Davis, they also made a government similar to the one of the U.S. Constitution.
Reconstruction was the time period following the Civil War, which lasted from 1865 to 1877, in which the United States began to rebuild. The term can also refer to the process the federal government used to readmit the defeated Confederate states to the Union. While all aspects of Reconstruction were not successful, the main goal of the time period was carried out, making Reconstruction over all successful. During this time, the Confederate states were readmitted to the Union, the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments were ratified, and African Americans were freed from slavery and able to start new lives.
...ited States.” Lincoln passed on his belief that the nation must be united and that a “new birth of freedom” would be created, or the nation would “perish from the world,” should the Union failed.
The secession ordinance from South Carolina rationalizes secession based on law of compact. To begin with a compact is defined as “an agreement between two or more individuals or entities” ("compact"), South Carolina reasoned that compact was not upheld by the United States and therefore South Carolina was within its legal right to leave the Union. Breaking this down further S.C. gives a clear understanding of what the law of compact means to them” mutual obligation, failure to perform material part releases obligation, if an arbiter in not provide each party uses judgment to determine fact or failure, with all consequences” (Perman Michael). South Caroline reasoned that the contract in which they entered into was no longer providing justice, domestic Tranquility, promoting general welfare or securing the prosperity of the south as promised in the opening statement of the Constitution. On the ...
His idea was known as the ten percent plan in which ten percent of a states qualified voter would take a loyalty oath to be readmitted into the Union. This would allow the south to get back into the main stream and find some solutions to its many problems. Unfortunately for Lincoln and unfortunately for America, Lincoln would be assainated only one month after the south surrendered. This presented America with one more hurdle to overcome, and that hurdle was to initially be jumped by the newly appointed President Johnson.
middle of paper ... ... By the beginning of February, six other states had decided to leave the Union: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. These seven states formed the Confederate States of America, and on February 18 Jefferson Davis was sworn in as its president. There were numerous peace talks on how to settle the dispute, but nothing worked.
middle of paper ... ... Six other states, which included Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, followed in suit by seceding from the Union. With South Carolina, they formed the Confederate States of America. The six events leading up to the Civil War—the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, the Dred Scott Decision of 1857, John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859, and the outcome of the Presidential Election of 1860—created conditions where Southerners felt the need to secede from the United States (they felt that their “way of life” was being threatened), as well as created conditions where the Northerners decided to go to war It is not surprising, however, that the Civil War occurred; since the Industrial Revolution, the Industrial North had always been different than the Agricultural South.
The southern states that seceded from the nation formed the Confederate States of America led by President Jefferson Davis. Their essential purpose was to defend “the ...