William Howard Russell once said, "Little did I conceive of the greatness of the defeat, the magnitude of the disaster which it had entailed upon the United States. So short-lived has been the American Union, that men who saw it rise may live to see it fall.” At one point in History, the United States was not one nation. The Civil War had created many issues for the United States and the country was desperate for a solution. This solution was thought to be reconstruction. Reconstruction was the attempt from the early 60's until the late 70's to resolve the issues of the war after slavery was dismissed and the Confederacy was defeated. Reconstruction also attempted to address how states would again become part of the Union, the status of Confederate leaders, and the status of African Americans across the United States. Reconstruction had three plans. Abraham Lincoln created wartime Reconstruction, Andrew Johnson developed presidential Reconstruction, and lastly was congressional Reconstruction created by the Radical Republicans. Though these ideas have some similarities, they are also very different in the results, construction, and execution. Some people wonder what would have happened if Abraham Lincoln was not assassinated. His plan, in my opinion, would have been the most successful of the three and would have changed the nation drastically. These Reconstruction plans are three different policies but the creators did share common ideas and opinions. All three had very similar goals. One major goal was to reintegrate the south back into the union as quickly as possible. The quicker the reunion of the two sections, the easier it would be to establish order and control. Similarly, another goal was to create order after the long p... ... middle of paper ... ...ust and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.” Lincoln was focused on his main goal of improving the status of our country and how to achieve the peace he wanted as quickly and efficiently as possible. Lincoln would have been more lenient with the south; therefore, would have prevented the anger which was caused after Johnson's Reconstruction plan was in place. Furthermore, if he would have lived, he would not have put up with the violence, especially related to supremacy and racism. He would have ensured the security and protection of the slaves before any negative events could happen. Unlike Johnson, Abraham Lincoln would not have placed the blame on a certain party. He would have found a way to create peace so his plan of reestablishing the union would be quicker and he would have made decisions based on the fairness and equality toward Americans.
The social history regarding reconstruction has been of great controversy for the last two decades in America. Several wars that occurred in America made reconstruction efforts to lag behind. Fundamental shortcomings of the reconstruction were based on racism, politics, capitalism and social relations. The philosophy was dominant by the people of South under the leadership of Lincoln. Lincoln plans were projected towards bringing the states from the South together as one nation. However, the efforts of the Activist were faded by the intrusion of the Republicans from the North. Northerners were capitalists and disapproved the ideas that Lincoln attempted to spread in the South (Foner Par 2).
Reconstruction is the period of rebuilding the south that succeeded the Civil War (1861-1865). This period of time is set by the question now what? The Union won the war and most of the south was destroyed. Devastation, buildings turned into crumbles and lost crops. The South was drowning in poverty. To worsen the situation there were thousands of ex-slaves that were set free by the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13 Amendment. "All these ex-slaves", Dr. Susan Walens commented, "and no place to put them," The ex-slaves weren't just homeless but they had no rights, unlike white man. The government and congress had to solve the issues present in the south and the whole nation in order to re-establish the South. These issues were economical, social and political. The United States had presidential and congressional reconstruction. Reconstruction was a failure, a great attempt to unify the nation. It was a failure due to the events that took place during this period.
During the 1800s, the succeeding era following the American Civil War was sought to be a period of prosperity, privilege and freedom for those affected by the calamitous war and preceding period of oppression. This era of reconstruction made a genuine effort to; Readmit Confederate States to Union, establish and defend the rights to newly-freed African Americans, and integrate them into the United State's social, economic and political operations. However, the reality of this adverse situation was that southern, democratic radicals would institute new laws known as "Black Codes" (OI) which would set a nationwide precedent that they would go as far as they needed to maintain their confederate way of life. Other southern radicals had also created White Supremacy Organizations to combat opposing Republicans and freedmen. The severity of the situation synergized with Confederate hate established the grounds in which the efforts of Reconstruction ultimately failed.
After the war, President Abraham Lincoln’s main goal was to reunite the nation, restore, and heal the wounds that the aftermath of the Civil war had left behind. Many northerners were against the proposal that he made, to just let the south come back as they pleased because they thought it was unfair to not receive any kind of punishment for le...
Following the Civil War, America underwent many changes during the Reconstruction era to reach where it needed to be or where it should’ve been. The purpose of reconstruction was to rebuild the South after the Union’s victory in the war that freed all the slaves the South had and needed. During this period, there were ratifications of amendments, social and economic factors that affected African Africans, and the end of reconstruction.
William Mason Grosvenor believes that Reconstruction should be harsh. Grosvenor has two main arguments to support this belief, manifest destiny and the potential for the reoccurrence of a similar event to the war if Reconstruction was carried out in a lenient manner. Grosvenor argues that the country, pre-Civil War, was never truly a single unified country, but rather a group of peoples with vastly different values held together by a constitution which they had outgrown, saying, “[n]o chemical union had ever taken place; for that the white-hot crucible of civil war was found necessary.” Furthermore, Grosvenor believes that the succession of the South demonstrated this divide while simultaneously violating the doctrine of manifest destiny through
During the Civil War, the South was destroyed. A lot of the fighting happened in the South and the towns and cities were ruined. People all across the United States agreed that the south needed rebuilding. There were different plans that were made up to help rebuild the south. People had different ideas of which plan to use and nobody could agree on one plan. This time of rebuilding the south is called the Reconstruction. There were three major plans. There was Lincoln’s Plan, the Radical Republican Plan, and Johnson’s plan. Lincoln’s Plan got its name from Abraham Lincoln, the creator of this plan. The Radical Republican Plan was the congress. It got its name because it was considered a more radical, or extreme, plan. Then, Johnson’s Plan was named from the creator, Andrew Johnson. This plan was also sometimes called “Restoration”.
The Reconstruction has been killed! Who’s to blame, the North or South? The Northern neglect stopped Reconstruction because of neglect and racism. At the time the Reconstruction ended, the Declaration of Independence became one hundred years old in 1876 (Background Essay, Paragraph 1). Another important event that occurred was the election of 1876 for the new president. It was Rutherford B. Hayes against Samuel J. Tilden. The election caused talk of a new Civil War but then the Compromise of 1877 gave Hayes presidency. Rutherford B. Hayes became the new president at the time the Reconstruction was coming to an end (Background Essay, Paragraph 4). The presidential election did not help the Reconstruction at all. It destroyed American dream for the black people who were in the South (Background Essay, Paragraph 1).
In December 1863, President Lincoln announced his plan for Reconstruction. Now it was 1865 and it was finally starting. After the war ended, many things had happened that would make America somewhat what it is today. Now this plan, it called for freedom from punishment for every Southerner under one condition. Lincoln proposed that if 10 percent of a state's voters took the oath to join the union, the state could form a new government and new constitution, and the state's new constitution had to prohibit slavery. Many had thought that his plan was too moderate, and it slowed down the process of establishing the Reconstruction Act. Later after Lincoln passed away, Lyndon B. Johnson took the President’s place and
The first plans of Reconstruction were those of President Abraham Lincoln. However he was not able to put those plans into action after he was assassinated days after giving a speech where he included slaves who had enlisted in the military and those slaves who were free should obtain the right to be able to vote. After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln the plans of reconstruction
Abraham Lincoln thought about the process of restoring the Union from the earliest days of the war. His principles were to accomplish the task as soon as possible and ignore calls for punishing the South.
It is generally assumed that the Reconstruction period of the United States failed. This era, which lasted from the end of the Civil War to the election of Rutherford B. Hayes, saw three amendments to the Constitution, two Civil Rights Acts, and the “enfranchisement of the black man”. (Frederick Douglass, 1865) Reconstruction was necessary to rebuild the South’s economy, and welcome states back into the Union. While it succeeded in legally uniting all the states, civil matters were not so easily influenced. Slavery, for example, was abolished during the Civil War due to Abraham Lincoln’s war powers. Over the next decade, three amendments were passed through Congress to protect the rights of these freedmen. Congress, at this time, was held
With the end of the Civil war in 1865, the new nation of the United States now faced challenges on restoring peace within the Union. The North, having won the civil war, now faced the task to implement reconstruction of the South. They came in contact with the questions of: What should happen to the freed slaves, should the freed slaves have rights, what should be done to the Confederate leaders, and how should the South be reconstructed? There were many different ideas and views on how Reconstruction should be handled, but only one succeeded more successfully than the other. Although they bear some superficial similarities, the difference between presidential and congressional reconstruction are clear. The president believed that Confederate
Lincoln was then raised to power as a Republican. Through out the civil war he kept his leadership precise, even though the stressfulness of the war. He brought the union and confederacy together. Furthermore, he then wrote the emancipation proclamation, which then led to the thirteenth amendment, these efforts started to heal the nation. Lincoln never missed a beat and really kept peace and order within the nation with his choices, which kept people hopeful and kept the peace among the nation.
In the wake of the civil war, America faced the challenge of reintegrating the Southern states into the Union through a period called reconstruction. The Southern