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Reconstruction after civil war in america
American civil war reconstruction
Essay presidentail reconstruction
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Somebody ... Wanted ... But ... So ... President Abraham Lincoln the nation to heal as quickly as possible from the Civil War and planned to reunify the nation quickly he was assassinated in 1865 only days after Robert E. Lee’s surrender plans for Reconstruction were taken over by Vice President Andrew Johnson, who became president after Lincoln’s death President Andrew Johnson That patience was the change of the social structure for the South. For the change to happen, the southerners would need to accept African Americans as their own or equal citizens Johnson created the Presidential Reconstruction, this included the creation of the 13th amendment outlawing slavery in the South Radical Republicans Radical Republicans believed in giving the South punishment. To be able to keep the South the way it currently was, not allowing them to fall back into a state of the pre-civil war. An example of this would be slavery or racial discrimination …show more content…
Only congress, the president or both could make the decision of the Reconstruction policy not the Radical Republicans.
Conflict over the ideas for the Reconstruction plan had emerged with the Wade-Davis bill. Lincoln wanted to allow the state to rejoin the Union if they could get 10 percent of the voters to take an oath of loyalty to the United States. But Benjamin Wade and Henrey Winter Davis wanted a harsher punishment. These two members of congress wanted a majority of voters, at least over 50 percent to take an oath saying they had never supported the Confederacy. When the Wade-Davis bill passed, Lincoln refused to sign it. He knew that if he did not sign it within the 10 days of it becoming a bill it would be vetoed. Radical Republicans were very upset with the choice that Lincoln had made. 10 days later, Lincoln was
assassinated. Southern Democrats For the federal troops that were placed in the South to be removed. Republicans expected the African American to vote for the Republican party, not returning to the Confederate side. When congress found out about this they required a ratification of the 15th amendment. In 1868, General Ulysses S. Grant became president and started pulling the troops to help enforce Reconstruction policies and protect the rights of Freedmen. The main issue relating to the Reconstruction that divided Republicans at the end of the Civil War would be the opinions of all the citizens, president, and congress members. An example of an opinion that had been a hard fight for would be who would pay for all of the damage and destruction caused by the war. If I had been a member of Congress at this time, the type of plan that for Reconstruction that I would have supported would have been Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jacksons’ plan. Lincoln wanted to reunite the nation, make it a whole again. Lincoln had passed many amendments to abide by the African Americans and their safety. These two men did everything in their heart that they could do to help the ones that needed it. Johnson had visited many cities and made many enemies along the way. The Republicans had gained a majority in both the House and the Senate. When Congress had started passing bills, President Johnson began vetoing them, but his attempt to stop congress was to week. This led to many others joining the Radical Republicans. In the end, Congress was able to override President Johnson and start the plans that they had created.
“The best way to predict your future is to create it” (Lincoln). President states the principal of Reconstruction, where to unite the United States, there must be an authoritative action to carry it out. The Reconstruction Era (1863-1877) is a period where Lincoln sought to restore the divided nation by uniting the confederates and the union and to involve the freedmen into the American society. The main objectives were to initially restore the union, to rebuild the South and to enact progressive legislation for the rights of the freed slaves. Thus, the executive and legislature branches had enacted a series of polices to “create the future” for the United States. Although the policies tied down to the Reconstructive motive, there was controversy
After the tragedy of Lincoln's death, Vice President Andrew Johnson stepped up into the presidential position and started his own plans for reconstruction; his too, would turn out to be a failure. He supported hardcore Democratic principles and restoring Southern power. He brought in the remaining states back into the constitution. He
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...
Following Lincoln’s tragic assassination, President Andrew Johnson took on the accountability of making Reconstruction a reality. Andrew Johnson wanted to use Lincoln’s ideas of reconstruction but in a modified form. Since Congress would be in recess for eight more months Johnson decided to go ahead with his plan. Johnson's goal in reconstruction was to grant amnesty to all former Confederates (except high officials), the ordinances of secession were to be revoked, Confederate debts would repudiate, and the states had to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. Once the states swore to a loyalty oath to abide by the conditions they would be allowed to return to the Union. After swearing to the oath Confederate States would be allowed to govern themselves. With this power the states implemented the creation of a system of black codes that restricted the actions of freed slaves in much the same way, if not exactly the same way, that slaves were restricted under the old law. The end result of his plan was a hopeless conflict with the Radical Republicans who dominated Congress, passed measures over Johnson's vetoes, and attempted to limit the power of the executive concerning appointments and removals.
As the Civil War ended, according to Norton et al., America was a nation in need of “healing, justice, and physical rebuilding” (465). The war had left
President Lincoln was succeeded by his vice president Andrew Johnson. Johnson was a southern democrat who believed in the union, however, he did not believe in black equality. Johnson believed that the planter class in the south had led their section of the country to ruin. As far as blacks were concerned, they were an inferior race to be held in some sort of subjugation to the dominant white population of the south. His attitude ran into a head on collision with that of the radical republicans in congress led by Thaddeus Stevens.
... The cause was forfeited not by Republicans, who welcomed the African-American votes, but to the elite North who had concluded that the formal end of slavery was all the freed man needed and their unpreparedness for the ex-slaves to participate in the Southern commonwealth was evident. Racism, severe economic depression, an exhausted North and troubled South, and a campaign of organized violence toward the freed man, overturned Reconstruction. The North withdrew the last of the federal troops with the passing of The Compromise of 1877. The freed slaves continued to practice few voting rights until 1890, but they were soon stripped of all political, social and economic powers. Not until the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s were the freedoms that were fought for by our Republican forefathers nearly 100 years before, finally seen through to fruition.
The reconstruction of the Union began under President Lincoln before the end of the war, and carried on by President Johnson after the assassination of President Lincoln. After Lincoln’s death, the leadership of the nation bestowed upon Andrew Johnson of Tennessee. According to A. Brinkley (pg. 375), Johnson revealed his plan for reconstruction or “Restoration”, as he preferred to call it, soon after he took office and implemented it during the summer of 1865 when Congress was in recess. Like Lincoln, he offered some form of amnesty to Southerners who would take a pledge of loyalty to the Union. In most other respect, however, his plan resembled the Wade-Davis Bill. The next phase of reconstruction, known as the Congressional Plan or "Radical" modernization had begun, which undid everything started by Presidents Lincoln and Johnson. These radicals, mostly republicans, motivated by three main factors revenge, concern for the freedmen, and political concerns. The Radicals in Congress pushed through a number of measures designed to assist the freedmen, but also demonstrate the supremacy of Congress over the president. These events included the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the 14th Amendment, the Tenure of Office Act, and the Army Appropriations Act. The Radical Republicans prepared an effort in Congress to impeach the president Johnson as a payback for resisting their platforms. The vote in the Senate was 35-19 for conviction, one vote short of the necessary two-thirds. This was in turn to a few Republicans that had crossed over and voted with the Democrats, thus refuting the ultimate retaliation to the Radicals. If the removal of President Johnson had gone thru, it might have permanently weakened the executive branch. Congr...
As President, Johnson decided to follow Lincolns plans by granting amnesty to almost all former confederates; establishing a Provisional government; and ratifying the thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery. However, Johnson was not the same man as Lincoln for he was quite unpopular, especially with Congress. As the south was in a transitional period, its politics were changing as well. First, the Reconstruction Act allowed blacks to v...
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.
After the north had officially defeated the south in May of 1865, preparations to repair the fractured nation began taking place. However, the country faced political turmoil when several opposing ideas on southern reconstruction emerged. Those ideas were divided into three opposing sides: Conservatives, Moderates, and Radicals. The Conservatives believed the South should be readmitted back into the Union without suffering any consequences for secession. This included the repudiation of Confederate war debt and the issuing of pardons to former Confederate generals. Their goal was to return the South to the political, social, a...
As a result of the failure of Johnson's Reconstruction, Congress proposed its own plan. The 14th amendment was one of the many things implemented under this plan. Among other things, this amendment forbade ex-Confederate leaders from holding political office, and gave freedmen their citizenship. The Southern rejection of this amendment, largely as a result of the actions of their former Confederate leaders then in state office, paved the way for the Reconstruction Act of 1867. This dismantled all Southern governments and established military control over the South. It guaranteed freedmen the right to vote under new state constitutions, and required the Southern states to ratify the 14th amendment. With the inclusion of African-American votes in southern elections, and with the help of Northerners known as "Carpet Baggers" and other white Southerners known as "Scalawags," the Republican Party gained almost complete control over the American South.
Since our time serving together, the state of the Union has changed immensely with the “reconstruction” period starting in the U.S. As an esteemed member of the House of Representatives, you most certainly know about the vetoing of the Wade-Davis Bill. I am not sure which way you were swayed to vote, but I’m torn on the issue. As you know, Mr. Lincoln’s promise in his “Emancipation Proclamation” was my main inspiration to join the war effort. Although I agreed with most of his decisions during the war, his lenient terms of surrender for the Confederate army slightly altered my point of view of the president. Lincoln’s desire to quickly and smoothly reconstruct the Union was understandable, but Lincoln’s ten percent plan for
After four hard-fought years of the deadliest war on American soil, the Union, led by President Abraham Lincoln, defeated the Confederacy, led by President-elect Jefferson Davis. The victory of the Union resolved the matter regarding the freedom of slaves, but along came the concern of the future status of four million newly freed slaves. The United States was divided, and in response, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867. Even with the best efforts put into the Reconstruction Act of 1867, it ultimately failed in its quest and ended ten years after in 1877. What remained was the issue regarding the status of African Americans and the South’s economy.
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