President Andrew Johnson lifted himself out of extreme poverty to become President of the United States. He was a man with little education who climbed the political ladder and held many different high offices. As a strict constitutionalist, Johnson believed in limiting the powers of the federal government. President Johnson was one of the most bellicose Presidents who “fought” Congress, critics, and many others. President Andrew Johnson faced numerous problems post-Civil War Era including reconstructing the Southern states to combine peacefully with the Union, his battles with Congress, and his career ending impeachment.
Many people had different views and ideas about Reconstruction. There was much debate about how the Confederate states, which included Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, should be readmitted into the Union. Some people believed that the states should be treated as territories, and others believed that the southern leaders should be punished instead of the states. Still, others believed that the South still belonged to the Union because secession was illegal. During the Civil War, on December 1863, President Lincoln announced his 10 % Plan for Reconstruction. Many Northerners considered it to be too mild, but the blacks condemned it for ignoring saying nothing about civil rights fir the freedmen and ignoring black suffrage. Lincoln’s plan was never carried out because he was assassinated less than one week after the Civil War. However, while Lincoln was president, a national debate developed over whether Congress or the President should establish the Reconstruction policy.
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
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...
Once the Civil war had ended, President Abraham Lincoln created a plan to help rebuild the United States. This plan was known as the Reconstruction. This time was used to attempt to help the North and South recover from the war, going as far as re-admitting the southern states back into the United States. Andrew Johnson, who was selected to serve as President after Lincoln’s assassination, had a similar idea. While both Lincoln and Johnson believed the Reconstruction was a good idea, many republicans believed that the south was being treated much too kindly. Since the Republicans did not agree with the way things were being dealt with, they chose to get control of the reconstruction, moving it from the executive branch over to the legislative
The presidency of Andrew Johnson in 1965 after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln brought forth a new plan for Reconstruction, which followed a firm mindset of states having their own rights. President Johnson firmly opposed land reform and he also wanted to pardon all rebels . During Reconstruction, with President Johnson running the country, the land that was won by the Union Army and given to the newly freed slaves, was forced back to its owner’s pre Civil War . President Johnson showed obvious signs of bias towards the Southern States to rebuild their economies however which way they pleased, as long as they followed the thirteenth amendment put in place.
President Johnson was thrown into the presidential seat at a crucial turning point of American government. Johnson took a strong anti-Confederate stand, and sought to destroy the planter aristocracy. He was a spokesman for nonslaveowning whites and rose rapidly to political fame, but he reversed his position on slavery during the war. Johnson neither adopted abolitionist ideals nor challenged racist sentiments. The Civil Rights of blacks was not his main concern.
...ights for African Americans as well as a political rights for the people, his goal was to abolish slavery and felt that “all men created equally” should uphold for everybody, everybody that was man at least. Johnson the president, in the beginning proved to be loyal to his radicals by chastising the confederacy making sure there would be repercussions for their actions. Also his amnesty plan to reinstate the south states was far harsher than that of Lincoln's. Johnson’s sanctions deprived confederacy officers, people in high power, and anyone who owned valuable assets could be subject to confiscation. The purpose was to shift political power in south and reward it to freed blacks and white southerners who stayed neutral during the war. Hahn states in his article that, “During reconstruction, black men held political offices in every state of the former confederacy”
Reconstruction would start after the Civil war. President Lincoln had started the crusade in helping Black Americans for civil rights with the Emancipation proclamation, freeing all the slaves in the current rebeling states in 1863. This would then lead to the 13th Amendment (1865), the 14th Amendment (1868) and the 15th Amendment that would attempt to give the vote and citizenship to freed slaves. The Federal Government during the beginning would work to protect Black Americans showing that it wasn’t just down to Black leaders for Civil rights. Despite Congresses best efforts, President Andrew Johnson would be unlike his Predecessor. This made it increasingly difficult without the cooperation of the President to help ensure that the Southern States followed along with the Reconstruction Amendments, instead of the rising Jim crow laws that would spread throughout the south. The need to help African-Americans through law would die a death due to the Compromise of 1877, making Ruther B Hayes President. With the North now turning its back on African-Americans and the South hav...
...sisted Reconstruction. The South used the KKK to attack the blacks that voted and participated in politics, and the KKK attacked many whites that were publically against Democrats and that supported the harsher Reconstruction plans put out by Congress. The end of Reconstruction was inevitable after the efforts of the South to resist Reconstruction because it led to the Republican’s giving up on their plans. The opposition of the south caused the Republicans to tire and this was another factor of Reconstruction’s end. Johnson also had many disagreements with Congress when they were trying to plan Reconstruction, which distracted both Johnson and Congress from actually finishing Reconstruction. This caused it to end before they could finish any of their plans. Because of all these factors, the Republicans eventually lost their will to complete Reconstruction.