Lincoln Vs Johnson Rebirth Essay

1127 Words3 Pages

The Rebirth of the United States During the era of Reconstruction, Sarah Morgan, stated “Let a great earthquake swallow us up first! Let us leave our land and emigrate to any spot of desert on the earth, rather than return to the union.” America, one of the world’s biggest superpowers with a large sphere of global influence, was not always deemed as such. The period of reconstruction, from 1865 to 1877, spoke to how the eleven withdrawing states would reclaim what the Constitution names a "republican form of government", and be reestablished in Congress. It also addressed the civil position of the previous leaders of the Confederates, the Constitutional and legal position of freed slaves, especially their civil rights, and whether they should …show more content…

While Lincoln was a historically significant figure in terms of his efforts for racial equality, Johnson efforts were teeming with confederate sympathies. Lincoln is historically recognized for the emancipation proclamation and the abolition of slavery. Lincoln said, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on…to bind up the nation’s wounds…to do all which may achieve…a just and lasting peace”. (Cite) Johnson, on the other hand, is widely considered the most racist of all the American presidents. (relate back to …show more content…

While Lincoln and Johnson had a few similarities, they were dominantly different in many aspects of their presidencies. Historian Eric Foner said, "What remains certain is that Reconstruction failed, and that for blacks its failure was a disaster whose magnitude cannot be obscured by the genuine accomplishments that did endure”. (<- expand on this quote) The end of the Reconstruction was a clumsy process, and the era of Republican jurisdiction ended with the states. Alongside the Compromise of 1877, military involvement in the South was shut down, and Republican control fell in the final three state governments in the

Open Document