The Reconstruction of America After the Civil War

The Reconstruction of America After the Civil War

At the close of the American Civil War in 1865, the United States’ government was faced with the tremendously difficult problem of re-integrating the Confederate States into the Union. Between 1865 and 1877 this problem was addressed by various forms of “Reconstruction,” programs whose goals also included the rebuilding of the ravaged Southern economy, and the integration of freed slaves and other African Americans into citizenship and culture at large. Complicated by an incompetent president, corruption, and a backlash by southern culture, the success of Reconstruction as far as achieving its objectives is questionable. If we, however, look at the Reconstruction’s achievements in culturally relative terms, we will see that it truly did make progress and pave the way for an eventual return to normalcy.

The first obstacle that Reconstruction faced was the very president who started it, Andrew Johnson. Johnson became president following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in May of 1865. Johnson announced a new plan for Reconstruction, canceling out Lincoln’s plan, within a month of the assassination, and without consulting Congress. (Boyer, et al., The Enduring Vision, 574) This action marked the beginning of a conflict between the president and Congress, Radical Republicans in particular. The conflict eventually resulted in increased difficulties for Reconstruction. Johnson’s Reconstruction led to the pardoning of approximately 13,000 former Confederates and wealthy Southerners. These groups helped write the so-called “Black Codes,” a set of laws which left the freedmen some basic rights gained by the 13th Amendment but which essentially kept former slaves from being truly liberated. (Boyer, et al., 575-576)

Confronted with a president whose Reconstruction plans were viewed as feeble, moderate and radical republican factions joined forces. The new coalition worked together to overturn the black codes with Lyman Trumbull’s Supplementary Freedmen’s Bureau bill. Johnson vetoed this bill and went on to veto the Civil Rights Act of 1866 as well, claiming that it would “operate in favor of the colored and against the white race.” The coalition Congress overrode both of these vetoes and six more after that. Although the Republicans managed to get their agenda through, the schism caused by Johnson’s confusin...

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...s, and public buildings as well as creating institutions to care for orphans, the insane and the disabled. (Boyer, 589) Government employees were getting paid more, state militia were formed, and a public-school system was created in the South. According to Prof. Paul Harvey of the University of Colorado, literacy rates for Southern blacks shot up between 1875 and 1900. On top of all of these positive consequences, and regardless of the degree to which they were enforced, the 13th and 14th Amendments freed the slaves in writing and granted them citizenship. They served as the groundwork upon which the Civil Rights Movement would build 100 years later. With these positive consequences in mind, it seems to me that Reconstruction not only was a success, but was a success despite the numerous factors working against it. Its legacy in history should be a positive one, one that we could look towards as a model.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Boyer, Paul S., et al, The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, Houghton

Mifflin Company, New York 2005

Cobbs Hoffman, Elizabeth, Gjerde, Jon, Major Problems in American History: Volume II: Since 1865. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York 2002