Isaac Setton Feb 17 2014 11HX Mr. Weisenberg Reconstruction Essay After the war there were many plans which were similar but different in a way. The plans were Lincolns plan, Wade Davis Bill, Andrew Johnson's Plan, and Radical Republicans Plan. Even before the war ended, President Lincoln started to think about reconstruction because he already thought about how the war would end. He wanted to build a strong Republic in the South. To end the war, he made a proclamation of amnesty and reconstruction for those areas of the Confederacy were ere was ran by Union armies. What Lincoln did was when ten percent of the population would sign a loyalty oath, he would reinstate that state into the union. In order to get this ten percent he wanted the knowledgeable blacks to vote. Voters the were able to elect delegates to give changed state constitutions and create new state governments. All southerners except for high line Confederate army officers and government officials were granted full amnesty. Lincoln guaranteed southerners that he would protect their private property which excl...
After the Civil War, the victorious Union enacted a policy of Reconstruction in the former Confederate states. Reconstruction was aimed at creating as smooth a transition as possible for the southern states to re-enter the Union as well as enacting economic and social changes. However, several factors brought about its failure, and as a result the consequences can be seen in the race problems we still have today. In 1862, President Lincoln had appointed temporary military governors to re-establish functional governments in occupied southern states. In order for a state to be allowed to re-enter the Union, it had to meet the criteria, which was established to be that at least 10 percent of the voting population polled in 1860 must denounce the Confederacy and swear allegiance to the Union again. However this was not good enough for Congress, which at the time was dominated by Radical Republicans who fervently called for social and economic change in the south, specifically the rights of blacks. They were especially concerned with guaranteeing black civil and voting rights, and criticized Lincoln for excluding this in the original plan for Reconstruction.
After the Civil War, America went through a period of Reconstruction. This was when former Confederate states were readmitted to the Union. Lincoln had a plan that would allow them to come back, but they wouldn’t be able to do it easily. He would make 10% of the population swear an oath of loyalty and establish a government to be recognized. However, he was assassinated in Ford’s Theater and Andrew Johnson became the president; Johnson provided an easy path for Southerners. Congress did their best to ensure equal rights to freedmen, but failed because of groups who were against Reconstruction, white southern Democrats gaining control within the government and the lack of having a plan in place for recently freedmen.
“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
It was a goal of President Abraham Lincoln’s for Reconstruction to be a very smooth and successful period of time. “With malice toward none, with charity to all,” Lincoln said in his second inauguration speech. He was referring to not only the conflict between black men and white men, but also the hard feelings between the north and south. The southern states had entered the Civil War with such confidence and dreams of independence that many were now humiliated at the idea of having to receive aid from the federal government. President Lincoln’s assassination also put in the country in further turmoil.
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...
Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States during the beginning era of Reconstruction, had plans to free slaves and grant them freedoms like never before. In 1863, before the war had ended, Lincoln had issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction for the areas of the South that the Union armies occupied. This proclamation was also called the 10 percent plan. It suggested that a state could reenter the Union when 10 percent of that state’s 1860 vote count had taken an oath of allegiance to the United States and pledge to abide by emancipation. Although this policy was put into place to help shorten the war, it also forced governments to further Lincoln’s emancipation policies and abolish slavery. Radical Republicans opposed this plan because they feared it was too lenient towards the South, fearing that his moderate plan would leave in place the political and economic structure that permitted slavery in the South. Many Congressmen believed that only until the South could be dismantled and rebuilt with more Northern philosophies, slaves would never be able to enjoy the benefits of freedom: social, political, and economic freedom.
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).
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.
Reconstruction is known as the period after the Civil war. The whole country was separated in two, people didn’t know what to do, the south was completely destroyed, and there were a lot of decisions to be made by the president. It lasted four years, and there was over half a million casualties between the union (North) and the confederate states (South). The north was declared the winner of the war after General Lee surrender in the Appomattox court house on April 9, 1865. The causes of the war was the secession of several southern states, they argued that it was up to them and it was in their rights to decide whether they should make slavery legal or illegal in their own boundaries. But the Union had other things in mind, the union wanted to decide whether or not the states were going to have slaves. This was just to make sure the country was equal on slavery and non-slavery on both sides, but states thought the union was abusing their power and being too strict on them, and that is when they decided to secede. The first state to secede was south Carolina, then they were followed by six other states, among those states were Florida, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. These states got together and created the confederate states of America in February 4, 1861, and the president was Jefferson Davis, they also made a government similar to the one of the U.S. Constitution.
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”.
As a nation, America has faced some troublesome times through her life span. As history goes on, people never forget about the Reconstruction era. Reconstruction was refers to the efforts made in the United State between 1865 and 1877. As the saying goes, ¨All good things must come to an end¨ which is exactly the case. The reputation Reconstruction has is labeled both a success and a failure.
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
The North’s neglect and greediness caused the reconstruction to be a failure.The corrupt government, terrorist organizations, unfocused president, and ignorance were also part of the ending of the reconstruction. President Lincoln didn’t want the civil war he wanted to keep the nation together. When Lincoln went into office he wasn't planning on getting rid of slavery nor starting a civil war. Before the reconstruction era was the civil war. Many good things and bad things came from the civil war. The civil war was a war between the North and the South. The war for the north was to end slavery, but for the south it was about rights and liberty. It wasn’t until afterwards that Americans started to notice the good and the bad. Not as many people
Lincoln’s plan of Reconstruction began with a loyalty vote of 10 percent of the state in order to rejoin the Union. In his eyes only the highest ranking Confederates remained in a negative light. The South did not agree with this therefore Congress wrote a bill requiring a majority vote. As Lincoln was set on bringing the Union back together vetoed the bill and negotiated with the leaders of the South. Unfortunately, Lincoln’s assassination and the untimeliness of the incident brought all the negotiations and progress to a complete halt as Andrew Johnson took over the Presidency.