Circumstances of Reconstruction The Reconstruction of the United States was the best that could have been expected under the circumstances. Because there were no instructions for Reconstruction in the Constitution, the federal government did not have any guidelines to go by when conducting this gradual process. Unfortunately for the people working in the federal government, there were several circumstances that prohibited them from reconstructing the nation the best way possible. These circumstances are events that could not have been prevented or changed. First, was President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. This led to chaos in the federal government about what to do next. Next, Congress battled President Andrew Johnson. He and Congress …show more content…
He had proposed his blueprint for Reconstruction, which included his Ten Percent Plan in 1863. It stated that a southern state could be readmitted into the Union once ten percent of its voters swore an oath of allegiance to the Union. The South needed to be physically reintegrated back into the Union. So, the Ten Percent Plan was a notion of physical reconstruction of the South. And just as it was being debated in Congress, President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in 1865. With Lincoln being assassinated, the next man up was Vice President Andrew Johnson. He was a democrat and disagreed with essentially everything Congress decided. Whenever Congress would attempt to legislate Reconstruction, Johnson would veto the regulation. Radical Republicans, who dominated Congress, hated him even before he was President. It is believed that Lincoln could have controlled the Radical Republicans in Congress, but he obviously never got the chance. President Johnson was clearly unable to work with them, as his vetoes were constantly overruled. However, he did the best he could with a Congress that disagreed with him on all accounts. Rather than the federal government working together, the circumstance revealed that they were fighting against each other when the main ideas of Reconstruction weren’t being tended to like they could have if the branches of the government were working together to establish a more perfect Union. Yet, even with all of this fighting, the Freedmen’s Bureau was a great part of Reconstruction that went on for several years. It helped integrate former black slaves into society by giving them education and training them for potential jobs. Also, the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments were all passed to help give African Americans Constitutional rights. These examples were positive aspects of Reconstruction and were able
They were in existence from 1865 through 1872. 10. The significant three amendments during the Reconstruction were the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, 14th Amendment granting citizenship to people born in the US regardless of race, and the 15th Amendment voting rights to all regardless of color or if you were a slave.
During the Civil War, the main idea of the United States was to have every side in unison, but that in fact died out. Lincoln and the Radical Republicans tried to stress their beliefs of how they wanted the States to be ran. The 10 percent plan was Lincoln’s plan for reconstruction. The 10% plan was indeed very basic. The plan included exonerations to anybody who previously opposed the Union, but they would also have to swear their allegiance to the Union and the Constitution.
A few days after the civil War ended, President Lincoln was assassinated and never had the chance to implement his Reconstruction plan. The Reconstruction Era occurred in the period of 1865 to 1877 under the reign of President Andrew Johnson who was the predecessor of President Lincoln. Congress was not scheduled to convene until December 1865, which gave Johnson eight months to pursue his own Reconstruction policies. Under his Reconstruction policies, the former Confederate states were required to join back into the Union and heal the wounds of the nation.
i personally do not believe reconstruction would have succeeded even if president lincoln had not been assassinated. i dont think reconstruction would have necesarrily completely failed either, more so his death or survival would not have changed the end result. the reconstruction period was ultimately so long, we can now look back and see it would have required too much from one president to resolve all impending matters. Lincoln's ten percent plan was supported by Republicans, mostly because it was seen as a quick end to the war, not exactly a perfect plan for reconstruction. President Lincoln did not have a set blueprint for reconstruction.
When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 15, 1865 his vice president, Andrew Johnson, was sworn into office, the first time ever a president had to take office because of the previous president being murdered. Andrew Johnson was a democrat, so he had major challenges when he took office. It didn’t help either that he was from Tennessee, a state that seceeded fromt the Union during the Civil War. In an effort to try and make friends in Congress with the Republicans Johnson agreed to deny representitives from southern states that seceeded from the Union to sit in Congress. This came to back fire on him because he was from Tennessee but because he elected to help the North during the Civil War the southern state representitives didn’t support him at all.
You can see how reconstruction was supposed to help the newly freed slaves while the definition of reconstruction says that it was, “ensuring the rights and protection of the newly freed African Americans,” (Terms to know, On reconstruction.) This shows how some of the intentions of reconstruction were supposed to help bring newly freed slaves safely into the society. The newly freed slaves would have been fond of the idea of being brought safely into the society. You can see this again when it says, “Presidential reconstruction began in 1865 with the ratification() passing of the thirteenth amendment freeing slaves, and continued lincoln’s signature of the bill that created the Freedmen's Bureau. The Bureau was to feed both black and whites in the south, establish schools to teach former slaves to read and write, help them find paying jobs, and shield them from discrimination,” (Stage One: Presidential reconstruction 1865 - 1866.)
The Reconstruction Era of American history was plagued by many problems. One of the most important problems being the recently released from slavery Freedmen. Freedmen were in a tricky situation in which they had just been released from their owner and had nowhere to go, but the Federal Government made many successful attempts to help them out. The Government helped alleviate all the problems Freedmen had from their finances to basic needs and rights, and in doing so, made the period of reconstruction more helpful than harmful for Freedmen. The events of reconstruction were helpful to freedmen as they were not only freed from slavery, they were given rights directly from the federal government.
Sources Analysis Freedom During the Reconstruction era, the idea of freedom could have many different meanings. Everyday factors that we don't often think about today such as the color of our skin, where we were born, and whether or not we own land determined what limitations were placed on the ability to live our life to the fullest. To dig deeper into what freedom meant for different individuals during this time period, I analyzed three primary sources written by those who experienced this first hand. These included “Excerpts from The Black Codes of Mississippi” (1865), “Jourdan Anderson to his old master” (1865), and “Testimony on the Ku Klux Klan in Congressional Hearing” (1872).
He favored a moderate policy that would conjoin the South with the Union without any punishment for treason. Many resisted Lincoln’s plan, saying it was not harsh enough while others did not know if Lincoln was being too lenient. The Radical Republicans and moderate Republicans were caught in a conflict. One important event of the Reconstruction Period was the Wade-Davis Bill. This was formed by the Radical Republicans and moderate Republicans.
At the end of the Civil War between the North and South arose the Reconstruction era. This was a time period of the late 1800s where the united states, specifically the North started to attempt the rebuilding of the South. Abolitionists were eager to see the end of slavery and Lincoln attempted to end slavery. President Lincoln attempted to put in place the Emancipation Proclamation which stated all slaves in confederate states would be free. This was to weaken the southern states; except, the confederate states did not obey.
The Freedmen’s Bureau was founded by Congress in 1865 to help former slaves and poor whites in the South by providing shelter, food, medical support, as well as giving legal assistance, and creating schools for them (Jordan 386). The Freedmen’s Bureau was also supported by carpetbaggers, Northerners who had readily packed up and left for the South, and scalawags, Southerners who supported former slaves and poor whites, both of whom supported the cause of freedom and equality. Thus, through the Freedmen’s Bureau, both black Americans and white Americans were receiving the same necessities, promoting equality amongst these two
Reconstruction is the time period after the Civil War, where the country attempted to improve the Union. There were many successes, but what also comes along with success is failure. During the reconstruction many failures were present; such as the lack of racial equality and blatant racism towards blacks, a failing economy in the South, and tense relations between the North and the South. This created a very intense and challenging period of time for the Union.
The Reconstruction period lasted from 1865 to 1877. The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendment were created during the twelve years of rebuilding the country. All of the amendments were made to protect former slaves and their rights but on paper they did not have any rights. The reconstruction period had its successes and failures.
Abraham Lincoln’s vs Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan Lincoln shared the uncommon belief that the confederate states could still be part of the union and that the cause of the rebellion was only a few within the states which lead him to begin the reconstruction in December of 1863. This resulted in plans with lenient guidelines and although they were challenged by Wade-Davis Bill, Lincoln still rejected his ideas and kept his policies in place. Lincoln also allowed land to be given the newly freed slave or homeless white by distributing the land that had been confiscated from former land owners however this fell through once Johnson took office. After Lincoln’s death when Johnson was elected many things started to turn away from giving blacks equal rights and resulted in many things such a black codes which kept newly freed slaves from having the same rights as whites. When Lincoln first acted after the civil war, he offered policies that would allow the confederate slaves to become part of the union again and would allow a pardon for those states.
According to www.history.com/topics/charles-sumner ”He saw Reconstruction as the opportunity to establish civil rights for blacks, first in the South where Congress had explicit authority and gradually in the North. In 1865 he insisted that suffrage be granted to all black males. At the time of his death, Sumner was still vainly agitating for federal legislation repealing all discriminatory laws.” Finally, there was President Andrew Johnson. After Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, just as the South surrendered in April 1865, and then Andrew Johnson inherited the problem of Reconstruction.