The Success And Failure Of The Reconstruction Movement After The Civil War

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The Reconstruction Movement after the Civil War was a flawed plan from the beginning. When the Union won, the former Confederacy became the elephant in the room. The Union had a decision on their hands, and from that decision came the Reconstruction Movement, which was the plan to integrate the South back into a slave-free United States. However, improper surgery of this delicate decision would have caused a downward spiral that could, at worst, have caused a second Civil War. The Republicans of the Union at the time failed to deliver on Reconstruction, later giving it up, due to a variety of unaccounted factors and screw-ups. Because of this, racial relations would be kept stagnant for the greater part of the next century. The Reconstruction Movement had many fumbles and failures. From Andrew Johnson’s initial betrayal of the movement, to the rise of organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, and then the Republican’s sacrifice to secure Rutherford Hayes as the 19th President of the United States, Reconstruction Movement failed to deliver what it …show more content…

President Abraham Lincoln was poised to have a solution, but he was assassinated before he could ever deliver. His Vice President, Andrew Johnson, became the new president and took a knife to the delicate procedure of southern reintegration. While he banned former Confederate officers and government officials from ever taking part in U.S. government, he turned around and pardoned them back into the country almost instantly. Congress was rightfully angry with the President’s betrayal of the Reconstruction Movement, crippling it before it even had a chance to begin. For the next few years, Congress was fighting against their own president to get reconstructive efforts passed, fighting veto after veto. All the while Johnson was throwing wrench after wrench into the gears of the

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