Essay Exam #3 ZIJUN YU Q1. The major issue of the American Civil War is slavery. The North supported abolishing slavery to protect the basic human rights of individuals who were even slaves. On the contrary, the South’s economy relied a lot on slaves, so they didn’t want to let the North put an end to slavery. They even claimed that they had the right to come out of the union, and they could gain independence from the union over the issue of slavery. The North tried to isolate the South from the outside world, and connect with Southern slaves. The North believe that, if the South lost resource from both inside and outside, Southern states would couldn’t hold on for long. On the other hand, the South put much effort on fining European …show more content…
After Lincoln’s term, Andrew Johnson proposed his own plan as the president: • Pardons would be granted to those taking a loyalty oath [1] • No pardons would be available to high Confederate officials and persons owning property valued in excess of $20,000 [1] • A state needed to abolish slavery before being readmitted [1] • A state was required to repeal its secession ordinance before being readmitted. [1] Unlike Lincoln’s plan, Johnson’s plan was accepted by most Southern states, but the plan was still turned down by the Congress. After that, the Radical Republicans proposed their plan, which was approved by the Congress but rejected by the president: • There must be a majority of people who takes the oath of loyalty in a state • Slavery must be formally abolished within a state • Confederate officials were not allowed in the new governments. Even after Lincoln’s plan was published, there were still new plans coming out for improvements to object the leniency shown in Lincoln’s plan. There were also opponents of Lincoln’s plan believing that the plan was too insufficient to protect free slaves’ right.