Compare And Contrast Presidential And Congressional Reconstruction

Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction:

After the war had ended the North needed to take the task of reconstruction of the south.

Even before the war had ended Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in 1863.

This was an oath that southerners had to take which said “Southerners could be pardoned and reinstated as U.S. citizens if they took an oath of allegiance to the Constitution and the Union and pledged to abide by emancipation. High Confederate officials, Army and Navy officers, and U.S. judges and congressmen who left their posts to aid the southern rebellion were excluded from this pardon.”

On April 14th, Lincoln had held a cabinet meeting to discuss reconstruction in the U.S. The president wanted southern

Johnson also called for special state, abolish slavery, repudiate all debts incurred to aid the confederacy, and to ratify the 13th amendment. Many of Johnson's plans would divide congress and him. The election of 1866 widened that divide. This was bad for the nation since the president and congress had to agree for anything to happen.

Congressional Reconstruction Plan: Congress wanted to replace Johnson's Reconstruction proclamation and is shown in the 14th Amendment. Congress took control over the southern states, congress denied The Confederate states their Congressional seats. They made equal rights for African Americans and granted them protection under the law.

Presidential Reconstruction Plan: President Johnson gave a plan of Reconstruction that gave the south the choice of the transition to make slaves freemen and women. It also offered that African American had no role in the politics of the south.

I think President Johnson's plan wasn’t very good because if he gave it up to the south to decide the transitions of slaves to free people, they wouldn’t do it, which would defeat the whole purpose of the civil war. It also didn’t give equal right to African Americans because they couldn’t play a role in

Many of them tried to remove Johnson of his presidency which is impeachment. Congress wanted to remove Johnson for these two reasons They considered the firing of Stanton by Johnson to be a crime under The Tenure of Office Act.It was a Political Move to disenfranchise Johnson after his Alienation of Congress at their attempts at reconstruction. Johnson escaped removal. The House had voted to impeach him in February of 1868. 35 votes were for Johnson and 19 against. Which is one vote short of the required ⅔ majority.

Civil Rights act of 1866:On April 9th 1866, Congress overruled Andrew Johnson's veto of the Civil Rights Bill. The bill stated that all people born in the United States are United States citizens with the exception of American Indians. Congress granted all people equal benefits of the law and the security of people and their property. This was one of the most important bills passed in congress because it created more equal right for African American citizens.

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