How Was The South Treated In Response To The Civil War

With the conclusion of the Civil War, the infrastructures of both the North and the South had been destroyed by the exhaustive cost of fighting. The North, however, had the advantage of winning the war and the supposed power of decision making, and northern political leaders had their dreams of Reconstruction, and differing ideas about how the southern states should be treated in response to the opposition. This mishandled responsibility had overwhelming repercussions, and the southern states fell into a state of further tension and chaos. Although there were many northerners fighting for rights of people in the South, overall, the South did not receive fair treatment from the North. Although two of Lincoln’s goals of the Civil War were to

The Wade-Davis Bill of the Radical Republicans, passed in 1864, “required a majority (over 50%) of white male citizens to take an oath of allegiance to the United States”, however, anyone who had fought against the Union in the Confederate army or had participated in the Confederate Government was not permitted to take the oath (US History I). This eliminated many of the Southerners, but not all of them willingly supported the Confederacy. Men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five who were citizens of a Confederate state were subject to be drafted by the conscription laws. Furthermore, by hiring men more desperate for resources and money, wealthier men could escape military service. These men who were then “exposed to the draft” (Wood) were untrusted in their commitment to the Confederacy, and were believed to be mercenaries. Since it could not have been determined that some of the Confederate soldiers had any desire to actually fight against the Union to begin with, the Radical Republican representatives of the North reacted unjustly in determining how to manage them. Had the soldiers not been treated as unconstitutional followers of a rebellion, there would have been less conflict and tension in resolving the reincorporation of the southern states. The same is true for the Confederate military and political leaders, because although they were intentionally fighting to win over the North, their treatment was not fair. Although the North was victorious over the South and the Radical Republicans had ideas for the punishment of Confederates and refusal to re-incorporate the states, but instead keep them as territories (US History I), it would have been more effective to focus on the original Northern goal of equality. A more peaceful transition into one entire nation again could have occurred, if the