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Johnson And The Radical Republicans Essay

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Johnson and the Radical Republicans fought fiercely over Reconstruction. The main source of conflict between President Johnson and the Radical Republicans in Congress was caused by their belief that Johnson was a Southern sympathizer who would undermine Congress' plans for Reconstruction. Johnson wanted to let the Confederate states back into the Union if a certain number of them would swear allegiance to the U.S. He was for allowing states’ rights and did not want to give any rights or citizenship to African-Americans. Johnson seemed to move slowly on Reconstruction efforts. I believe that, initially, Lincoln had certain things he wanted to have put in place to help Reconstruction go more smoothly. But Lincoln was assassinated and …show more content…

They wanted the South to lose their rights and not get back their lands confiscated by the Union. Johnson worked against the Radical Republicans by vetoing the Freedman's Aid Bill, the Civil Rights Bill, and blocking the 14th amendment that gave African-Americans U.S. citizenship. The Freedman’s Act was going to extend the life of the Freedmen's Bureau, a War Department agency that helped African-Americans and white people as well. Congress tried to overturn Johnson’s veto, but they were not successful at doing so. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was a bill that extended citizenship to freed slaves and guaranteed them "equal protection of the laws." Johnson felt that this Act overstepped the boundaries of central government. He felt this kind of decision should be left up to individual states, so he vetoed it. However, this time Congress managed to gather enough votes to override Johnson’s veto. Eventually, in 1866, the Radical Republicans won control of Congress and passed Reconstruction legislation over Johnson's veto. The Southern states were put under Army rule; African-Americans were registered as voters; 10,000 ex-Confederate leaders were …show more content…

It was at this time that the Radical Republicans decided to go forward with impeachment proceedings in the House of Representative. The measure was approved and a trial was held in the Senate. A vote was held, two-thirds majority vote was needed, but the measure failed by one vote. Further voting only ended with the same results. Ulysses S. Grant was president from 1869-1877, his primary focus was reunification and reconstruction of the country after the Civil War. Among his accomplishments, Grant pardoned Confederate leaders, passed the 15th Amendment, gave protection for the Native Americans, sought for free education for everyone, instituted civil service reform, and “signed legislation aimed at limiting the activities of white terrorist groups like the Ku Klux Klan that used violence to intimidate blacks and prevent them from voting. At various times, the president stationed federal troops throughout the South to maintain law and order. Critics charged that Grant’s actions violated states’ rights, while others contended that the president did not do enough to protect freedmen.” (history.com) Grant also set up the Department of Justice, the

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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.

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Ulysses Grant took during the Reconstruction and was responsible for helping to pass some of the most important Reconstruction time legislation. The most notable of this legislation being The Civil Rights Act of 1870 and 1875 and of course the 15th amendment. Grant also took a strong stance against the violence of the Ku Klux Klan and sought to protect the rights of African Americans. Nearly 80 years later when the United States was still dealing with race relations, Eisenhower also proved effective. The most notable of his achievements in this sphere was his use of federal troops in Little Rock to enforce the desegregation of public schools adherent to Brown vs Board of Education, as well as his signing of civil rights legislation in 1957 and 1960 to protect the right to vote by African-Americans.

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After the civil war both Lincoln and the South had differing ideas for reconstruction. Although the North had won the war, tensions were still high between the two sides of the country. Lincoln wanted no persecutions, no bloody work, and to let prisoners of war go; he had no interest in continuing the killing that the civil war had brought upon the nation. Lincoln also wanted them to draft a new constitution, he did not want to punish the south, he wanted to amalgamate them with the union as fast as possible. Radical republicans however did not want to the country to reunify, they also did not agree with Lincoln’s peaceful solution to end slavery.

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The candidates in the presidential campaign of the year 1868 included two men, Ulysses S. Grant and Horatio Seymour. During these times, there was only two political parties: the Democratic and Republican party. Ulysses S. Grant represented the republican party and Horatio Seymour represented the democrat party. The issues that occurred during the presidential campaign were….

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Interpretation of the Constitution’s Vesting Clause has caused the executive's office to greatly expand or contract throughout the course of American history. Every president perceives the Constitution differently, causing contested changes to the office in the pursuit of their overarching goal of national security . As early as Washington's first term, presidential interpretation affected the office’s growth and set the precedent for years to come. He immediately expanded the power of the veto by the denial of a House apportionment bill. The veto was rationalized on the grounds of constitutionality, but even this was an expansion of presidential power.

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Johnson would keep vetoing bills, such as the Civil Rights Bill and the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill, which were mostly made to protect blacks. In the February of 1868 Johnson was

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The American civil war led to the reunion of the South and the North. But, its consequences led the Republicans to take the lead of reconstructing what the war had destroyed especially in the South because it contained larger numbers of newly freed slaves. Just after the civil war, America entered into what was called as the reconstruction era. Reconstruction refers to when “the federal government established the terms on which rebellious Southern states would be integrated back into the Union” (Watts 246). As a further matter, it also meant “the process of helping the 4 million freed slaves after the civil war [to] make the transition to freedom” (DeFord and Schwarz 96).

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With a Republican majority in both houses of Congress, Stevens and the radicals were hoping that this would be their chance at removing the President. Nevertheless, impeachment would go nowhere due to the lack of support from moderate Republicans since they were able to tolerate Johnson. The President saw this as a warning. Johnson made it clear that he “intended to carry out the reconstruction laws” and “appointed generals recommended by Stanton and Grant to command the five Southern military districts. These generals supported the congressional policy.”

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