Recommended: Radical republicans
Anthony Lewis’ narrative in Gideon’s Trumpet has served as one of the most important law related occurrences. The nonfiction book is written in the third person perspective in order to provide a detailed and thorough overview of the law practices during the time of the case. The book specially focuses on the Supreme Court’s thought of governing leading up to the case, Gideon vs Wainwright, as well as the case itself. The case involves Clarence Gideon’s fight for his right to have an attorney in order to defend him in court. This written recollection has given an overlying theme to the entire book: the right to justice.
The Radical Republicans were congressmen who advocated rights for African Americans. and they were part of America’s politicians from 1854 until the end of 1877. In other words, they started before the Civil War and ended during the Reconstruction period of America. The Radical Republicans were important for many reasons. One of the reasons being is, they controlled the congress immediately after the Civil War.
The elections of 1800 and 1864 had made the Republicans victorious in the electorate. However, the South’s influence on the electorate had significantly decreased and the Democratic Party was divided as well. After the Civil War, with only a few requirements for readmission, Conservatives wanted the south to accept the abolition of slavery. Led by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, the Radical Republicans wanted the military leaders of the Confederacy to be punished. The punishments would include the confiscation of Southern property and suffrage for freedmen.
The North and South, from 1861 to 1865, lost over six hundred thousand men in an armed and gruesome conflict over the issue of slavery. Despite the North winning militarily, the death rates for both sides were relatively equal. Following the South’s surrender at Appomattox, a time of Reconstruction ensued. Southern beliefs and behaviors, along with the Grant Administration’s growing indifference about freedman issues, influenced Reconstruction politics across the country. White Southerners scored a resounding victory in the Reconstruction Period by passing restriction laws against Negroes and intensified the Southern atmosphere beyond its original Pre-Civil War environment.
The Radical and the Republican by James Oakes Book Review James Oakes’ The Radical and the Republican is a thorough and captivating account of two of America’s most distinguished figures, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas. In his intriguing and polished work, Oakes examines the issues of slavery, race, politics, and war in America during the mid-1800’s. Though both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas engendered immense social and political change throughout the Civil War era, the relationship between the two men is often neglected.
In chapter 16th “Reconstruction,” the author gives a comprehensible perspective of the historical era that made a major difference in America today. Many northerners populated the main question of how to restructure the nation as one which led to numerous complicated questions as to how, what, whom and under what circumstances would America readmit the union. In the chapter, the author introduces a variety of changes such as presidential, congressional reconstruction and most importantly the old south. Along with discontinued slavery and established constitutional amendments. Rebuilding the south economically and politically was just as difficult as on the battlefield, extremely long and very complex.
As a result of this, racist organizations were founded to wreaked havoc on former slaves. Secret societies in the southern united states, such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camellia used violence against the blacks. Their goal was often to keep blacks out of politics. Our textbook states, “In other states, where blacks were a majority or where the populations of the two races were almost equal, whites used outright intimidation and violence to undermine the Reconstruction regimes” (Brinkley 368). The people involved in such organizations were using violence to take away the fifteenth amendment right from the former slaves.
Radical Republicans played a major role in the integration of the African Americans. They believed it was their role to help the former slaves back on their feet, but many Southerners at the time did not agree with this idea. They didn’t like the idea of freedmen getting the right to vote and participate in government, while the former
Republican ideas on the consent of the governed were also embraced and exemplified through the limitation of the government. As seen in both Document I and the Bill of Rights, at least the idea to limit the government to prevent any abuses of power against the people was taken into account. However, on the other hand, politics, in a way, didn’t change after the war as well. Even after the war and the propagation of egalitarian ideas, only rich, protestant, land-owning, white men participated, if not dominated, politics. In the post-revolution confederacy, it was only rich, white men who could and did occupy positions of political power, and more often
Radical Republicans are a coalition of northern representatives in Congress. The group’s goal was to protect and promote the interests of Black Southerners and to punish white Southerners for the Civil War. However, the president and Congress were not on the same page. After the war ended there was tension in the White House because black southerners could not vote yet and the southern white aristocrats came back to reclaim their seats. The Radical Republicans declared that the southern white did not have the right to say anything unless they sworn to the Union’s allegiance.
This means, people in the Southern states are citizens with rights and can vote. Individuals leading the rebellion are punished by not being able to vote. This is better than the Radical Republican’s plan of whole states being punished because through their plan everyone will feel too controlled, Southerners won’t feel like they’re part of the U.S., and the South might rebel again. All Southern Rebels can’t become part of the government until all laws of reconstruction have been thoroughly enforced throughout the whole country.
“Radical Republicans believed in the constructive power of the federal government to ensure a better day for freed people. Others, including Johnson, denied that the government had any such role to play” (Scott et al., 2014, p. 459). Congress positioned themselves as state overseers to make sure that the rebuilding of the south took on the proper initiatives of coming back into the union. Southern states had shown resentment to the new laws that had been passed by congress, as they became more involved with state affairs regarding African Americas. The 14th Amendment, the renewal of the Freeman Bureau charter of 1866, and the 1867 Military Reconstruction Act were passed by Congress, as President Johnson showed strong opposition to their actions.
The era of Reconstruction was an important time for the United States. It had begun towards the end of the Civil War of the United vs the Confederate states, and it addressed the issue of bringing the Union back together after years of severe, bloody war. It lasted through the 1860s and 70s, and there were many different ideas, or “plans,” regarding how the Confederate states should be treated, and what to do with the controversial idea of slavery. There was also a lot of disagreement regarding blacks, specifically, their treatment, citizenship, and rights. There was a full spectrum of opinions, from the idea of white supremacy to the notion of complete equality.
Reconstruction Essay Throughout history, there have been many forms of discrimination, based on gender, nationality, religion, age, parental status, sexuality, disability, race, among many others. For as long as discrimination has existed, there have been people who have abnegated its morality, and who have actively fought against it. As one might expect, such individuals have envisaged many different means of combatting this bigotry, and one of the concepts that those individuals have repeatedly utilized has been the idea that using the government to pass laws against the virulence of discrimination. This, however, has not proven to be efficacious. Laws can be circumvented in numerous ways, and, because of this, no real progress has been
One of reasons the confederacy failed was because the U.S. Congress, with Lincoln’s support, proposed the 13th amendment which would abolish slavery in America. Although the confederate peace delegation was unwilling to accept a future without slavery, the radical and moderate Republicans designed a way to takeover the reconstruction program. The Radical Republicans wanted full citizenship rights for African Americans and wanted to implement harsh reconstruction policies toward the south. The radical republican views made up the majority of the Congress and helped to pass the 14th amendment which guaranteed equality under the law for all citizens, and protected freedmen from presidential vetoes, southern state legislatures, and federal court decisions. In 1869, Congress passed the fifteenth amendment stating that no citizen can be denied the right to vote because of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
