What Caused The Civil War Essay

In 1861, the American Civil War began between the North and South began over issues, such as slavery. After four years of conflict, the North defeated the South, and the country was brought back together. Even though the war was over, reconstruction was needed in order to unify the nation once more but also caused a divide in American government. Reconstruction devolved into institutional conflict between the presidency and Congress because the framers of the constitution did not plan for a civil war, and therefore the Constitution did not clarify what would happen in the aftermath. Because of this, there was conflict between both President Lincoln and Johnson with congress over political issues, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which

Since the Constitution did not answer questions such as who was in charge of the Southern states’ reentry- Congress or the President- each had differing opinions on what was supposed to happen. Lincoln felt that after ten percent of the voters pledged their loyalty to the Union and approved the Thirteenth Amendment, the states that seceded would be allowed to join back. Congress disagreed and proposed the Wade-Davis Bill that required a fifty percent pledge of loyalty, but Lincoln pocket vetoed the bill. After Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson came into power and had to finish where Lincoln left off. Once he became President, his viewpoints were very different than Congress. He vetoed both the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and Freedmen’s Bureau. These stated that all formerly enslaved people would be granted citizenship and granted aid to displaced blacks and other war refugees. Johnson vetoed both of them, but Congress overruled his vetoes. Johnson also opposed the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment that stated all people born or naturalized in the United States were citizens. He opposed it because he felt the Constitution could not be changed without representation from the Southern states. The Amendment was ratified anyway because the Republicans were the three-to-one majority in