The Problems of the Reconstruction after the Civil War Essay

After the Civil War between 1865 and 1877, the country went into Reconstruction. They had to rebuild the south because of Sherman’s plan of total war. In Sherman’s plan, his army took food and burned property, destroying everything that could be used by the Confederates during the war. President Lincoln helped by giving amnesty for Confederate soldiers and a plan for readmission to the Union of the Southern states. He also proposed the Ten Percent Plan. The plan allowed states to be readmitted to the Union if ten percent of its voters swore a loyalty oath to the Union and agreed to the end of slavery. President Johnson took office once Lincoln got assassinated, this changed the course of Reconstruction because he was a southerner and a democrat. He had more sympathy for southerners and many former Confederates assumed political office as soon as their state was readmitted to the Union.

Andrew Johnson, who was in office from 1865, shared similar views to Woodrow Wilson. They favoured the Southern Democratic elite, however took a different approach and attempted to pass more legislation. Johnson was in office at the point of when the civil war had ended, and the Southern states had been defeated, although refusing to admit defeat. Johnson was left with the question of what to do with these states, and unusually for a democrat, believed they needed to join the union. The motive behind these beliefs are unknown, however the likelihood is that he believed this due to the laws on slavery in union

After the tragedy of Lincoln's death, Vice President Andrew Johnson stepped up into the presidential position and started his own plans for reconstruction; his too, would turn out to be a failure. He supported hardcore Democratic principles and restoring Southern power. He brought in the remaining states back into the constitution. He divided the power of planters and restricted there voting He created the idea of "blanket pardons" which allowed Southern states that had abolished slavery and repealed their articles of secession to re-assume their powers of government and elect representatives to the Congress. This all backfired because while the south was happy and the Blacks weren't voting under Johnson, the Radical Republicans were angered and more conflict was started. The whole idea of everyone being happy wasn't working at all with anyone. Johnson was the second to go, being the first impeached president ever.

When President Abraham Lincoln assassination occurs on 1865, vice president Andrew Johnson gained office. Lincoln was a moderate Republican, who wanted to rebuild the nation without punishing the South, and wanted to give African American the right to vote or suffrage. Before his assassination, he had a plan for reconstruction in where he would pardon the south and allow them to reintegrate the Union. It would only have been possible if 10% of the voters took an oath of loyalty, but due to his dead, the 10% plan couldn't be carried out. President Johnson was a Democrat that believes that citizenship and voting rights were to be determined by each state individually; he also agreed with Lincoln that states never legally left the Union. In fact,

The 19th century in the United States was time of prosperity as well as drastic societal change. With the emancipation of slaves and the boom of the industrial revolution, America was in a state of constant adjustment. President Lincoln worked tirelessly, to reunite the disjointed union. As the president worked, so too did John Wilkes Booth, on his plan to assassinate the leader of the Union. After Booth committed his heinous act, and Lincoln was confirmed dead, it was time for Vice-President Andrew Johnson, to step up and continue the plan Lincoln had set forth to rebuild the country. Or so had citizens hoped for. Andrew Johnson was a black sheep in the eyes of the union, as he was not of the same political affiliation as Lincoln. Abraham

In 1861 through 1877 The civil war brought a disturbance between the North and the South that was not easily repaired. After the unions victory the government had to create a plan for  reconstruction. After Abraham lincoln's assassination democract Andrew Johnson stepped foward and had to make sure Lincoln's plans for reamitting the southinto the union went through. The struggle for power with congress would later lead to his impeachment.

When Reconstruction began in 1865, the country was in desperate need of unification after the end of the Civil War. The fate of a becoming a unified country was left in the hands of Andrew Johnson after the sudden assassination of President Lincoln in April of 1865, just as Reconstruction was set to begin. President Johnson had a similar plan for Reconstruction as Lincoln, with the main goal being getting the South back into the Union without too much dispute. However, President Johnson did not have a good relationship with congress from the beginning and had different views on Civil Rights than Lincoln. Johnson would have to fight against a group called the Radical Republicans, which

Due to Johnson’s lenient policies towards the South, he failed to achieve the nomination of his party for the presidential election of 1868. Congress clearly won the battle by overriding his vetoes of key acts in their effort to change the fabric of Southern

Post-civil war the torn nation juggles wide ranges of emotions as they attempt to piece together the shattered unity but didn’t know how to go about doing so. President Lincoln had great plans for the reconstruction but was killed before he could put them into action. He was murdered by John Booth at Ford Theater and passed the next morning. Lincoln’s Vice-president, Andrew Johnson, took over and became the new president. Johnson and Congress argued about how to go about the reconstruction and in the end Congress enacted their own laws and amendments that strengthened the federal government. Freedmen weren’t truly free after the Civil war ended, free in name only. Ex-Confederates were less than the Northerners and didn’t get the rights

After the war Republicans had considerable power and the Democratic party was in shambles, which led to them having their own objectives and visions of Reconstruction. (Nash, et al., 2007., p. 468) Congressional Republicans feared losing their power and attempted to set the tone of Reconstruction by passing a civil rights bill in 1866, refused to seat members from the former Confederacy, and investigated conditions in the South, which led to the passage of the Reconstruction acts that divided the South into five districts. (Nash, et al., 2007., pp. 472-473, 476) Republicans also moved against President Johnson as they reduced the expanded power of the executive branch and eventually impeached him. (Nash, et al., 2007., p. 476) Democrats also had a vested interest in Reconstruction as after the war the party was in shambles and had to grapple for the power to push their interests over the Congressional Republicans. This power contest led to unsavory tactics in the South such as the Mississippi Plan, which was devised as an intimidation tactic to force people to vote Democratic. (Nash,

After President Lincoln’s assassination his Vice President Andrew Johnson became the new President and began his own version of reconstruction. Although it was common knowledge at the time President Johnson did not like southern planter elites, he was surprisingly lenient towards them. He even blocked radicals in Congress attempts to pass punitive legislation on the Confederate states (ushistory.org, 2008).

During Reconstruction there were massive changes in America’s culture, economy, and politics. Reconstruction for Lincoln was supposed to be a time for union and forgiveness. Who knows what would've happened if Lincoln could of cared out his plans, but Andrew Johnson took over and his plan for Reconstruction was very different. He believed the South had no right to succeed to begin with. He believed that the blacks should have no part in Reconstruction because today he's known as a racist. Andrew Johnson made sure to establish his all white government which to me looks like he's just copying the all white confederate government like before.

Imagine being a soldier in the Civil War, fighting with a great risk of dying, and then, somehow win the war. Since winning the war, slaves had been freed and the United States would start rebuilding itself. Former slaves were even able to get jobs and become part of the government. However, after several years of rebuilding, there is still more things to do. Then, all of the sudden, the rebuilding stops and no one knows why. Racism was making a comeback, even more so fierce than before the Civil War. There was even talk of a second Civil War, and People started wondering if it was the North or South who had stopped this great rebuilding. Recently, there has been talk about who had caused the end. However, because of the North having the most power, them getting sick of carpetbagging government/“Negro Question”, and also deciding on slaves having a probation period, it is clear that the North was the problem to Reconstruction.

Although Abraham Lincoln, U.S. president in 1860 and 1864, would come to be remembered as the Great Emancipator, he did not begin his presidency with the goal of freeing slaves. The fact that he opposed to slavery also did not make him believe in racial equality. Before he became president, he did not yet think that blacks should be given all the civil rights such as voting or serving on juries. He simply wanted to preserve the Union and to build a strong federal government. However, people got him all wrong. The northerners voted for him in 1860 hoping that he would free the slaves and the Southern States seceded from Union because they had misunderstood Lincoln’s original intent of maintaining the Union. Faced with different points of view, Lincoln was such a talented politician that when it come to

Lincoln was assassinated five days after the south surrendered so he didn't get to put his plan to get the south integrated back into the union into place. plan was to the get the south back into the union as fast and painless as possible. But when lincoln was killed Andrew Johnson filled in as president and tried to carry out Lincoln's plan, but the people of the north thought he was a south sympathiser because he was originally from the south.