Reconstruction is during which the United States began to rebuild the Southern society after they lost to the civil war. It lasted from 1865 to 1877, and it was initiated by President Lincoln until his assassination in 1865. President Johnson continued Lincoln’s agenda to continue the Reconstruction. Throughout the process of Reconstruction, one of its main purpose was to guarantees for equal rights for all people, especially for the African Americans. Even though slavery was abolished after the civil war, many Southerners were still against the idea of equal rights for all black people, such as the Republicans.
African Americans held rights, but those benefits did not involve a position in the administration. Johnson declared, “White men alone must manage the South.” Johnson forgave virtually everyone who appealed, and ere officers were returned to power. Congress declined to seat these past Confederates.
During the Reconstruction Era, Abraham Lincoln was the president and he wanted to rebuild the Union since the Civil War split the nation into the Union and the Confederacy. Andrew Johnson was the vice president that served for Lincoln. Lincoln gave full amnesty to the Confederacy and welcomed them back with the Union. After Lincoln got assassinated in his 2nd term in office, Johnson became the new president. Andrew Johnson agreed with the idea of amnesty and kept it to help reconstruct the Union.
Johnson, a former senator from Tennessee who had remained loyal to the Union during the war, was a firm supporter of states’ rights and believed the federal government had no say in issues such as voting requirements at the state level. Under his Presidential Reconstruction, which began in May 1865, the former Confederate states were required to uphold the abolition of slavery (made official by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution), swear loyalty to the Union and pay off their war debt. Beyond those limitations, the states and their ruling class (traditionally dominated by white planters) were given a relatively free hand in rebuilding their own governments.
As shown Andrew Johnson had many personal issues and things that he disliked about the Reconstruction plan and the rights that were being given to Blacks. His opinions are mainly what made him a limited leader and not very likable by the standards of most of the American people. The mindset and the way that people saw Johnson started to change in a bad way, once they saw how he truly felt. His thoughts on civil rights and political rights contradicted those of Lincoln’s which were embraced by many across the nation. Rules and regulations that Abraham Lincoln had wanted and designed were edited for the worse.
At the beginning of Andrew Johnson’s Presidency many believed that he would punish the South for their treason during the Civil War and support African American suffrage. (Page 83) However, this changed when Johnson began to set up his plans for Reconstruction in 1865 when he moved to pardon all Confederates that pledged an oath of loyalty and the returning of all of their property with the exclusion of slaves. The only exception to this would be for high-ranking Confederate generals who owned property that exceeded over $20,000 were required to apply for Presidential pardons. With the passing of the Black Codes and violence seen towards African Americans in the South, prompted the Radical Republicans to take matters into their hands.
The Radical Republicans were a group of politicians within the Republican Party of the United States from around 1854 until the end of Reconstruction in 1877. These "Radicals" were opposed during the Civil War by the Conservative Republicans and by the pro-slavery Democratic Party. Preceding the war, the Republican Radicals were opposed by self-styled "conservatives" and "liberals" . Radicals were firmly against slavery throughout the war, and after, distrusted ex-Confederates and demanded harsh policies for the former rebels. They pushed for civil voting rights for the "freedmen"
Johnson was a democrat and a previous slave owner, which didn’t make him an avid supporter of Lincoln’s plan of Southern Reconstruction. What Lincoln had previously intended on doing was have criminal amnesty to Confederates who pledged allegiance to the Union and allowed states to hold a constitutional convention along with setting up their state government. Though Johnson kept some of the plan intact, he called for there to be no limits on voter allegiance for the Southern states. This sparked opposition from the Radical Republicans, a group of congressmen who believed black southerners should be guaranteed equality with whites. They deduced that Johnson shouldn’t set legislative policy for reconstruction as it wouldn’t lead to a country of tolerance that they worked to achieve.
After the Andrew Johnson’s resistance to reconstruction included bring Confederate states into the Union and letting the African American men vote. Under his held ideals of “white suffrage”. It pitted him in opposition against Congress; thus, his stubborn stance against Reconstruction is the real reason that lead to his impeachment hearing under the Tenure of Office Act of 1867, which is a federal law that passed by congress to restrict the power of the President remove people from office without the approval of the Senate, when he removed Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton from his office. Reconstruction was the period following the Civil War, when the states of the Confederacy where the government controlled bringing them back into the union and gave rights to African Americans in the process. White suffrage simply meant: only white males could vote.
The Reconstruction Era, sparked by the conclusion of the devastating Civil War, was a crucial period in American history that aimed to transition the divided nation to a more unified one. However, reformers and political figures faced significant political, social, and economic changes which they were unable to adapt to. President Lincoln’s role was replaced, after his assassination, by corrupted officers that didn’t prioritize Reconstruction. The United States government was faced with challenging dilemmas in this period that they only overcame with controversial policies. Lastly, white Southerners enforcing racist policies unforeseeably succeeded in preventing African Americans from gaining Civil Rights.
The Reconstruction Era lasted from 1865-1877, this was during the time period in which the United States was trying to rebuild after the Civil War and address the issue of slavery. This was supposed to give African Americans citizenship and voting rights but it didn’t go exactly according to plan. W.E.B. DuBois had an interesting perspective on Reconstruction since he lived through that era and witnessed effects of it. Success but also failures came out of this era and it all depends on what stance people have on it. …..….The
Fortunately for the US, President Lincoln had a plan for Reconstruction. The country was unstable as a result of the flourishing North and their functioning industry, economy, and pretty much all aspects of life were going better than those in the South. The emancipation of African Americans mostly just destroyed the Southern economy and generated even more chaos as the plantation system collapsed without the cheap labor. The very broke southerners were not content with the new conditions, to say the least, and their visceral fear of change had made them unwilling to compromise. The main issue with the Reconstruction process was that it did not catalyze America’s journey to equality at the speed one might have hoped.
By granting African Americans the right to vote, the Reconstruction policies aimed to dismantle the remnants of slavery and challenge the deeply ingrained racial hierarchy of the South. This act signified a commitment to rectifying historical injustices and fostering a more egalitarian society. Through voting, freed slaves could have a direct impact on legislative decisions, leading to the implementation of laws and policies that addressed racial inequality and promoted the welfare of all
After Lincoln died, Vice President Andrew Johnson became the president of the United States. Johnson was opposed to African Americans' having equal rights and vetoed laws protecting said rights. He pushed the country back by 20 years, and intimidation against African Americans remained in the South, making it impossible for them to use the newly obtained rights. The evidence shows that the failure of the Reconstruction period was caused by many factors. Andrew Johnson's opposition to equal rights for African Americans, as well as his attempts to slow down the progress during the Reconstruction era , he threatened progress made toward racial equality.
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.
