Reconstruction Essay During the years of 1865 - 1867, there was a period in which people called the “Reconstruction Period”. During this period, the presidents, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and Ulysses S. Grant, worked to rebuild to the United States prior to the Civil War. Even though the main war was over, some considered the Reconstruction in many ways still a war. This was because the north made is a struggle because they wanted to punish the southerners who wanted to preserve their way through life. Lincoln, Johnson, and Grant all had ideas of what they believed the United States should be after the war. They worked to reconstruct and build after the construction, each with their own views. Lincoln’s main idea was to try and bring back the South into the Union. He believed their needed to be unity between the north and the south. Johnson proposed his ideas based around giving the north and the south their own freedom by allowing them to make their own decisions based on what they believe is right for their state. Grant focused his plan around enforcing more civil rights. Lincoln, Johnson, and Grant all played a huge part in the rebuilding of the United States. …show more content…
He proposed the idea of the South rejoining the Union, but that sadly failed when the drew close, right before it ended, he had no clue what to do. He then came up with a plan that gave some blacks, even if they were free or enlisted in the military, should deserve the right to vote. As a part of his reconstruction he created the Proclamation of Amnesty. The Proclamation of Amnesty helped set the ideas of Lincoln’s plan. The Proclamation of Amnesty allowed for a full pardon with the exception of high Confederate officials and military leaders. It also helped create the “10 percent” reconstruction plan that only allowed eligible voters to take a vote for a new state
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.
During one of America's crucial turning points, Lincoln, Grant, and Andrew Carnegie faced off on their own challenge of individual liberty each driven and influenced by their own perspective. To dive further into their challenges, Lincoln was on track to pulling together the Union in a fair and balanced state to follow the end of the war however understood securing the rights of the emancipated slaves was not going to happen overnight leading to a struggle of push and pull against both the Union and struggle for rights. Whereas Grant, who became president shortly after the victory in the war, went through the reconstruction period with the goal of creating a balance between his new job of vetoing and supporting new legislation for the reconstruction while keeping Lincoln's ideals. Carnegie, the leading steel production giant of the reconstruction period, wanted to publicize that this new change in our country's wealth must not blind us from the original goal of progress and advocated for no social hierarchies through the individual class.
Shortly after President Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated into presidency, the American Civil War began, and is currently recorded as one of the bloodiest battles in American history. It is undeniable that Lincoln had a difficult job. In fact, Paul Boller stated, “The burdens he bore during the Civil War were far heavier than those of most American Presidents… Lincoln had to proceed cautiously to avoid alienating the border slave states and offending public opinion.” With this in mind, Lincoln generally one main goal within the beginning Civil War, which was to preserve the union. However, later on, he went on to change his mind on abolishing slavery.
The Emancipation Proclamation The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863 to abolish the institution of slavery and for the preservation of the Union. Ultimately, Lincoln freed the slaves in order to weaken the Southern resistance, in doing this it would in turn strengthen the Federal government, as well as encourage the free black men to fight in the Union army, leading to the preserving of the Union. The document declared “ that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free” (The Emancipation Proclamation). Lincoln believed that freeing the slaves would provide an advantage for the North in two aspects; economically and politically. Economically,
With the end of the Civil War the country began its Reconstruction to repair the damages the South had cause when the Confederates withdrawal from the Union. One of the questions asked should the South be punished or pardoned for their crimes committed against the Union. President Lincoln began proposing a Ten Percent Plan for the Reconstruction of the South which was in leniency for the Confederates, which entailed pardoning crimes, to any Confederate who would take an oath of allegiance to the Union and accept federal policy on slavery. There was much antagonistic views on Lincoln’s plan for the Reconstructing the South, with the Radical Republicans being adamant that the Reconstruction should be a total reconstruction of the society to guarantee African American true equality.
President Lincoln sought to let the South return to the union and tried to influence them to pay for it. However, the radical republicans felt the need to absolutely make the South pay for leaving in any case and causing the union every one of their issues. Reconstruction was a shady period in the government's endeavors to make society a true democratic system;
Within the history of the United States, the term “Reconstruction Era” has two different meanings: the first meaning is the entire coverage of the history of the Reconstruction era from 1865 to 1877; the second meaning focuses on the the transformation of the Southern states that goes from 1863 to 1877. In between 1863 and 1865, President Abraham Lincoln and Vice President Andrew Johnson took fairly moderate positions that were mainly designed to bring the Southern states back to normal as quickly as possible. For the Radical Republicans, they used Congress to block the President and Vice Presidents moderate stance, impose harsher punishments and provide better rights for the freedmen. Johnson’s interpretations of the policies Lincoln created
The emancipation of the slaves was accepted by most of the northerners, and President Lincoln went to the extent of forcing the Southerners to accept the liberation of the slaves. However, President Lincoln was not lucky to see his plan materialize, but his successor followed through with the plan. President Johnson gave the southern states government free reign to rebuild themselves as long as they pledged loyalty to the Union and respected the emancipation of the former slaves. The radical Reconstructionist fought for the liberated slaves so that they could have a chance of building a living of their own and not depending on their white slave masters or colonist (Egerton, 2014). The Civil Rights Bill was passed by Congress in 1866, which guaranteed the African Americans equal protection under the law as well as renewing the Freedmen’s Bureau.
Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction dealt was the prohibiting of slavery. During the war the Emancipation Proclamation was a huge turning point. Even though it had regulations, it gave the slaves hope. President Lincoln then offered his 10% plan.
Reconstruction was a period of time dedicated to rebuilding the nation after the Civil War. The war ended with the South being defeated and their economy being devastated. Many Southerners struggled after the war with rebuilding their land and lives. The President and Congress had to decide the terms for which the former Confederate states would be permitted to join the Union. President Lincoln’s plan for reuniting the country was found in the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction.
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.”
Finally, he came to a conclusion, and Lincoln, in his last speech in 1865, proclaimed that African-Americans in the United States, and its claimed Confederate territory, deserved the right to vote. This plan was put into place to support Lincoln’s Ten Percent plan which relied heavily on the support of Southern political supporters. This speech sparked anger in the hearts of loyal Southerners, so much so that only three days later, Lincoln was assassinated due to his remarks in his speech. Now, with Lincoln’s ideals stapled into the minds of the nation, the job was left to President Johnson to pull the nation through the pains of reconstruction. Johnson fulfilled Lincoln’s goals of forgiveness by pardoning every Confederate soldier, except the highest ranking leaders of the rebellion, and pardoning wealthy plantation owners.
How did Lincoln and Johnson approach Reconstruction differently? Lincoln and Johnson both supported the Ten Percent Plan .However, Johnson lacked Lincoln's moral sense and political judgement. He was a War Democrat who disagreed with the Republicans. The South would rejoin the Union on his terms. But, Johnson, who had long talked down against southern planters, allied himself with ex-Confederate leaders, forgiving them when they appealed for pardons.
This policies including that the southern states could reestablish their government and it would be
Abraham Lincoln initially wanted to free slaves from the places where Confederacy resided but had to rethink his decision because that would be unfair to the African Americans who were still slaves. Because of the president’s quick thinking and smart planning such came out of the whole ordeal. Things were getting out of hand and were going from bad to worse therefore something had to be done to prevent utter chaos so the president had to step up because it was his duty to lead the United States in the right direction. Drafting the Emancipation Proclamation was an idea that was a last resort because Lincoln did not want to lose the war. As the Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery along the way more soldiers were added to the President’s army which he was the commander in chief of which would lead to victory.