Civil War Reconstruction
It was 1865, the Civil War had ended and President Abraham Lincoln has been assassinated. Lincoln had been the moderator between the extreme beliefs of the Republican majority in Congress and the liberal ideas of the Democrats or Confederate sympathizers. None the less Reconstruction needed to begin as soon as possible. The South needed to be rebuilt, economically as well as geographically; the Union would have to readmit all former Confederate states in order for the reconstruction to begin. Lincoln's point of view had been that the South deserved to be readmitted. Others, such as Congress, felt like the South should pay for their rebellious behavior. They felt this way because they were afraid that the South would rebel again. There were many different ideas on how the Reconstruction for the South was to be dealt with, but the most important were Lincoln's Plan, Johnson Plans of Reconstruction, and the Radical Republican Reconstruction. Lincoln's Plan consisted of two major points: the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, which included the Ten Percent Plan and the acceptance of the Thirteenth Amendment. The Proclamation of Amnesty stated that "before returning to the Union, the
The Northern Radical Republicans, with a majority in Congress, were the political group that set the goals for Reconstruction which were to prevent slavery from rising again in the South. At first, the Radical Republicans thought this could be accomplished by outlawing slavery and by passing the Thirteenth Amendment. On the contrary, Southern Democrats in their quest to restore their rule in the South brought back slavery without actually calling it that, by passing Black Codes as early as 1865. Both Moderate Republicans and Radical Republicans in Congress responded to these 'Black Codes'. In 1866 they passed a bill to keep the Freedmen's Bureau a little longer to protect newly freed slaves against the Black Codes. President Johnson vetoed the bill, but Radical and Moderate Republicans eventually were able to pass it. The Black Codes and President Johnson's veto of all Reconstruction legislation that was unfavorable to the South caused Moderate and Radical Republicans to change their goals from just ending slavery to seeking political equality and voting rights for Blacks. The resulting Reconstruction governments provoked great resentment in the South. Most white southerners claimed that the blacks that won office during Reconstruction were incapable of running the government. Southerners also said that the white northerners who had moved to the South and gotten elected t
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 951
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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