Civil War Summary And Analysis

The Civil War. Louis P. Masur’s book, The civil War: a Concise History, Is a book that gives an overview of the civil war from 18 to 1800, Providing multiple causes an consequences that emerged from the war. The book begins by reviewing the origins of the war. Chapter one covers the issues between northern and southern states and the tension over right and slave possession. The tension created a conflict that raised a number of political, social, and military events that then proceeded into a battle to abolish slavery from the colonies.

Lincoln desired a lenient reconstruction plan that would allow Southern states more freedom to govern themselves as they re-pledged loyalty to the United States and abolished slavery. The Wade-Davis Bill was proposed by radicals and it called for the president to appoint leaders and allow only citizens who had not "who had never borne arms against the United State"(Brinkley pg. 347) to vote for officials in office. Lincoln 's leniency seemed to be a more peaceful approach that may have helped unite the states rather than cause further conflict. John Wilkes Booth, a radical Southern leader, ensured that the radical reconstruction plan, indeed was passed as Lincoln was the only one standing in the way of radical reconstruction. Andrew Johnson

The President Lincoln’s interest in the matter of reconstructions, articulated in action throughout the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, changed the congress’ sentiment of unity to defeat the South. The radicals, as they called themselves, disliked the President Lincoln’s plan due to two reasons. First, the ten percent plan was very moderate i.e. it did not satisfy the sentiment of the North to the South, and considered such a plan to be easy going in comparison to the outcome of Southerner’s rebellion. Second, the radicals could see Abraham Lincoln’s edge of admission intended from the proclamation. Lincoln wanted to prepare the stage for a strong Republican party in the Southern section though he considered the obvious

By 1865, the South has been devastated by the war. Cities have burned, farms have been destroyed or left barren, and the railroads have been smashed. In addition, the South’s primary source of cheap labor, slaves, has been lost due to the Emancipation Proclamation (Paskoff). The land teeters on a knife-edge. Unrest flows through the population as poverty and chaos knock at the door.

The period of the Civil War can be classified as one of the bloodiest and tumultuous in the history of the United States. Between 1961 and 1965 more than one million people perished on the battlefield due to an ideology that divided the continental United States. With the defeat of the Confederate secessionist states, the abolition of slavery, and the new amendments incorporated into the constitution, the geopolitical and social history of the young American nation changed utterly. Within the multiple events that occurred during this period of time, I consider that the most significant was the permanence of the federated union.

The great Civil War that engulfed the United States in 1861 resulted from a fundamental cleavage between its two most powerful sections, North and South. (Reid: 88) Prior to the American Civil War there were significant differences between the Northern and the Southern States in terms of social, economic and political preferences. The Industrial Revolution transported from Great Britain to the Northern States fueled this dichotomy. The society in the North was industrializing and urbanizing, creating a suitable environment for entrepreneurship and improved job opportunities. In addition, the enormous expansion of the railroad network, new means of communication and the politics of economic liberalization contributed to the formation of

At certain times throughout the Civil War and times leading up to it, the Union posed a bigger threat towards slavery than other times. In Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, he stated that he supported the fugitive slave law and he “[had] no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. [He believed he had] no lawful right to do so, and [had] no inclination to do so” (Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, page 1). This was when the South’s fears that the Union planned on abolishing slavery were at an all time

Founded in 1866, the (KKK) extended into virtually each southern state by 1870 and have become a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed toward establishing political and economic equality for blacks. Its members waged associate underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and black Republican leaders. Congress passed legislation designed to curb KKK, the organization saw its primary goal “the reestablishment of white supremacy” fulfilled through Democratic victories in state legislatures across the South within the decennary. Once an amount of decline, white Protestant nativist teams revived the KKK within the early twentieth century, burning crosses and staging

The Confederate states ignored Lincoln's request and did not do anything that he stated. Lincoln then releases the document a second time on January 1,1862 and Lincoln released all slaves. The Emancipation Proclamation was made to free the slaves, but there were many people against it because they did not want to forfeit their rights of having slaves, and some people were skeptical of what the document had said because they did not get all of the logistics about it, and people were for it because they wanted to abolish all slavery and not have a Civil War which tears our country apart, and Lincoln compromised on his point of view and what he thought was best for the nation, and to be able to not get the South from starting a new nation. There are many people who supported the Emancipation Proclamation.

This was unacceptable to the latter as they believed political positions should belong to Southern white Democrats and them only. It was during this time that The Ku Klux Klan came about to “obstruct and destroy Reconstruction government, to assassinate or intimidate black and white Republican officials, and to use violence to prevent people from voting.” (Foner,Eric.) In other words, The KKK tried “to use violence to restore a system of white supremacy that's been disrupted by the coming of Reconstruction.”

Former slaves who “tried to vote or participate in politics [were] likely to be singled out for “punishment”” by a terrorist organization named as the Ku Klux Klan, until the Congress passed the Force Bill in 1871 that gave the federal authorities the right to arrest and pursue active members of the KKK. But, the bill appeared to be only figurative as not really much of the Klan’s members were prosecuted (Hazen

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.”

After the Union won the major battles that is when Lincoln had put the ten percent plan on the table, this plan was when ten percent of the state’s eligible voters pledge oath to US then they could join the Union. To begin with, there are a few reasons why one would say that reconstruction in the south was a failure. One of these reasons being that, even after the civil war in the South’s government passed laws to limit the rights of the free African Americans. In document C we can see this is evident where it states “No negro or freedmen shall be allowed to come within the limits of the town of Opelousas without special permission of his employers. Whoever breaks this law will go to jail and work for two days on the public streets, or pay a fine of five dollars.”

The Wade-Davis Bill required that a majority of white male citizens declare their allegiance to the Union and the Constitution before a Confederate state could be re-admitted rather than only ten percent of citizens (Shi, 514). Lincoln vetoed the bill as being too severe and therefore it never became law. The Radical Republicans goal was to punish the south. With the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution being approved it officially abolished slavery everywhere. This caused the question to arise of what exactly freedom meant for the new freed slaves who had nothing (Shi, 515).

The Ku Klux Klan first emerged in Pulaski, Tennessee following the Civil War. As we know today, the mere mention of the Klan triggers fear as the KKK is known for its various tactics of violence that came in the form if lynchings, murders, and mutilations. Following their emergence, the KKK were quickly symbolized and portrayed as the protectors of the South, following the defeat of the Southern states in the Civil War and the beginning of the period of Reconstruction by the federal government (Gurr, 1989, p. 132). During the 1920s, the KKK achieved its greatest political success and growth outside of the South. During this period, the membership of the Klan heavily expanded to the states of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Oregon, to which the KKK obtained two to two and one-half million members at its apex.