Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction: After the war had ended the North needed to take the task of reconstruction of the south. Even before the war had ended Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in 1863. This was an oath that southerners had to take which said “Southerners could be pardoned and reinstated as U.S. citizens if they took an oath of allegiance to the Constitution and the Union and pledged to abide by emancipation. High Confederate officials, Army and Navy officers, and U.S. judges and congressmen who left their posts to aid the southern rebellion were excluded from this pardon.” On April 14th, Lincoln had held a cabinet meeting to discuss reconstruction in the U.S. The president wanted southern …show more content…
Johnson also called for special state, abolish slavery, repudiate all debts incurred to aid the confederacy, and to ratify the 13th amendment. Many of Johnson's plans would divide congress and him. The election of 1866 widened that divide. This was bad for the nation since the president and congress had to agree for anything to happen. Congressional Reconstruction Plan: Congress wanted to replace Johnson's Reconstruction proclamation and is shown in the 14th Amendment. Congress took control over the southern states, congress denied The Confederate states their Congressional seats. They made equal rights for African Americans and granted them protection under the law. Presidential Reconstruction Plan: President Johnson gave a plan of Reconstruction that gave the south the choice of the transition to make slaves freemen and women. It also offered that African American had no role in the politics of the south. I think President Johnson's plan wasn’t very good because if he gave it up to the south to decide the transitions of slaves to free people, they wouldn’t do it, which would defeat the whole purpose of the civil war. It also didn’t give equal right to African Americans because they couldn’t play a role in …show more content…
Many of them tried to remove Johnson of his presidency which is impeachment. Congress wanted to remove Johnson for these two reasons They considered the firing of Stanton by Johnson to be a crime under The Tenure of Office Act.It was a Political Move to disenfranchise Johnson after his Alienation of Congress at their attempts at reconstruction. Johnson escaped removal. The House had voted to impeach him in February of 1868. 35 votes were for Johnson and 19 against. Which is one vote short of the required ⅔ majority. Civil Rights act of 1866:On April 9th 1866, Congress overruled Andrew Johnson's veto of the Civil Rights Bill. The bill stated that all people born in the United States are United States citizens with the exception of American Indians. Congress granted all people equal benefits of the law and the security of people and their property. This was one of the most important bills passed in congress because it created more equal right for African American citizens. 13th
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.
Johnson, a southern Democrat who supported the Union, had been chosen as a running mate by Lincoln in 1860 to try and appease both sides of the slavery debate. Johnson had been a tailor by trade prior to entering politics and had none of Lincoln’s skills as orator or negotiator. From the state of Tennessee, he had sympathy for the South and supported Lincoln’s plan of “restoration.” After Lincoln’s death, Johnson implemented his own plan, based loosely on the desires of Lincoln to shepherd the South back into the Union, but with several distinct changes. Johnson chose not to allow military nor civil leaders of the Confederacy to participate in the new government.
Throughout the era of Reconstruction, President Andrew Johnson and Congress clashed in their views and policies, which can be seen in the way that they responded to one another’s actions. In May of 1865, President Johnson outlined his plan for reuniting the nation. This consisted of Johnson issuing a series of proclamations, one of which offered a pardon to nearly all of the white southerners, with the requirement that they had to take an oath of allegiance to the Union. In addition to this, the proclamations appointed provisional governors and ordered them to call state conventions to establish loyal governments in the South, elected by whites alone.
The Congressional plan was created by the “Radical Republicans” which despised slavery and wanted to make the South pay for what they had done to the African Americans and their country. The Radical Republicans hated Lincoln for being a pushover, for not punishing the South. They also loathed Andrew Johnson. They thought he was the worst president of all time. The detested Lincoln and Johnson, so they rejected both of their plans.
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth” (Abraham). The United States of America went through many changes at the conclusion of the Civil War. The never ending evolution of our nation was certainly moving at a very fast pace. During the years of 1861 - 1865 the Civil War was taking place on the grounds of the United States. The war was a battle between the north and south, due to the controversial topic of slavery.
On another note, Andrew Johnson and Congress had multiple disputes throughout his
Which in this case had been at eleven of the Confederate States of Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana and Virginia. Each of those states of United States had been seceded from the Union far before the start of the Civil War and had hoped to be solved in the readmission from each of those states. The creation of the Reconstruction had been during the years when Abraham Lincoln had planned for the Reconstruction be during the Civil War and had been announced at the first comprehensive Reconstruction. Abraham Lincoln had hoped that this would be accomplished in his Reconstruction plan that was to have an end or to weakened the Confederacy and to bring the Nation back together before the start a postwar for the southern states. However Abraham Lincoln had been unable to set his plans in action before his assassination that was after his speech in the state of Louisiana about the Reconstruction and that had been to free african americans in April the eleventh, of the year
Congress responded to this by creating the first Civil Rights Act. The act made African Americans full-fledged citizens and allowed the government to uphold these rights in the southern states forcibly. These events led to the 15th amendment which granted voting rights to African American men. Freedmen then began to participate and hold offices in Reconstruction policies. During the Grant Admiration in 1869-1877 however, reconstruction was abandoned, and southern whites took over the congress majority.
Upon assuming the presidency Johnson’s major goals on assuming the presidency were to continue the civil rights reforms being pursued by his predecessor such as the momentous Civil Rights Act of 1964. Johnson and his new Democrats stood behind the bill pushing it through congress. The most important part of the act was that “all persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of goods, services… without discrimination or segregation.” (Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title II). This act was by definition an attack on segregation and discrimination in southern states.
Johnson opposed the Act and tried to remove Stanton — in direct violation of the Tenure of Office Act (Ushistory.org, n.d.). The House of Representatives formally impeached him on February 24 by a vote of 126 to 47. They charged him with violation of the Tenure of Office Act and bringing into "disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt, and reproach the Congress of the United States. " Johnson's trial began on March 4th and continued for 11 grueling weeks and Johnson was acquitted by a single vote at the end (WGBH American,
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.
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.
The American Civil War that was started due to the controversy over slavery in 1861, was won by The Union supported by President Lincoln against the Confederate states. President Lincoln’s original goal during the civil war was to reunify the nation as quickly as possible and help both sides come to an understanding. After the Civil War ended in 1865, the newly formed United States’ reconstruction era began. The Reconstruction era was put into effect by the Congress in 1866 and lasted until 1877. The Union’s victory in the Civil War had given African Americans a new sense of hope, devastated the southern economy, and eased the history of disunity in American political life.
They had own rights to form their individual lives and participate in voting. Even Though the power was limited, in consequence, 6 blacks served in U.S congress during reconstruction era. This displays the significant power growth of blacks and great cooperation within the community. Along the amendments, Civil Rights Act of 1866 also
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.