Lincoln And The Radical Reconstruction Plan

This week I was going to bring Abraham Lincoln 's plan for reconstruction to the table. It is said that Lincoln started to plan for reconstruction post war. The plan was to address three key areas for concern. First the proclamation allowed full pardon and restoration of any property to anyone who was considered a rebellion or a member of the confederate army with exception of the highest officials and leaders (which is interesting). It also allowed for a state government to be formed once ten percent of the population took an oath of allegiance to the United States, and it encouraged the southern states to deal with slaves in such a way that it would not compromise their freedom.

The elections of 1800 and 1864 had made the Republicans victorious in the electorate. However, the South’s influence on the electorate had significantly decreased and the Democratic Party was divided as well. After the Civil War, with only a few requirements for readmission, Conservatives wanted the south to accept the abolition of slavery. Led by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, the Radical Republicans wanted the military leaders of the Confederacy to be punished. The punishments would include the confiscation of Southern property and suffrage for freedmen.

After the Civil War in the United States, the country had united once again. However, the two sides had not grown accustomed to each other, and tensions could have risen if not for the attempts to move on from the recent divide. Ultimately, the Reconstruction movement may not have purged the United States of discrimination and segregation, but it helped to ease tensions among sides, and paved the way for the Civil Rights Movement in the 20th century. Even though the intent of Reconstruction indicated that former opposition would forget the past and accept the future, the plan had complications that prevented it from reaching its truest form. For example, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln prevented his vision from carrying out as intended,

First of all, the problem with bringing the South and the North together is that they should’ve taken one issue at a time. They were juggling between the issue of slavery, economic problems, and state power. It was too much at the same time and was asking things to clash. They didn’t make sure that both of the issues weren’t addressed fairly either.

In March 1861, Abraham Lincoln was elected as the 16th president of the United States. Lincoln faced his biggest and most challenge situation, how to deal with the “divided house”. With the development of technology and railroad in the Northern, there were more people in the Northern were against the slavery. An increasing number of free black peoples protested to the Slavery and were a fight for the black people rights. In addition, since the Northern and the Southern had different economic system, the relied on free labors.

While we would like to believe that Reconstruction was the 2nd American Revolution, the facts, however do not completely just do not support this idea entirely. The “Reconstruction” era which was very important, was the time in which the United States sought to rebuild itself after the civil war. The government was hoping for a total over-hall of the social, political and economic structures of the Southern region but this change needed to extend beyond just the south into the entire country and the Federal Government. What happened however, was a series of “reconstruction” efforts, none of which fully addressed the real issues facing the newly freed blacks and poor whites. It seemed everyone had an idea on how we should reconstruct the

The controversial measure put forth by the group required an oath from all former Confederate states prior to regaining Union entry. Lincoln’s measure called more a more lenient process, requiring only 10 percent of the states to take the path (Holt, 1995). The bill outlined by Lincoln also pardoned most southerners in the Confederate led rebellion against the federal government of the United States. It was touted to be designed as a peace plan intended to help shorten the time of war. In the policy, Lincoln did insist that slavery be abolished by the new state governments established through the reconstruction effort.

Sources Analysis Freedom During the Reconstruction era, the idea of freedom could have many different meanings. Everyday factors that we don't often think about today such as the color of our skin, where we were born, and whether or not we own land determined what limitations were placed on the ability to live our life to the fullest. To dig deeper into what freedom meant for different individuals during this time period, I analyzed three primary sources written by those who experienced this first hand. These included “Excerpts from The Black Codes of Mississippi” (1865), “Jourdan Anderson to his old master” (1865), and “Testimony on the Ku Klux Klan in Congressional Hearing” (1872).

He favored a moderate policy that would conjoin the South with the Union without any punishment for treason. Many resisted Lincoln’s plan, saying it was not harsh enough while others did not know if Lincoln was being too lenient. The Radical Republicans and moderate Republicans were caught in a conflict. One important event of the Reconstruction Period was the Wade-Davis Bill. This was formed by the Radical Republicans and moderate Republicans.

24 November 2015 The Real Death of Reconstruction There is no easy way to decide who can be held accountable for the end of the Reconstruction Era. Attempts to rebuild the South ceased to exist in 1877, just over ten years after the Confederacy surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox Court House, Virginia. It seemed as though everything was on the right track in 1876, the one hundred year anniversary of The United States. That was, however, until the South waged conflict against black and white citizens of The United States.

The American civil war led to the reunion of the South and the North. But, its consequences led the Republicans to take the lead of reconstructing what the war had destroyed especially in the South because it contained larger numbers of newly freed slaves. Just after the civil war, America entered into what was called as the reconstruction era. Reconstruction refers to when “the federal government established the terms on which rebellious Southern states would be integrated back into the Union” (Watts 246). As a further matter, it also meant “the process of helping the 4 million freed slaves after the civil war [to] make the transition to freedom” (DeFord and Schwarz 96).

The Reconstruction period lasted from 1865 to 1877. The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendment were created during the twelve years of rebuilding the country. All of the amendments were made to protect former slaves and their rights but on paper they did not have any rights. The reconstruction period had its successes and failures.

Isaiah Osby Prof.Ellis AFA 3104 4/2/15 Historical Synopsis: Presidential Reconstruction This passage of the article Presidential Reconstruction started off by talking about a couple of things that were going on at that time. An example is that slaves that were escaping from their plantations were fleeing to Florida and on page 107 it says “the desire to reclaim these slaves led to the Seminole Wars” which was the multiple wars escaped slaves and Native Americans had fought in . In the passage it also talks about the large increase in the population from 1840 to 1860 which was around 50,000 for the whites and 40,000 for African Americans also on page 107

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.

Abraham Lincoln was a great leader and ended slavery. Abraham Lincoln was eminent, innovative, and made a long lasting impact on society and the world. Abraham Lincoln used his leadership skills to help end slavery and help the country through the Civil War. The thing that made Abraham Lincoln eminent was how he fought for slavery also how he led the union to victory during the Civil War.