Reconstruction 1865 77

Reconstruction (1865-77)

The Northern and Western States of America were incorporated within the American federalism being termed as the Union during the Civil War. These States were in contrast to those Southern States that preferred to leave the Union and form the Confederate States of America. The goal of both the groups was quite evident. Initially the North struggled for conservation of the Union. The South struggled to be acknowledged as a free nation. After the promulgation of Emancipation Proclamation in 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln the slavery problem attracted vast significance and the dispute grown to be one between the pro -- and anti-abolitionists. The victory of Confederates probably would have led to prevalence of the slavery in the South for a significant time however the victory was with the Union resulting in freedom for all slaves. About 180,000 blacks struggled for the Union in the Civil War and later the newly freed slaves insisted on full citizenship. The response of the Congress was seen in 1866 by the first ever Civil Rights Act of 1866. However, the unsuccessful of that Act and others similar responses forced the blacks to wait another century for availing the basic rights of the citizenship that the whites then exercised. In order to have a better idea of things that went so badly wrong, we are required to view the incidents during the period, 1865 to 1877, referred to as Reconstruction. (the Struggle for Equality: Civil Rights in America from Reconstruction to the Depression)

Reconstruction in the history of United States is indicated by the required efforts for reformation in the post Civil War periods. The nation was rejoined under the federal government during the post civil war period 1865-77 after the defeat of the Southern Confederacy and the Union troops were seen to have stationed in Southern states. The defeated South was a barren land at the end of the Civil War. The impact of devastations made by the invading Union forces were quite significant and the traditional social and economic order that had its root on slavery had distorted completely with nothing to replace it. The 11 Confederate states were required to be established in their positions in the Union and awarded with loyal governments and the part to be played by the liberated slaves are to be chalked out. (Reconstruction: The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia) During the post Civil War period most of the industry and infrastructure of the South were found to be in ruins. A plan for Reconstruction was developed by President Andrew Johnson that offered general pardon to the most Southern Whites and the opportunity for Southern states to form their own governments under the conditions that they commit for abolition of slavery and pledge loyalty to the Union. (Reconstruction- (www.tiscali.co.uk)

Johnson in his proclamation of 1865 asserted that all impounded land should be returned to its former owners countering grants of land made by Union Generals in Several places including the Sea Islands. All the Southern States promulgated the 'black codes' that delimited the liberties and alternatives of the emancipated slaves. The 'Radical Republicans', the foes of Lincoln in his own Party were annoyed. They charged the Southern States to be 'unreconstructed' and refused to make the newly elected congressmen and senators and initiated the process of impeachment against Andrew Johnson. The created a Federal Agency known as Freedman's Bureau specifically designed to deal with the problems and the rights of the newly liberated people. The Radical Republicans moved the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments that aimed at eradicating slavery and restoring the citizenship and the right to vote could not be confined to the basis of race.

Many of the radicals were active abolitionists for long years prior to the Civil War. Radicals like Thaddeus Stevens at their extremity dreamt of exerting economic and military force to 'break the backs' of the slave holding class and bring about genuine racial equality. Stevens advocated vehemently that the property of former slave owners should be accorded to their former slaves. This would squash the slave owning aristocrats and create a foundation for African-American citizenship. Like Lincoln, he has much faith on a virtuous democracy and is to be composed of free, independent small, producers and farmers. The African-Americans supported this belief. They required land, votes and access to education that had been denied them for two centuries. They were aware of the fact of slavery that had taken from them and of the fact that their labor had made the plantations profitable. They asserted that they had already contributed for the plantation land with their labor and with their service to the Union and they anticipated the Federal government to provide with 'forty acres and a mule' in acknowledgement of the labor that slavery had stolen from them. However, in the North, political argumentation progressively concentrated less on the Radical plan of land distribution and more on the right to vote. (an Outline of the Reconstruction Era)

The Northern Republicans cooperated with the liberated men and women to institute the first system of free public schools in South. During the period 1867 to 1870, the African-Americans witnessed a significant increment in the political power and elected African-American officials at the Federal, State and local levels. The whites of south particularly members of the non-slave holding classes cooperated in this 'Radical' rule. However, the ex-confederates like Nathan Bedford Forrest that founded the Ku Klux Klan in 1867 initiated a terrorist counterattack against racial equality and African-American Political gains. They vehemently opposed the northern 'carpetbaggers' that had alleged to have come to the South for building up their misfortune.

The southern and northern newspapers initiated to describe stories of corruption and mismanagement in the reconstruction state governments. The legion of abolitionists like Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Summer, and Wendell Phillips that led the Radical Republicans vanished with lost political authority. Progressively the northerners initiated to lose the will to implement reconstruction policies. Most of them were never supporting of the racial equality and now regarded the lifting of slaves as a blunder. The northerners threatened about land deprivation are mostly asserted that the right to vote would be sufficient to protect the political and economic rights of African-Americans. The aggressive Northern people have faith on the fact that the fruits of victory were being lost by the lenient policy of Johnson. (an Outline of the Reconstruction Era)

In the convention of Congress on Dec. 4, 1865, the southern representatives were denied the seats. Johnson attacked publicly the Republican leaders and vetoed their measures for Reconstruction. His techniques led the moderates to join the radical group. The Civil Rights Act of Apr. 9, 1866, formulated to safeguard the African-Americans from legislation such as the black codes and the Freedmen's Bureau Bill of July 16, extending the life of that organization were both passed over the veto of Johnson. The constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act led was questioned by the radicals and impelled them to include the provisions in the Fourteenth Amendment of 1866. The Joint Committee on Reconstruction in its report dated Apr. 28, 1866 opined that the ex-Confederate states were in a state of civil disorder and hence had not held valid elections. It also held that the Reconstruction was a congressional responsibility and not an executive liability. The radicals strengthened their position by being victorious in the elections of 1866. When all the Southern states refused to approve the Fourteenth Amendment and protect the rights of its black citizens the stage was set for more severe measures. (Reconstruction- www.gurunet.com)

At the time of Reconstruction, industrial and commercial projects thrived to reformulate the economy of the South and to devise new programs like public school systems. Such developments however failed to ensure the racial equality and former slaves continued to remain in most of the cases as landless laborers even though the emancipated slaves were assisted in finding work, shelter and lost relatives through the federal agencies. The Reconstruction also was led to inflow of Northern profiteers called as carpetbaggers. The imposition of external military force and equality of status guaranteed to the former slaves combined to make Southerners cynically aggrieved. With initiations of their regulation of the state governments they also started to violate the conditions of their reentry into the Union by depriving the blacks of their rights to vote. (Reconstruction- (www.tiscali.co.uk)

Moreover, the radical Republican governments in the South tried to address productively the problems left by the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. Carpetbaggers and scalawags and freedman led the radicals to start reconstructing the Southern economy and society. The agriculture sector war reformed, roads were reconstructed and a more equitable tax system was implemented ensuring schooling to the blacks and poor whites. The civil and political rights prescribed by the freedman were bestowed and the blacks were made capable of participating in the political and economic life of the South as full citizens for the first time. The resentment stimulated by the Civil War continued and most of the Whites in South opposed vehemently to the new role of the former slaves in the society. There were the growth organizations like Ku Klux Klan. Their aggressions kept away the African-Americans and the white Republicans from voting and gradually the radical Republican governments were overthrown. Their disintegration was enhanced by the death of the old radical leaders in Congress like Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Summer and by the disclosure of internal corruption in the radical Republican government. The Grant government was forced to decline its support of them because of growing criticism in the North of corruption in the federal government itself. (Reconstruction- www.gurunet.com)