HIST405N Week 4 Reconstruction and the Compromise of 1877

HIST405N Week 4 Reconstruction and the Compromise of 1877 Answer:

Introduction

With his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, issued on December 8, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln presented his feasible plan for reunifying the United States (Corbett et al., 2019). It was obvious that Lincoln needed to start preparing for postwar reconstruction at this point in the Civil War. Union forces had taken large portions of the South, and some states were prepared to have their governments restored. The declaration focused on three primary issues. Secondly, everyone who participated in the insurrection was eligible for a complete pardon and the restitution of their property, with the exception of the highest military and political authorities of the Confederacy. Second, it permitted establishment of a new state government after ten percent of the eligible voters had sworn loyalty to the US. Finally, as long as their freedom was not jeopardized, the Southern states admittedly encouraged implementing strategies to cope with the former slaves. Since the beginning of the war, Abraham Lincoln had been considering the steps to restore the Union. His guiding principles were to complete the mission as soon as feasible and to disregard suggestions that the South should be punished.

The Radical Republicans’ Response to Lincoln’s Plan

Radical Republicans objected to Lincoln’s reconstruction plan’s laxness and lack of protections for freed slaves, and they opposed it. Congress rejected the rehabilitation of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Congress enacted the Wade-Davis Bill, their plan for unifying the country, in July 1864. HIST405N Week 4 Reconstruction and the Compromise of 1877.

Most of the populace inside a state’s borders must accept the pledge of allegiance.
A state must formally abolish slavery.
The new governments were closed to participation by Confederate authorities.
Lincoln used his pocket veto because he disapproved of the scheme (History.com).

The Wade-Davis Manifesto, passed in August 1864 by a furious Congress, accused Lincoln of usurping congressional authority. As military news from the South improved, this comment would have little effect on the general people. Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign helped to boost Lincoln’s popularity and ensure his reelection.

HIST405N Week 4 Reconstruction and the Compromise of 1877

Johnson’s Plan

Lincoln and Congress were supposed to battle over who would get to choose the reconstruction plans, but it never happened. On April 14, 1865, the president was assassinated. His replacement, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, lacked the interpersonal abilities of his predecessor; those abilities would be much missed. HIST405N Week 4 Reconstruction and the Compromise of 1877. As mentioned, Andrew Johnson believed the war had been waged to uphold the Union. In order to allow the Southern states to start conducting elections and sending members back to Washington, he devised a lenient plan based on Lincoln’s earlier 10% idea.

According to Corbett et al., Johnson wanted to quickly and amicably reintegrate the South into the Union and mend the nation’s wounds (2019). Nonetheless, his amnesty proclamations allowed former Confederate leaders to reclaim their positions of authority in municipal and federal governments, escalating tensions with the South’s freedmen and the North’s Republican MPs. Johnson’s proposal called for the following:

Those swearing a loyalty pledge would be eligible for pardons;
High-ranking Confederate officials and individuals with property worth more than $20,000 would not be eligible for pardons.

Before being readmitted, a state was obliged to do the following:

Abolish slavery;
Repeal the state’s secession law.

The majority of the seceded states started implementing the president’s plan. There was no immediate opposition from that quarter because Congress was not in session. Yet, when Congress reassembled in December, the Southern MPs were not given seats. There was yet another impasse between the president and Congress due to reconstruction.

The Radical Republicans’ Own Plan/Congressional Reconstruction plans

According to History.com, HIST405N Week 4 Reconstruction and the Compromise of 1877, the postwar Radical Republicans were driven by three key reasons:

Some others want to exact revenge on the South for starting the war.
Compassion for the freedmen led some to think that the federal government could help them transition from slavery to freedom.
Political considerations: The Radicals wished to maintain the Republican Party’s hold on the North and the South.

On the political front, the Republicans wished to continue supporting their wartime positions, which included:

Protection tariffs and a national banking system that supports business liberal settlers’ land policies
Federal funding for railroad construction. These programs would suffer if Democratic control returned to the South.

In reaction to this threat, a number of Republicans decided to switch to supporting the vote for blacks (15th Amendment). Republicans would maintain the status quo with the support of grateful freedmen. HIST405N Week 4 Reconstruction and the Compromise of 1877.The postwar Congress pushed a number of bills through in an effort to aid the freedmen while also demonstrating its control over the president. These statutes included the 14th Amendment, the Tenure of Office Act, the Army Appropriations Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, to name a few. The Reconstruction Acts, which Congress passed in 1867 and 1868, were implemented and included the final restoration strategy for the South. The procedure came to a conclusion at this point. Yet, the radical Republicans in Congress were not satisfied until they dealt with their major tormentor through impeachment.

Should the South have been treated as a defeated nation or a rebellious State?

Lincoln’s initiatives aimed to end the war quickly by presenting a reasonable peace proposal. By demanding that the new governments abolitionize slavery, it was also meant to advance Lincoln’s emancipation agenda. Lincoln’s tolerant reconstructionist approach to the South resulted from his desire to spread awareness of the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln was concerned that enforcing the proclamation might cause the Republican Party to lose the 1864 election and that popular Democrats might overturn the order. Lincoln’s strategy for ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment throughout all states, known as Reconstruction, was successful.

References

Corbett, P.S., Janssen, V., Lund M, J., Pfannestial, T., Waskiewicz, S., Vickery, P. (2019).
U.S History Openstax

Question:

HIST405N Week 4 Reconstruction and the Compromise of 1877

Instructions

Read/review the following HIST405N Week 4 Reconstruction and the Compromise of 1877 resources for this activity:

Textbook: Chapters 15, 16
Lesson
Minimum of 1 scholarly source (in addition to the textbook)

Initial Post Instructions

For the initial post, craft a response comparing the three (3) Reconstruction plans:

Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (10% Plan) – Lincoln
Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan
Congressional Reconstruction Plan (Congress)

Then, address one (1) of the following for your HIST405N Week 4 Reconstruction and the Compromise of 1877 selections:

Analyze whether the South should have been treated as a defeated nation or a rebellious state.
Explain how the American culture and society changed in the North versus the South during Reconstruction.
Analyze the impact of the Compromise of 1877 that ended Reconstruction on African-Americans.

TEXTBOOK REQUIRED IS https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/1-introduction