Andrew Johnson's Decision Making Case Analysis

After a war that claimed the lives of more men than that of all other wars combined, much of the country was left in ruins, literally and figuratively. Dozens of towns in the South had been burned to the ground. Meanwhile, the relations between the North and South had crumbled to pieces. Something needed to be done so that the country could once again be the United States of America, not the Divided States of America. The years from 1865 to 1877 were a time of rebuilding – the broken communities and the broken relations. This time period was known as Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a failure on the basis that the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments that were passed should have given protection and freedom to the African

Congress comes in to play in December 1865. The Congress was made up mostly of Republicans and they refused to let past Confederates to take their seats in Congress at this time. This marked the beginning of Radical Reconstruction or sometimes known as Congressional Reconstruction. The president and the congress did not agree on many issues. Congress overrode President Johnson on the Civil Rights Act of 1866, The Fourteenth Amendment, and the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill. The Fourteenth Amendment spelled out rights of both black and white citizens as equal. It prolonged Federal powers for the enforcement of civil rights. States that approved the Fourteenth Amendment were considered reconstructed, and Tennessee did so. President Johnson advised other southern states to oppose doing this. Congress passed many laws to limit President Johnson’s powers. They passed the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 which set new

After the Civil War, the United States had many problems to solve. The country had to figure out how to integrate newly freed slaves into society and bring the former Confederate states back into the Union. Reconstruction was period of time after the civil war in which the United States addressed these problems. Reconstruction had two different phases: Presidential Reconstruction took place from 1865 to 1867, and Congressional Reconstruction took place from 1867 to 1877. Presidential Reconstruction began with Abraham Lincoln, who proposed the Proclamation of Amnesty and the ten percent oath plan. Lincoln was focused on leniency and forgiveness; under his plan southerners would take an oath of loyalty to the Union, and after only ten percent of a state’s voters had taken this oath, the state could be readmitted. After Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson took over Reconstruction. Johnson wanted to punish landowners, but liberally handed out pardons, as he greatly enjoyed the power that he had over southerners. Under Johnson, former confederates were re-elected, and southern states discriminated blacks. Eventually, Congress took over Reconstruction. During Congressional Reconstruction, the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments were passed, and the freedman’s bureau was created. Overall, the failures of Reconstruction outweighed the failures because it took a very long time for it to achieve its goals, and the South was still able to

After the last round was fired and the last body was buried the post civil war United States south was in shambles and the newly appointed president (via murder) was put into office, and it was his job to rebuild the south in a way that reflected its tragic past. An important part of his job was what he would do with the newly free slave population, slaves that had once worked on cotton plantation were now free to do what they pleased and it was Johnson’s job to reconstruct the south around this fact. Andrew Johnson’s presidential reconstruction was an important part of post civil war, but his actions, beliefs and circumstances directly and purposefully repressed the development of civil rights for newly freed African American’s!

“The battle was done, the buglers were silent. Boneweary and bloodied, the American people, North and South, now faced the staggering challenges of peace.” After the Civil War, no one knew what to do next. The terrible conditions of the South after the war made it so no one wanted to participate in such a situation. When President Abraham Lincoln held office, he knew that the Union must be reassembled while treating the blacks respectfully which began the period of Reconstruction. Throughout this period, four presidents held office each trying to reform the poor conditions of the United States. Reconstruction ended when President Rutherford Hayes forced the Union troops to retreat from the southern states as a

Congress passes the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which divided the South into districts and required Southern states to approve the 14th Amendment to grant blacks citizenship, before rejoining the Union. Later, congress gives African Americans the right to vote by ratifying the 15th Amendment. The Reconstruction established the South’s first state-funded public school systems, created a just taxation legislation, and passed laws against discrimination and economic development programs. The approach of Congress was different than Johnson’s plan, because they worked to improve the lives of African Americans by passing laws in their favor, and expanding their rights. Congress did not care what the South wanted, and expected the South to abide by their rules. On the other hand, Johnson wanted to preserve the nation, and did not want to do anything to anger the South. Moreover, he was a strong believer in states rights, and the idea that the federal government had no right to enforce restrictive laws on the entire country.

“...the slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery”(Dubois). The Reconstruction wasn’t just a time of leaving slavery behind us, it was a time of progression and development. In 1869, four years after the Civil War, the first ever college football game ensued, and in 1870 Hiram Revels was the first African American senator. Then, in 1877, the first ever easter egg hunt occurred. Moving past all the fun of the Reconstruction, is the death of it. The Reconstruction died due to the efforts, or lack thereof on the North. A financial crisis, racism, and a lack of effort brought the Reconstruction to a halting stop.

The Union Victory in the Civil War in 1865 granted freedom to approximately 4 million slaves, however, the process of rebuilding the South during the Reconstruction period 1865-1877 brought a lot of challenges. In 1865 and 1866 under the supervision of President Andrew Johnson, new Southern state legislatives passed the “black codes” to control the labor and behavior of former slaves and other African Americans. During the Radical Reconstruction in 1869, new enfranchised blacks had a voice in the government for the first time in

The Reconstruction of the United States was an experiment in interracial democracy. The Civil War victory by the North brought to a close the establishment of slavery but, in turn, opened Pandora's box. The questions and answers pertaining to economical, political, and social equality for freedmen had yet to be addressed on a practical level. The Southern states, still bitter from defeat and economic stresses, strongly rejected the societal transformations thrust upon them. The Northern states' focal point remained on the necessary political powers by which to enact constitutional amendments, therefore empowering the federal government with the capabilities to enforce the principles of equal rights. On paper, slavery was abolished, but in reality, African-Americans were once again enslaved on a ship without the security or knowledge of what the next port held for them. The Civil War had not truly ended. It was still active under the guise of Reconstruction, but now coats and flags of many colors existed, and battles were merely fought on alternate battlefields. A war of ideas lacking in substantial practicality resulted in repetitious battles being won and loss. The motivating forces that set Reconstruction into motion were for the most part the North's quest for unification among states', and the emancipation of slaves. However, the primary objective of Reconstruction was to grant political, economical, and social opportunities for the freedmen. The

After the United State’s Civil War, the country was in a broken state. Over 620,000 soldiers had died and eleven states had succeeded from the Union. The country’s reconstruction was a very difficult process. President Lincoln and Johnson were both pressured to create a unified United States and were often battling against their counterparts- Congress. This tug-of- war between the Executive branch and Legislative branch creates a conflicting reconstruction era. Their plans are known as the Presidential Reconstruction plan and the Congressional Reconstruction plan. Although, the Presidential Reconstruction plan was very well planned, the Congressional Reconstruction Plan, if fully implemented would have better benefited those mostly impacted: African Americans.

After assassination of Lincoln, new president Andrew Johnson started his reconstruction policy called “Presidential reconstruction” which acted as one of the failures of reconstruction. Andrew left the status of freed slaves in

Reconstruction was a very hectic time in the U.S.’s history. The northern states were trying to make the nation whole again, while the southern states wanted to stay away. Meanwhile, the Freedmen and Jim Crow laws squared off in their section of the country. The carpetbaggers were taking advantage of the kerfuffle. The scalawags were siding with the northerners and the Republicans.

Congressional Reconstruction was what happened after the election of 1866. The congress had many people in power from the south that shouldn’t have been in power yet. The congress passed a tenure of Office Act which prohibited the president from removing federal officials or military commanders without the Senate’s approval. While Andrew Johnson was President, he got rid of most of the officials that were against the south, and put in Southerners against the Senate’s approval.

After the Civil War, there were two major paths of reconstruction–presidential reconstruction and radical reconstruction. Presidential reconstruction was headed by President Andrew Johnson, who believed that the southern states had never given up their rights to govern themselves, and failed to institute any sort of voting requirements. Aside from having to take an oath of allegiance to the Union and pay off war debt, the South was free to do what they like. This leniency led to the instillation of Black Codes and the continuation of wrongful treatment of African Americans. This caused the Republicans in Congress to take control of Reconstruction in the South after Johnson’s

The reconstruction era was a time period during the 18th century where control switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party after the Civil War. President Johnson, a democrat from the north, pushed for a more conservative and lenient route for the defeated southern states to rejoin the union. On the other hand, the Congress, which consisted of republicans, aimed at helping freed slaves gain more opportunities in America. The Freedmen’s Bureau was one of the regulations put into law that enabled African Americans to seek a better life by helping freed people gain a better education and reunite with their families. Other laws like the Black codes and labor contracts were then put into place by the president to keep freed slaves impoverished and inferior to the white American Citizen. Providing help to Freed slaves was problematic to many white American