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Constitutional Developments During The Period Between 1860 And 1877

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During the period between 1860 and 1877, many major changes occurred in America. There were many constitutional developments in this time period, which include the Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil War, and newly added Amendments. There were also many social developments included the Ku Klux Klan and voting of black people. Some of these developments were a revolution, which is a forcible overthrow of the government or social order in favor of a new system, and some were not.
The constitutional developments started when the South tried to secede from the Union. The election of the anti-slavery Republican, Abraham Lincoln, as president in 1860 caused seven southern states to secede from the Union to form the Confederate States of …show more content…

When the Confederacy did not stop, Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. The proclamation declared, "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.” (Lincoln, 1863)
Lincoln was re-elected in 1864, by Northern voters, for his second term, which ended all hope for a negotiated settlement with the Confederacy. Four years into the war and the Confederates start to surrendered after the re-election and the suffrage of the troops. The Union, out of default, won and the Southern states became part of America again. When the Civil War ended it proved that it was not a revolution because if it was then the Southern states would’ve successfully seceded.
When the war ended slaves were finally considered “free”. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and was passed by the Congress on January 31st, 1865, and

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