Louisiana State Politics Analysis

The secession of South Carolina on December 20, 1860, by a vote of 169-0 was a response to the election of Abraham Lincoln of 1860. Lincoln perceived as an abolitionist wanted to contain slavery rather than ending it. The majority party above the Mason-Dixon line were Republicans and below were primarily Democrats and Republicans were viewed as abolitionists. The election of a Republican threatened the South’s status quo. The primary catalyst for secession was based on slavery. Different social cultures and political beliefs developed due to the South’s intimate and reliant relationship on slavery. Southern whites feared the end of slavery and this paranoia was shared among plantation slave owners and white Yeoman farmers. Southern whites felt that the North were threatening the supposed tranquility of the South. The South’s agrarian economy, honor, and independence were believed to be in danger. Slavery was intertwined with the South’s social, cultural, and economic makeup. As a result of slavery, the South developed a paternalistic culture and racial ideology of white supremacy. The perceived notion that the North was influencing it’s political and social beliefs on the South lead them to believe that secession was the only act of self-preservation. The growing differences between the South and North made it difficult to negotiate. This fear was exaggerated and accelerated the South’s eventual implosion. The South believed that without slavery it would self-destruct and

In this paper I will inform you with a few of these events and topics such as the Civil war, slavery, as well as facts of the state. I hope my readers walk away with a new respect and outlook of Mississippi and learn how the past can affect the future, as well as the beauty.

The Military Reconstruction Act of 1867 lasted for ten years and counted as another very large portion of the success of Reconstruction, even though flaws continuously occurred. “This drastic legislation divided the South into five military districts, each commanded by a Union general and policed by blue-clad soldiers, about twenty thousand all told.” The act enforced all laws passed by Congress including the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. The tactics and maneuvers under this act called for strict rule over the South to insure the equality of blacks. In 1877, the federal troops had to abandon their positions in the southern states leaving the South in almost the same situation it faced previously. Therefore, the Military Reconstruction Act also failed for not keeping black equality rights enforced.

The Louisiana Purchase today, is considered one of the greatest things an acting president has ever done. However, when Jefferson did buy the territory, it was viewed by many of his fellow Republicans as Federalistic, and an act of viewing the Constitution very loosely. Many claimed that he was abandoning his political principles, which he had fought for so strongly in the past. However, amid all the claims of his betrayal of his political principles by buying the territory without consulting congress, it is clear that he didn’t abandon them, because he did it for an agrarian expansion, and because he believed that it was best for Americans. Both of these reasons are two of the main ideals of the Republican

In 1866, Congress passed The Civil Rights Act of 1866 which allowed them to be genuine citizens and thus granted them federal protection under the law. Score for the blacks. Furthermore, the South was placed under military rule to ensure that this act was being enforced. During this tremendous time of freedom, blacks were allowed to vote and hold office – something that finally extended a voice and position in our country to their community. Meanwhile, whites were growing tired of all the nonsense. They wanted their beloved Old South back. Many refused to attend the integrated Reconstruction-era state constitutional conventions. Southern whites would use highly exaggerated and publicized incidences of “social injustices” to protect their claims of being thrown over to so-called negro domination. Any action was necessary that could help clinch their argument and overturn the Reconstruction

The restoration process began with small plans that were put forward by President Lincoln as well as President Johnson. The two president’s main aim was to combine the confederacy with the unions (Flanagan). This fact was called the presidential reconstruction. The Republicans were put into office to ensure that the freed people’s rights were protected as well as to make sure that America was united. The civil rights act was passed and the southern state began to follow the rule. The Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Act that would ensure that the federal authorities could be able to protect the freed citizens. However, even with the introduction of such laws the African Americans were

Southern expansionism took on many forms in the United States between the years 1789 and 1860. Examining southern history for these years shows how slave-grown cotton played a major factor in southern expansion, specifically through the issues of the Louisiana Purchase, soil erosion, the desires of yeoman farmers and planters, Indian removal, the interstate slave trade, the independence movement in Texas, the Mexican War, filibusters in Central America, and especially concerning relations between the southern and northern states. However, southern history shows us that while the growth of southern cotton did in fact play a large role in the rationale for expansion, but there are other concerns involved here. Most notably, the constant dilemma of the slave to free state representation in Congress additionally played a large role in why so many southerners decided to pack up and head west. These two reasons can be explained as the two most primary concerns involving the sudden growth of southern expansion. Despite cotton being one of the major factors that led to southern expansion, it can be proven by examining southern history that the constant struggle between northerners and southerners to balance the ratio of slave to free states in Congress additionally played into expansion.

After the Civil War ended – with the submission of Robert E. Lee at the Appomattox Court House – the raging era that followed this conflict was the period of Reconstruction. The Reconstruction Era (1865-1877) was constantly misinterpreted due to politic issues such as: admittance to residency, voting rights, the comparative influences of the national and state administration, the affiliation among political and economic democracy, and the appropriate way to deal with terrorism. During the Reconstruction era, the country’s law and Constitution – convened from May 25 to September 17, 1787 – were revised to assure the basic rights of a former African American slave, and how the Confederacy was conquered due to biracial governments rising to authority, which was, in no doubt, one of the lowest points of national American democracy. By regarding this view, the Radical Republicans – within Congress – were so fixated on punishing beaten Confederates, Southern governments controlled by carpet baggers (dishonorable Northerners who journeyed into the South to obtain the advantages of office) , scalawags (Southern whites who endorsed the system), and African

After the Civil War the people of the nation especially the government wanted to help the newly freed African-Americans however something caused the ever-growing wave of equality to cave in on itself and retract. In the beginning many people were supportive of reconstruction. Laws like the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments were passed ensuring African-American citizenship and their civil rights. Schools and churches were quickly built for them and the former slaves were even gaining positions in the government. It all seemed great until the election of 1876 when Ruther B. Hayes a republican and Samuel J. Tilden a democrat ran for the presidency.

As one document states “in the 1870s Norther voters grew indifferent to events in the South… many Northern voters shifted their attention to such national concerns as the Panic of 1873 and corruption in Grant’s administration” (Document C), this shows just how uninterested the North was in keeping watch on the South. They would rather leave the South in the care of military with the ‘guidelines’ and ‘rules’ they created, these being, the 14th amendment, allowing black citizens the right to vote, and the 15th amendment, protecting that right so it couldn’t be taken away or threatened. The Northern government had their attention somewhere else. There was corruption within their own government that they had to deal with, there was no way they could take care of themselves and the South, they had bigger issues.

During the Reconstruction period of 1865–1877, federal laws provided civil rights protection in the U.S. South for freedmen, the African Americans who had formerly been slaves. During Reconstruction, the government implemented the 14th amendment along with the Freedmen's Bureau to ensure that Freedman in the south were protected. Due to the measures being taken during this time period, there were different reactions with each so called class of individuals. The black southerners typically favored Reconstruction as it gave them a great increase in rights and equality, along with white southerners who disapproved secession in the first place. Conversely, there was a great majority of white southerners who had ill feelings towards Reconstruction

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments state, “The United States Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery to this day. The United States Constitution declared that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are American citizens including African Americans.the United States Constitution prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” This is the part where it really express the north winning the battle. As you had the south making it very difficult to change their ways and thoughts of slavery, there was nothing at this point that was going to stop the republican party to keep going in this direction. As each amendment was made, the south was do little things such as the Jim Crow law to get around them. The Jim Crow Law was made in many states that was their to segregate the whites and the blacks. When smaller things like this were made the republicans came up with amendments or smaller laws such as Blacks vs Boarders to stop the south from slowing down the reconstruction process.

“If the United States had not purchased the Louisiana Territory and won the Western Lands from Mexico in the Mexican American War, our nation would be a very different place.” Firstly, if we wouldn’t have purchased the Louisiana Territory we would probably not have all the land that we have today in the United States. Secondly, in my opinion if it wasn’t for Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and all the Native Americans the exploration could have been very different from what it was. Also, Meriwether Lewis led the expedition and William Clark was to co-lead the expedition with Lewis. The Louisiana Territory was a good move for the U.S. because it doubled the size of the United States!

Yankee invaders between 1877-1850 subjugated the Southern way of life. The degeneration of liberty begun with the North’s ideology of abolishment of slavery, the election of Abraham Lincoln, the disapproval of sovereign succession, the invasion of the Confederate States of America, and the torment of military districts. Laws unjustly created to suppress the white Southerners. These condemnations lasted for over twenty years. This essay will highlight all of these atrocities, and finally will demonstrate that through all this pain and suffering Southern patriotic dignity remained intact.

The Columbian University journalism professor Nicholas Lemann’s aim of writing this book is to look at the brutal campaign of fraud and violence during the mid-1870s that ultimately led to the restoration of conservative, white governments in some southern states. The author focuses on the reconstruction of Mississippi. He stirs memories of the murderous Southern resistance and to civil rights movements 90 years later. Lemann writes at an era when neo-Confederate sympathies have cropped up again in southern politics, and amid several reports of the suppression of the minority voting throughout the country. Mr. Lemann presents the last battle of the Civil War.