The Causes Of Reconstruction During The American Civil War

The Civil War was a war that was fought over the civil and humane treatment of every person, regardless of their outward appearances. It left a scathing scar on the nation After the atrocities that were suffered in the Civil war, the nation need a way to heal it’s wounds and unite again. Lincoln had a battle of his own to fight within the congress for the Reconstruction of the nation, While Lincoln believed that the south had suffered enough and had a long road to recovery, the radical republicans wanted to punish the south. They believed that the act of secession by the southern states was treason and the penalties should be strict.

In the beginning of 1865, the Civil War came to a close, abandoning over 620,000 dead and a destructive path of devastating all over the south. The North now was confronted with the task of reconstructing the destroyed and aggrieved Confederate states.

The Civil war could very easily be known as one of the greatest tragedies in United States history. After the Civil War, the people of The United States had so much anger and hatred towards each other and the government that 11 Southern states seceded from the Nation and parted into two pieces. The Nation split into either the Northern abolitionist or the Southern planation farmers. The Reconstruction era was meant to be exactly how the name announces it to be. It was a time for the United States to fix the broken pieces the war had caused allowing the country to mend together and unite once again. The point of Reconstruction was to establish unity between the states and to also create and protect the civil rights of the former slaves.

In hindsight it is sometimes claimed that Reconstruction was a failure. Although there was some good that came out of the Reconstruction it was mostly just a relentless uphill battle against Southerners and immoral politicians that were here to delay change and keep racism alive. Reconstruction brought the Ku Klux Klan who displayed great resistance, and poverty that swept the South once the blacks were freed. The freedom of these black slaves led to discriminatory legislatures such as the Black Codes and the Jim Crow laws to keep the blacks constrained from actually being free. The South was then encountered with corruption and high property taxes, as a rebuild was in order to reestablish the war torn part of the nation.

A revolution is a dramatic and sudden change in an organization in the social order that is replaced by a new, more favorable system. When Historian Eric Foner called the Reconstruction period “America’s Second Revolution”, his characterization was correct. Reconstruction can be viewed as a revolution because the previous social order, slavery, was replaced suddenly by a more favorable one, freedom for African-Americans. There was a long period of politicization for incorporating free African-Americans into white society. Reconstruction also revolutionized the preconceived notion that the states had autonomous power.

President Lincoln's began his reconstruction preparation during the Civil War.While observing the Civil War, he crafted the Ten Percent Plan. This blueprint stated that a seceded Southern state could be create their own state government once 10% of its voters from 1860’s voter roll, swore an oath of allegiance. He created this plan because he believed that it would benefit everyone. The plan allowed everyone, except high ranked Confederates, the opportunity to be fully pardoned. The Ten Percent Plan also protected Southerner’s private property; however, President Lincoln did not promise that he would protect their ownership of slaves. President Lincoln believed that this plan would quickly end the Civil War and begin the process of reconstruction. His ultimate goal was to unify the States as if the Civil War hadn’t occurred.

In the year 1865, the United States Army defeated the Confederate Army in the American Civil War, leaving large segments of the south in destruction. Reconstruction of the south began almost immediately after the Civil War was over. In fact, as the war was coming to an end, President Lincoln was formulating a plan that triggered the historical period of the reconstruction of the south. Both Lincoln’s plan and his successor’s, were unsuccessful in the rebuilding of the south at the time, and the country was in desperate need of a new system.

After the devastation brought to the South from the Civil War America entered period called “Reconstruction” to help mend America. One of the most debated things to come out of Reconstruction was on whether it was a success or a failure. Many believe it was a success due to the Southern states participating in the US government again and the freedom of slaves. Others believe it was a failure due to the repression of African rights and failures to protect them both physically and financially. Reconstruction was a failure because of the restrictions of African American’s rights, the social separation/mistreatment of the races, and the continous poverty of the African American community.

As the American Civil War came to a close, the United States started to revamp the country, during what became known as the Reconstruction Era. Throughout this Period of time (1865-1877), the authorities attempted to fix America politically, economically, and physically. The United States unfortunately faced struggles, when people were evidently unable to adapt themselves to the era. As a result of bringing an attempt to come back from the defeat, the result was insufficient. This clearly shows that the Reconstruction Era was certainly not a success because the changes created by the government failed to make positive changes to society.

After the Civil War, following the Compromise of 1877 and the end of Reconstruction, the protection for the rights of African American ended if there was any. Southern States had moved to impose a system of segregation on nearly all areas of life. New laws that required segregation that stirred “separate but equal” doctrine that disenfranchise African Americans for almost six decades. It is hard in this days and age to be able to imagine segregation as a law, but the remnants just change form and name. A petition file on June 7, 1892, in the supreme court Louisiana by a local shoemaker named Homer Plessy against Honorable judge John H. Ferguson. His filling set a test case to challenge Separate Car Act that prompt Plessy v. Ferguson case perhaps one of the most noticeable actions to nullify “separate but equal” doctrine.

In December of 1863, Abraham Lincoln proposed the 10 Percent Plan as the first plan for Reconstruction. In the plan, a Confederate state would be readmitted to the Union, with a new government created, once ten percent of the state's voters had declared loyalty to the United States. These people were also required to uphold emancipation. Lincoln said that it would be "a cruel and an astounding breach of faith" for anyone to not abide by the laws of emancipation (qtd. in Goodwin 588). Anyone who took this oath received a full pardon unless they had been a Confederate official. Lincoln also thought that the entire abolition of slavery, not just in Confederate states, should be made by a Constitutional amendment. However, this plan was more of a way to try to diminish the power of the Confederacy during the Civil War than a plan to be enacted after the war was over. It was officially put into motion in some parts of Union-held territory in the South, but it was never truly supported by locals and Congress didn't recognize is it.

1. The war in 1862 was only more than a year old and the people in both the Union and Confederate sides didn’t anticipate it would last that long, but it is going to go on. Close to the end of the summer in this same year, the Union has made huge progress in claiming confederate lands, winning some major battles. They have put the confederacy in the defensive. They have taken over New Orleans, with even black troops major on the ground of New Orleans. They have taken Missouri and are working hard to take over the Mississippi Valley and maybe even Richmond itself. Bruce Catton puts it this way in The Civil War, “Except for guerrilla activity, Kentucky and Missouri has been swept clear of armed confederates, Western Tennessee had been reclaimed, there was a Yankee army in Cumberland Gap, another one was approaching chattanooga, and a third was sprawled out from Memphis to Corinth, preparing to splice down through Mississippi and touch hands with the Union occupation forces in Baton Rouge and New Orleans” (85) So not only that they Union had taken over regions, they are advancing as well, but they did not win the way this year for some reason. Firstly, because they did not have generals and army heads capable of taking them to victory. General Halleck, chief of the Union Armies and Pope in charge of one of the Union armies in Virginia, were major examples of this.

The Civil War, one of the most brutal and bloody wars in US History ended in 1865, and left the country in ruin. Abraham Lincoln, the president of the U.S at the time came up with the plan to re-build the country after the war. He called it Reconstruction Plan. The Reconstruction Plan was put to use right after the war in 1865 and ended in 1877. Within the Reconstruction Plan, Lincoln offered a model for reinstatement of Southern states called the 10 percent Reconstruction plan. And also, during reconstruction period, we witnessed the emerged of Black Code which created the Fourteen and Fifteen Amendments and followed up by the 1876 election and Southern Segregation.

The Reconstruction effort that occurred after the Civil War from 1865 - 1866 had both positive and negative effects on the nation. Leading up to the Reconstruction attempt, there was developing regional differences between the North and South. Slavery was the issue of the decade. North argued that it was inhumane, while the South was quick to point out that many Northerners benefited from slavery. The Presidential election of Lincoln lead to the succession of the South. They believed that the United States was becoming too tyrannical, much like Great Britain before the Revolutionary War. The Southern attack on Fort Sumter started the long and bloody civil war. After the Battle of Antietam, President Lincoln issued his Emancipation

The Civil War left a country divided not only by property lines and borders but by beliefs as well. Not just religious beliefs, moral beliefs also. It left both sides, north and south struggling, trying to figure out what their next move towards reuniting the divided America was going to be. The period following the end of the Civil War would become known as the “Reconstruction Era.” An era that raised just as many questions as it did answers. A reconstruction of America that seems to carry on many decades later.