The Elephant In The Room Analysis

In November of 1860, the presidential election was one of the most momentous in the history of the United States. The land was split between North and the South and was smoldering for almost a decade. The candidates for the presidential election of 1860 were Abraham Lincoln, Republican, John Breckinridge, Southern Democrat, John Bell, Constitutional Union, and Stephen Douglas, Northern Democratic. Abraham Lincoln was against the increase of slavery into the new territories. Lincoln did not receive one vote from the south, but he did win over 50% of the Electoral College votes so Lincoln won the presidency to become the 16th President of the United States. Abraham Lincoln was known as one of America’s greatest heroes because of his inconceivable impact on our nation and his unique appeal. Lincoln was a captain in the military and a lawyer all before becoming the 16th President of the United States. Lincoln was one of two U.S. presidents who was assassinated while in office. Lincoln was also the president during the roughest part of American history, the Civil War. Lincoln was heavily in favor of abolishing slavery and so most of the citizens in the northern states of the U.S... On the other hand, the south had large plantations and favored slavery because the slaves worked for free and made plantation owners and other farmers a staggering amount of profit. The slaves were not treated as human beings; therefore, the slaves were mistreated. Slave owners often beat their slaves

One not to shy away from popularity and persuasion from the Radical Republican Party, he accepted a nomination that he never wanted. The lack of enthusiasm to run president transitioned in his lack of involvement in his responsibilities in the new civilian role as President of the United States. President Grant was able to secure his presidency based on his “War Hero” status in a post-Civil War Union and beaten South. President Grant would allow the Radical Republican Reconstruction to continue its aggressive approach, which only created more push back in the South that eventually erupted in violent response with creations of groups like the KKK. President Grant’s hands-off approach to his presidency helped create a divide within the Republican Party, which destroyed the unified front that supported Reconstruction in its early years. President Grant never displayed a true drive or desire to be President of the United States, which weakened the Republican Party and any momentum Reconstruction still had upon his

Radical Republicans prevented former Confederates from voting by not counting for them in congress. President Johnson vetoed many laws that the Radical Republicans wanted to pass and the republican would override the veto by a two-third vote. The republican were able to pass thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendment. Thirteenth amendment was created to abolish slavery. Fourteenth amendment addressed the citizenship rights and equal protection for freed blacks. Fifteenth amendment establish the state government from preventing any citizen to their right to vote based on the citizen’s race. Radical leader Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens worked on plans for black's right. The 14th and 15th amendment inspire the future efforts for civil right. Eventually, Congress attempts to impeach President Johnson, but lost one vote to impeach the

In the late 1850’s, tension were rising between the northern states and the southern states. These tensions began long ago, but continued to rise before the election of 1860. The main topic of debate at this time was slavery. Southern states relied on slavery for economic production. Many in the north wanted to limit the spread of slavery, or outright ban it. Those opposed to slavery had numerous reasons from political to ethical and religious reasons. The election of 1860 had 4 large candidates: Abraham Lincoln, John C Breckinridge, John Bell, and Stephen A. Douglas. Abraham Lincoln won the popular vote and electoral vote and was elected president in 1860, taking over from James Buchanan. In the

Whatever of good may have come in these years of change, the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people,--a disappointment all the more bitter because the unattained ideal was unbounded save by the simple ignorance of a lowly people. The first decade was merely a prolongation of the vain search for freedom, the boon that seemed ever barely to elude their grasp,--like a tantalizing will-o'-the-wisp, maddening and misleading the headless host. The holocaust of war, the terrors of the Ku-Klux Klan, the lies of carpet-baggers, the disorganization of industry, and the contradictory advice of friends and foes, left the bewildered serf with no new watchword beyond the old cry for freedom" (Chapter 1). They thought the Black people did not enjoy their deserved rights, like the 14th and 15th Amendments. 14th Amendments provided civil rights for African Americans, and15th Amendments provided voting rights for African Americans. Ku Klux Klan preventing African American from using the 15th Amendment to enable them to vote. Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist arm of the Southern Democratic Party. The immediate goal of these groups was to keep white and black Republicans away from polling places. Their violent tactics, targeted at black leaders, escalated during Reconstruction. White mobs killed three state legislators during these turbulent times.

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.

After the end of the civil war Congress ratified the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the constitution, which prohibited slavery, guaranteed all citizens equal protection under the law, and gruaranted equal rights to all men. During this period of reconstruction, which was enforced by the Federal government, men of color took advantage of voting rights, educational and economic opportunities, to gain political office, economic power and basically restructuring of the society of the South. Obviously this was unacceptable to the disenfranchised southern democrats.

Grant won the office with the slogan, "Let Us Have Peace." Republicans also won a majority in Congress. Many Northerners, disgusted by Klan violence, lent their support to the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave the vote to black men in every state, and the First Reconstruction Act of 1867, which placed harsher restrictions on the South and closely regulated the formation of their new governments.” The 15th amendment was reconstructed and made more specific to allow African Americans to vote with white supremacists and hate groups from getting in the way of what the Texas government has previously implemented and ordered that African Americans have the same rights as white people. The First Reconstruction Act was developed in 1867 and accepted by the Texas government as a result of the chaos, violence, and discrimination.

The core issue of the Republican Party, and Lincoln was over the extension of slavery. Abolitionists and supporters of free soil in the North worked to keep the Republicans from compromising on their territorial stand. In the South, proslavery advocates and secessionists gathered public opinion and demanded that state conventions assemble to consider secession.

During the year of 1865, after the North’s victory in the Civil War, the Republican Party began to pass national legislation in order to secure free blacks’ rights.

The year 1861 began a revolutionary year for the United States in which it separated our country dramatically and on a course for certain changes. This is a time where the social norm of slavery being an idea in which nobody questions is starting to change. The fight over slavery begins between the north and the south. We also see seven states succeed from the union to show their position on the current government and to prove their views on slavery. President Abraham Lincoln assumes office as president in early March, and the Civil War begins just over a month later in 1861. Becoming the first Republican president of the country, he tells us in a short speech his views on slavery. We first must understand that slavery in the south was the staple of the economy and also the fight to end slavery in the north had a lack of power. Looking at the tough situation Lincoln was in, we must see that neither side could specifically be chosen.

     This election year the presidential candidates are courting the minority voters like never before in history. States like Arizona, Florida, New Mexico and Ohio are considered swing states or battleground states. In many states voter registration drives have significantly increased the number of minority registered voters, particularly Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians. The candidates are well aware of this and are campaigning issues relevant to minority voters because they are prominent players in the political arena in the upcoming presidential election (Kamman).

Slavery was the central source of escalating political tension in the 1850s. The Republican Party was determined to prevent any spread of slavery, and many Southern leaders had threatened secession if the Republican candidate, Lincoln, won the 1860 election. After Lincoln had won without carrying a single Southern state, many Southern whites felt that disunion had become their only option, because they thought that they were losing representation, which would hamper their ability to promote pro-slavery acts and policies.

The final amendment passed during the Reconstruction time period was the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, and, not surprisingly, the Fifteenth Amendment met mass backlash, as did the Thirteenth and Fourteenth. Up until 1870, there was still an important practice that black people were not allowed to take part in: voting. A government cannot be a democracy unless the whole population votes, but the 1868 election was still denying two large groups the ballot: African-Americans and females. Radical Republicans thought that black enfranchisement would be ideal because freedmen would vote for the Republicans, and Ulysses S. Grant, the Republican nominee, would have enough support to win the election. They wanted to overpower Southerners and Democrats. The Fifteenth Amendment declared that no man born in the United States could be denied the right to vote. Once again, Southerners were infuriated because blacks would surely vote for the Radical Republicans. Additionally, now blacks could vote but ex-Confederates could not. Because of their frustration of the Fifteenth Amendment, Southern legislatures made new state laws to restrict black voting. African-Americans would have to pass these obstacles in order to vote. The Grandfather Clause allowed people to vote if their grandfathers were able to vote in their days. Since blacks were just enfranchised, no African-Americans had grandfathers who could vote. If their grandfather could not vote, the citizen (a black or poor white) would have

447-448). As slavery trudged on, political parties were once again on the move. While parties such as the short-lived Know-Nothing Party came and went without much effect on history, it was the subsequent rise of the Republican Party that lit the political fire the country desperately needed (Schaller et al. 446, 452). Built by slavery-opposing Northerners, the Republican party "brought stability to Northern politics" and eventually led to the South wanting to leave the Union (Schaller et al. 453). As the party became increasingly popular, the Republicans found themselves in control of the electoral college, which had previously been Democrat-dominated through Andrew Jackson (Schaller et al. 458). However, Southerners were not down for the count just yet, and in 1857, found a huge victory in the Dred Scott case, a Supreme Court decision that ruled that black people were not entitled to freedom (Schaller et al. 459-460). Despite pledging agreement on the decision, it was denounced as strongly wrong by Abraham Lincoln, the man who would soon be elected president, and who would stand at the center the North and South divide in the coming years (Schaller et al.