The Radical Republicans

In the book, The Radical and the Republican, was a very interesting, informative read. It made me actually picture myself during that era, and feel how the main people in the book were so passionate about slavery. It focused on the attitudes and the political stand points of Abraham Lincoln, and Frederick Douglass, towards the issue on slavery and the emancipation of slaves. James Oake’s portrayal of both men was extremely positive. He went into detail about their politics and their reasons behind their public positions, regarding slavery. “Their minds worked differently. Though they both hated slavery, they both hated it in different ways and not always for the same reasons. Their

To the Radical Republicans, Johnson's plan seemed no better than Lincoln's because it failed to address the needs of former slaves in three prominent areas: land, voting rights, and protection under the law. Confederates states, however, readily committed to the conditions put forth in the Presidential Reconstruction plan, and were readmitted to the Union. A few years later, the Reconstruction Act of 1867 was passed, which did not recognize the governments formed under Lincoln and Johnson's plans. Through the Reconstruction Act, Tennessee was the only former Confederate State recognized as having been readmitted to the Union because it had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. In order for the rest of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union through the Reconstruction Act, each state had to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, also. The Republicans introduced the Fifteenth Amendment after the election of 1868 because they feared that Pro-Confederate Southern whites might try to place limits on black suffrage. In order to prevent this, the Fifteenth Amendment states that no one can be kept from voting because of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Through the different plans that were proposed by the three different Presidents in office during the Reconstruction period, the Thirteenth,

After the conclusion of America’s Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln pitched the idea of “Reconstruction,” which would bring the southern states back into the Union. President Lincoln, according to many radical Republicans, was too gentle on the south. The government was divided on how to solve the issue of readmitting the southern states back into the Union. In addition to that, the government was not certain on what rights to enumerate to the newly emancipated slaves. These issues became more difficult to solve after President Lincoln was murdered. Lincoln’s successor, Vice President Andrew Johnson, was a Tennessee Democrat that lacked respect of the Republican Congress. The legislative and executive branches of the American government

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

Throughout the reconstruction period, Congress also made plans to benefit the country. From 1865-1877, Congress established three new amendments: The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth. The thirteenth amendment officially abolished slavery in 1865. In 1868, the fourteenth amendment was ratified, declaring every person a citizen if born in the U.S., limiting a state's power to enforce laws that harm the privileges of citizens, or deprive them of freedom, and attempted to force Southern states to allow voting to blacks. The fifteenth amendment was ratified in 1870, which “forbade all states to deny the vote to anyone on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Another plan that was advantageous towards the U.S. was the last Reconstruction Act created by Congress. Ultimately, this law, through some revisions, enabled black southerners to vote. The most important plan that Congress created was the Compromise of 1877, which ended reconstruction. After twelve long years of tension in the U.S., the Compromise of 1877 was ratified, signaling a better and brighter future for every state, every citizen, and the country as a whole. Even though Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and Congress all made plans that had its advantages, some of those plans and others had a fair amount of disadvantages.

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

The Republican party strongly supported the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, in turn elevating themselves to becoming the popular party in African American culture in the 1870’s. Their votes gained Grant the presidency, which many argue he would have likely otherwise lost. A few of the unfortunate consequences of the 15th amendment were civil unrest, literacy laws, and the placement of a poll tax on those in the Southern states (which skirted the amendment) to continue to oppress African Americans’ right to vote. These conditions combined with deeply-rooted beliefs of those on both sides of the issue caused our country to be divided for

Radical Reconstruction was radical due to the North taking advantage of their power and making an attempt in completely changing the South. One act congress established in order to change the South was the Reconstruction Acts of 1867-68. This act enforced military government and rule within the South excluding Tennessee. This demanded universal manhood suffrage. There were 10 abiding states and these states were separated into 5 military districts. About 20,000 military troops forced the

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

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.

“It forbade all the states to deny the vote to anyone “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” This was the final blow to the southern states, which quickly ratified the amendment. By March 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment became apart of the Constitution. Now taking into consideration the hell that southern blacks were enduring, this short period of time consisted of three Amendments being passed that shed a light on the black population that most blacks at the time had given up on. Congress gave the opportunity for blacks to step out of slavery, accept citizenship, and take the power to vote and change the way the south had been ran. “The Radicals had at last succeeded in imposing their will on the South, Throughout the region former slaved had real political influence; they voted, held office, and exercised the “privileges” and enjoyed the “immunities” guarantied them by the Fourteenth Amendment…The spectacle of blacks not five years removed from slavery in positions of power and responsibility attracted much attention at the time and has since been examined exhaustively by historians.”

The reconstruction, which lasted from 1865 - 1877, had some feats but largely was a failure at accomplishing its goals. It succeeded in readmitting the Southern states to the union, but failed in integrating them fully; the Nation still remained divided by political lines. It helped to rebuild a war ravaged South until the North lost interest in the South and it gave former slaves and people of color more rights and political representation than they ever had before, but the South passed various codes, tests, and laws to limit the black resurgence and keep the old power structure. By 1870 the reconstruction successfully readmitted all the southern states that seceded under Andrew Johnson's plan, however all the states restored their conservative governments within 9 years of readmission (reconstruction map) because of Andrew Johnson's leniency to the South. After the division of the South into military districts in 1867, the governments established were under control of the radical Republicans and gave blacks the power to vote and participate in the government.

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.

The Reconstruction era was put into effect by Congress in 1866 and lasted until 1877. Reconstruction was aimed at reorganizing the Southern states after the Civil War. The reconstruction plan granted the means for readmitting the southern states into the Union, and tried to come up with the methods by which whites and blacks could live together in a non-slave society. America's position as a country was established on principles of freedom but those beliefs were weakened by slavery. At the end of the Civil War, many blacks felt that they were entitled to start collecting the benefits that had been denied for so many years. Being able to vote, own land and have a voice in political affairs were all goals that they believed were reachable.

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