Why Is Gettysburg Important

Due to Johnson’s lenient policies towards the South, he failed to achieve the nomination of his party for the presidential election of 1868. Congress clearly won the battle by overriding his vetoes of key acts in their effort to change the fabric of Southern

After the northern voters rejected Johnson’s policies in the congressional elections, Republicans in Congress took firm hold of Reconstruction in the South. Congress passed the Reconstruction Act later, it temporarily divided the South in five districts and outlined how governments based on universal (male) suffrage were to be organized. This law also required the states in the South to ratify the 14th amendment. The definition of citizenship was expanded by granting all of the slaves “equal protection” of the Constitution before the slaves could join the Union. By 1870, all of the slave states had been welcomed to the Union. In this period the african-americans won the election against the southern governments and even the U.S. Congress.

Gettysburg, the Devastating Battle Would you want to be fighting, hearing a shot, then a flesh ripping sound, then you're on the ground, blinking and losing vision while you slowly bleeding out? The year 1863 was now the start to the third year of the Civil War. President Davis and Robert E Lee add a plan, a plan to invade the north. By middle June, Lee's army will Crossing to Southern Pennsylvania.

The 1860 election was when Abraham Lincoln was elected president. The confederates Hated Lincoln because he was part of the Republican party (which was against slavery), as a matter of fact, Lincoln despised slavery. Lincoln once wrote “if slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong”. With a man like Lincoln in office, many thought it was only time before he controls the supreme court and congress, and that they would soon abolish slavery. A South Carolina newspaper after the election wrote “the loss of liberty, property, home,country-everything that makes life worth living”.

Rutherford B. Hayes had one of the most controversial presidential elections. In 1876, Hayes won the Republican presidential nomination. Nearing the end of the election, South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida had trouble with the ballot. To solve the problem, a group of representatives voted on where all the aforementioned states votes would go. The majority of the panel were Republican, Hayes’s party and he was voted into office. The Democrats were outraged. There was an agreement made, and many troops in the south were called back. This officially ended the Reconstruction of the states. Rutherford B Hayes was named the president by the council and began his term March 4, 1877.

Reconstruction affected American society through the creation of Anti- African American and Republican hate groups, economically due to the rise of sharecropping, and politically when it came to freedmen holding office. Union’s pursuit for social reform in the South involved the passing of new amendments guaranteeing freedom for blacks and the Freedmen’s Bureau, which caused the upheaval of opposition for black rights. The Fourteenth Amendment gave African Americans equal rights and the creation of the Freedmen's Bureau aimed to educate freedmen. Many Southerners were infuriated with the rights former slaves were gaining, and the Ku Klux Klan arose from the hatred. Reconstruction also changed the nation’s economy with the abolishment of slavery, and it prompted the granting of land to freedmen, which turned into the development of sharecropping. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and land was given to the former slaves. Sharecropping soon became an essential part of the Southern economy. Reconstruction affected Southern politics by the passing of amendments and military power, but it triggered aggression toward African American leaders and voters, which eventually lead to the discriminative South. The Fifteenth Amendment gave African American the right to vote, but Southern government issued literacy and property qualifications for voter in hopes of blocking black vote. In the 1876 election, blacks were prohibited from voting in the south with armed force. The Presidency was decided after Rutherford B. Hayes promised to remove federal troops from the South. This move guaranteed white supremacy in the South for the coming years. Due to the aforementioned, Reconstruction undoubtedly changed

When blacks were given the right to vote, it was only somewhat successful. Many blacks did use their new political power to vote as it is shown in Harper's Weekly (Document G), but whites still tried to stop them. Literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and fear caused by the Ku Klux Klan were used to keep blacks from exercising their right to vote. Another issue of reconstruction was the banking and currency system. In an attempt to uniform the currency, Senator John Sherman gave a speech saying that with "a currency and a medium of exchange, we shall have a broader and more generous nationality" (Document B). At the time many states had their own currency and a change needed to be made to unite the states. A sense of nationality was needed as the nation was in turmoil after the attempted secession of the South. Reconstruction came to an end in 1877 with the Compromise of 1877. Rutherford Hayes became president for agreeing to end federal support for Southern Republicans and building a transcontinental railroad. In this compromise he also withdrew troops from the South. This, along with the rejection of laws protecting blacks from discrimination, brought reconstruction to an end in 1877.

In 1860 a new president was going to be elected to the US. The newly elected president would have to deal with the issues of slavery and what to do with the west. The Democratic Party split into 3 groups and was running against Republican Nominee Abraham Lincoln. The Democratic Convention adjourned without nominating anyone. Different elements of the Democratic Party then chose their own candidates John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, who represented the Deep South Democrats, and Stephen A. Douglas, who represented the Northern and border-state Democrats. The Constitutional Union Party, comprised of former Whigs and other factions, nominated John Bell of Tennessee as its candidate. Each group had their own theories on how to change the country and avoid war. On November 6, 1860 Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election. He received 1,866,452 popular votes and 180 electoral votes in the 17 of the 33 states. He did not win one southern state in the election of 1860 and wasn’t even on the ballet in the southern states. The reason that Lincoln had some many electoral votes was because he won all the northern states, which had higher populations than the southern states. In response on December 20, 1860 South Carolina declared that they would secede from the US. This happened 3 months after Lincoln was elected president the first real actions of the south separating from the north happened. They were seceding because a geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all

In the 1860s, the United States of America went through a tough time. It was the year that our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, was elected into office. The election was extremely close, but Lincoln won by approximately one percent. The majority of his votes came from the north. The south didn’t like Abraham Lincoln or his ideas because their economy benefited off of slavery, and Lincoln said he may abolish it in the future.

America, an established nation, was not only growing in land mass, population, and innovations rapidly, but was establishing a reputation in the world. The Constitution was still in effect, holding the nation together and giving it boundaries to abide by. However, slavery was becoming a major issue that was starting to divide the nation. Much of the North was against slavery completely, whereas much of the South was a strong supporter of slavery. During the early 1800’s, there were many presidential elections with all the candidates looking to fill the roles of their predecessors, George Washington and John Adams. All of the candidates looked to leave a positive, lasting impact on the growth and development of the United States. There were multiple candidates for each election, all with varying views on government and different issues to address during each election. The elections of 1852, 1856, 1860, and 1864 were all significant elections in the molding of the United States.

Was the Battle of Gettysburg a sufficient enough victory to actually turn the tide of the Civil War? Was three days of fighting enough to make that much of an impact on a war that lasted two more years after this famous battle? Well that is what I will be discussing in this paper. I will be going over each day of the battle and how they ultimately led to a Union victory and a turning point in the Civil War.

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

Under this plan the south was divided into five districts. Excluding Tennessee because they had already been readmitted into the Union. Each of the districts were headed by a general. The main goal of the leader was to increase voter registration of blacks and to see to it that white confederates did not get back into office as they were before. The new voters would then vote on a new constitution that allowed blacks to vote. If the majority of the voters ratified the new constitution and the fourteenth amendment then the state would be eligible for readmission to the Union. These bills covered the objectives of Radical Republicans. They called for universal suffrage, made it likely that republicans would be put into office in southern states, and they set the standards for readmission. The south had to suffer the consequences of being defeated. To ensure their acts, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act which prohibited the president from removing certain officeholders without the permission of the Senate. President Johnson deliberately violated this by firing Secretary of State Edwin Stanton. President Johnson was tried for impeachment but the Senate could not convict him.

The next question I asked Mr. Kise focused on why the victory at Gettysburg was so very pivotal to the Union. In my own analysis of the battle, I did not expect the answer that I received from him. He said that in his “own personal opinion of what makes Gettysburg so important, is Lincoln’s speech four months after the battle” (Kise). He goes on to explain that even though the Union Army won a substantial victory at Gettysburg and helped to turn back the invading Confederate Army, it was when Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address that gave the battle meaning. Lincoln turned the war from “merely holding the Union together, to giving a ‘new birth of freedom’” (Kise).

They would gain the black vote and be capable of gaining more power. So they limited the power of the former Confederates and attempted to have everything in their favor.