How Did Northerners End Reconstruction

Arguably the most revolutionary decision America has ever made: Reconstruction. Reconstruction was the process of freeing black slaves and “rebuilding America”. It was doomed from the start, but who destroyed it? That’s a difficult question, as it could easily be the South or the North that doomed black people for nearly 100 years. The Southerners resisted Reconstruction a lot; the Klu Klux Klan was formed [and still exists today], political cartoons showed people who supported Reconstruction as stupid or evil, and they created the Compromise of 1877. It could also be the North, because after a while they just stopped caring. Although they had won the war and had control over the South, it became a lot of effort and work to try to free the blacks and undo the damage. Personally, I think that Northern neglect is what truly put an end to Reconstruction.
Although I do believe that the Northerners ended Reconstruction, it is a viable argument that it was the South that ended it.
According to the background essay, the Southerners started to elect governments that only wanted white people to rule. In many of the states, they had made sure that a black person didn’t get a place in office, despite the fact that the US Army was protecting the rights of the blacks. Then the election happened. It was Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republican candidate, against Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic candidate. The entirety of America was on edge, and people thought that the North and the South were going to go to war again. To avoid a war, which also would’ve effectively ended Reconstruction, Rutherford B. Hayes became president. But there was a catch. In order for Hayes to become president, he had to remove the federal soldiers in the South. Nobody could enforce the Southerners to respect the blacks, so it undid the entire effort that went to reconstruction. If it weren’t for the Southerners resistance, Reconstruction would’ve happened and America would be a much different
place.
The Northerners also played a huge part in the end to reconstruction, without a doubt. After a while, the North simply got tired of dealing with all of the issues in the South, so the people of the North were losing faith in Reconstruction altogether. According to document A and B, the Klu Klux Klan was killing innocent people who opposed them. The North was just letting this happen, and didn’t do much to stop it. And, later, according to document D, the North had announced that black people were unfit to have a say in politics. They argued that black people needed a time to forget about slavery, as that might influence their opinion. They thought that, as a slave, you don’t know how to have an honourable title. After that article was published, even the Northerners were starting to lose faith in Reconstruction. The Northerners were starting to realize that more was at risk if they kept fighting for black rights.
In conclusion, I think that both the North and the South contributed to the end of Reconstruction, but I do believe that how the North neglected all of their promises about the rights of a black person was really what put an end to reconstruction. They had more power than the South, that was how they won the war in the first place, but eventually even they were starting to lose faith in the whole idea. They realized that black people, at the time, were unfit to have a say in politics, and that Reconstruction might put other things in danger. Then, finally, the election came, and it was hopeless. The only way to avoid another war would be to end Reconstruction altogether by removing the last federal soldiers from the South. That’s why I believe that Northern neglect was what actually put Reconstruction to an end.