Reconstruction Goals

The Reconstruction Era was a period of time dedicated to rebuilding the nation after the Civil War. The South’s economy became devastated after the war. Southerners sought out to rebuild their territory and lives. President Lincoln was in charge of deciding under what terms and conditions the former Confederate states would need to follow to rejoin the Union. Radical Republicans saw Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction as too lenient.When President Johnson took office after Lincoln’s assassination, he continued Lincoln’s plans for Reconstruction. The Reconstruction Era transformed the nation. Lincoln started his plan for reuniting the country in the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in December of 1863. He wanted a moderate policy that
The Radical Republicans were led by Representative Thaddeus Stevens and Senator Charles Sumner. The radicals had three main goals. The first goal was to prevent the leaders of the Confederacy from returning to power after the war. The second goal was, they wanted the Republican Party to become a powerful institution in the South. The last goal was for the federal government to help African Americans achieve political equality by guaranteeing their right to vote in the South. The moderate Republicans believed Lincoln was being too lenient and that the radicals were going too far in their support for African American equality and voting rights. The compromise made between the moderate republicans and the radicals was the Wade-Davis Bill of 1864. This bill required the majority of the adult white men in a former Confederate state to take an oath of allegiance to the Union. Lincoln blocked the Wade-Davis Bill with a pocket veto. He sympathized with some of the radical goals but thought imposing a harsh peace on the South would be
The choices of President Lincoln and Johnson shaped most of the era. The radicals strongly supported having rights for African Americans. The Reconstruction Era transformed the nation both positively and negatively. Since most of Johnson’s plan for reconstruction was unfavored, the radicals fought back by passing the Fourteenth Amendment amongst many other things. After Johnson was impeached, the Republicans nominated Grant for President. The Republican based Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment which declared the right to vote “shall not be denied… on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The radicals plan for Reconstruction had a positive impact during the era. It transformed the Southern politics dramatically by letting African Americans join the political process. To conclude, this was how the Reconstruction Era shaped the