The Inevitable Failure of Reconstruction

After the last battle of the American Civil war, the fate of the confederate states remained uncertain. The actions taken were to readmit the former confederate states and allow for the building of the southern economy and society. In a word this was reconstruction; putting back the shattered fragments of the union. Ultimately, reconstruction failed and the reasons for this failure are numerous. They include widespread corruption, white supremacy being allowed to dominate the south, entrenched racist ideology, the passing of harsh laws against blacks, the fact that institutions assisting the reconstruction were deprived of funding and the failure of universal public education. There is a view that this failure was inevitable. Corruption and the rise of white supremacist groups and ideology are the principal reasons for the failure of the reconstruction and, being characteristic of American society at the time, they were unavoidable. In this sense, the failure of the reconstruction was inevitable.
Widespread corruption was a major reason why the efforts at reconstruction failed in the United States after the war was over. This practice was seen in many of the features that were supposed to aid in the reconstruction. President Andrew Johnson’s administration, which was first charged with the task of re-assimilating the former confederate states, was accused with the act (Patrick 137). Institutions, such as the Freedmen’s Bureau and the Union League, were not exempt from this practice. The freedmen’s bureau especially employed corrupt officers who wasted some of the little public funds they were granted (Stampp 56). Also in the south itself, amounts were disappearing from funds for public education and public works (Franklin 147-148). This promoted the failure of the reconstruction in limiting the amount of positive work that could have been done. Because of corruption, roads were not built and buildings were not repaired which hindered the restart of the southern