Bringing a nation together that just fought a war regionally against each other was enough of a task. The country knew that they would have to deal with the issues annexing the South back in to the Union and slavery, and black rights. But who would have thought that Reconstruction would include a power grab battle between Congress and the Presidency, the impeachment of a President, a battle within a strong Republican Party, and the issue of women’s rights coming into play? Your guess is as good as those who lived through Reconstruction. However the Reconstruction era would clearly either make or break the future of a nation that at the end of a regional war within itself was less than one hundred years of age. Policy and politics would clearly shape this age and the future of our nation.
Presidential Reconstruction by Proclamation (528-529)- Andrew Johnson, the only Southern Democrat who remained loyal t the Union throughout the war, was now handed the task of reconstructing an unsteady nation. However he proclaimed himself to reconstruct the nation, clearly at Congress’ disapproval. His first premise was that the South never left the Union. Does that make any sense since they seceded? Let’s look at it from another perspective in retrospect that the South just simply rebelled but never technically left the boundaries of the Constitution. This would contradict Congressional theory. However, Johnson provided amnesty for the entire South, except taking a crude stance to his rivaled planter class, making them personally apply for a pardon. Is it fair to make one group of people attain a right than another group of people based on racial, social, etc. discriminatory grounds?
Congressional Reconstruction by Amendment (pg. 529-531) The popular Northern song in 1866 “Who shall rule this American Nation?” asked whether the “murder of the innocent freedmen (the South)” or the “loyal millions (the North)” should rule. Congress clearly sided with the loyal millions. Radical Republicans, under the State Suicide Theory, viewed the South as betrayers who left the Constitution and should only be allowed back in on Union grounds. They claimed it was Congress’s Constitutional right to perform Reconstruction. But should the President and Congress have worked together to reconstruct the nation, or were their differences too deep? Congress, unlike Johnson who was a white supremacist attempted to pass a Civil Rights Bill in 1866 but it was vetoed by Johnson. Therefore, in the Reconstruction Act of 1867, Republicans in congress who viewed the South as traitors, divided the Southern States into 5 military districts and forced them to amend the 14th Amendment to the Constitution which stood for “due process under the law for all people.” Clearly the battle lines had been drawn between Johnson and Congress.
The President Impeached (pg. 531-532) When things couldn’t get much worse between the President and Congress, The Tenure of Office Act burst the levy. This law restricted the President for approval of the Senate to fire cabinet members which required its approval. Do you sense a challenge here? Well Johnson broke the law and was impeached by the House of Reps. But was not removed from the Presidency by the Senate by just one vote. The critical question though is that as to whether or not congress was overstepping its checks and balances boundaries or was it Johnson who was doing do as Executive Officer? You decide!
What Congressional Moderation Meant for Rebels, Blacks, and Women (pg. 532-533)- Reconstruction certainly brought times of excitements and disappointments but as well reliefs. Luckily for Southern Rebels, only one Southern Officer was imprisoned and Jefferson Davis was imprisoned. However clearly, although readmission to the Union would be made difficult by Congress, rebels got off easy with Johnson’s pardons. Should they have gotten off this easy? Black men made significant gains, for under the 15th Amendment they gained the right to vote. One black preacher for this said that the Republican Party had done the “Negro good.” Left however were women, which fired up a women’s rights movement led by those such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton. However did it contradict primarily Republican views of equality to give the right to vote to black men, but not women in general?
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