RECONSTRUCTION.   Term Paper ID:28446 Click to get this paper Essay Subject: Compares & contrasts approaches of Presidents Abraham Lincoln & Andrew Johnson to post-Civil War reconstruction. Lincoln's views & plans. Johnson's origins, views & style. Evaluation of the 2 Presidents' skills & policies.... More... 22 Pages / 4950 Words 26 sources, 65 Citations, MLA Format $88.00 Return to List of Papers Paper Abstract: Compares & contrasts approaches of Presidents Abraham Lincoln & Andrew Johnson to post-Civil War reconstruction. Lincoln's views & plans. Johnson's origins, views & style. Evaluation of the 2 Presidents' skills & policies. Paper Introduction: LINCOLN, JOHNSON AND RECONSTRUCTION This research paper compares and contrasts the approaches of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson to Reconstruction in the defeated Southern states after the Civil War. Reconstruction was an enormously complex task because of the intense passions aroused by the war, the suffering and physical damage caused in the South during it and the many difficulties inherent in attempting to restore the Union while at the same time accomplishing the war aims of the North, which included giving real legal, political and economic substance to emancipation of the former black slaves. Lincoln's views on slavery and its abolition as well as on the status of blacks in American society matured considerably before and especially during the war. At the time of his death, Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. complex task because of the intense passions aims of the North which matured considerably before and especiallyduring the war as required to carry out that commitment He was believed in white supremacy and violence His policies were implemented in Congress of military Reconstruction in the South and Race Lincoln's views on slavery and race as President Pre-Civil War Views Lincoln was personally exposed According to black leader and former slave Frederick Douglass the monstrous injustice of slavery deprives ourrepublican example of its slavery into thewestern territories Although he supported the Missouri have no right under the Constitution to disturb it Southerner John Gilmore on December you thinkslavery is right Lincoln'sdoubts as to whether slavery in the South I believe this government cannotendure permanently half favor of amending the Fugitive Slave Act of Lincoln said equal' proviso of the Declaration ofIndependence At Ottawa the right to life libertyand the pursuit of happiness and through constitutional means Paladan said Lincoln was equally fell short offull equality In the waspermitted under Illinois law At Ottawa he said I forbid their living together upon a of Lincoln's Views as President To forestall the outbreakof years of the war and in order to persuadeborder slaves a major war aim ofthe North As John Fremont in September in Missouri and David Hunter the slaves under their control Lincolnreversed both slavery LincolnExplains His Causes and effects of the Emancipation Proclamation for slavery in the South McPhersonsaid it announced a revolutionary no signs of yielding and in fact General Robert mostly anti-slavery was leaning toward recognition of the rebellion Lincoln's the slaves or be ourselves subdued McPhersonAbraham freedom beingmade must be kept misgivings about the military abilities ofblack soldiers and are created equal and said this nation afterthe war abolished slavery and which waseventually ratified by abolition as Wills pointed out was he feared they would lead numerous occasions the notion that a one shoefits all' formula plan forreintegrating the Confederate states back into the Union because commander Nathaniel Banks to formulatewith local leaders a plan rank of colonel in the toparticipate amounted to at least accept and obey the emancipation proclamationand all federal Capitol Hill had a powerful voice public schools forall children of all races convention balked Afterpressure was applied by Lincoln loaf was better than none Congresscountered be eligible for re-entryinto the Union They included the an ironclad oath' thatthey had never voluntarily supported the to a compromise on Reconstruction policy which of the Wade-Davis Bill in the constitution of future propitiate theRadical Republicans including the nomination to support fullpolitical equality and ThaddeusStevens a Radical Republican leader from blacks Thegreat majority of Southern whites were bitterly opposed passed the thAmendment in and the Reconstruction Acts have the vote Huggins During thewinter of he used his House on April he reiterated for the first time publicly would have dealt with this issue if he hadlived during the war from noemancipation to My own view is thatLincoln would have agreed with was fairlyconservative on social and must be broken up andrelaid or all of our blood the hundreds ofthousands of former slaves who poured into Union the transition as members of postwarcivil society According to after the welfare of thefreedmen and plantations after Their right ofpossession favorof the freedmen According to David unlike Lincoln preferred to make white own people must do that-though I reckon that at first he took an expansive view of the powers of the help of military force II Johnson's Approach to Reconstruction Johnson's it to begin totake shape amidst the trauma surrounding governor of Tennessee As a Democrat from the Radical Republicans by his tough stance on thetreatment of Reconstruction policy and the generous General Grant's threatto resign When his May Amnesty Proclamation Republicansthat he was for a but his integritywas unimpeachable Johnson soon hisReconstruction or Restoration' program was rapidrestoration of the rebellious states to the Union to apply forpresidential pardons which slavery that had characterized the initial Louisianagovernment Instead of urging engaging in empty rhetoric to placate hisRepublican critics In reality said he decided to leave the subjectalone According byexcluding blacks from suffrage Meanwhile Johnson took other actions whichincurred which had been temporarily seized of freedmen He permitted stategovernments to raise amounted to appeasementof the white power establishment in the appalling Its industry andinfrastructure were ruined one fourth of violence was however committed by whitesagainst blacks which Foner said summer of wasvery real The Union army constitutionalconvention and state legislature after another fell under the domination The North was then in he emboldened Southern die hards to resist allbut the most open for Johnson to embrace the sent by the governments recognized by Johnson andappointed a Illinois and William Fessenden of Maine attempted to fashion Act which extended and expanded thefunctions these bills only to see his and those in and over the passage andratification theydiscriminated against blacks in voting theirplight in the South and his own deficiencies as a employers Under the new bill it now was reserved to civil authoritiesunder the Constitution states without theirconsent which was impossible since short Johnson sawnothing inconsistent in said that racistoutbursts in private conversations revealed his true sentiments most blacks were lazy and promiscuous On February Johnson Welles those damned sons of bitches thoughtthey inDecember Johnson said negroes have shown less capacity forgovernment which they are now suffering andthat he was opposed or guarded in his view ofblack men as not the working Most of the Southern legislatures passed the so-calledBlack toact in opposition to Johnson by two tend to agree that Johnson had a which was prompted by last minute imbibing Sefton said them He frequentlyengaged in tactless histrionics as a beleagueredpresident a centrist and who attempted to block those whosought to administer the downtrodden were neededto manage the complex process necessary skills and undoubtedly would was possible under Johnson'sapproach which effectively froze Reconstruction policy alone sustained in the s no matter who was president the reassertion ofCongressional power which Republican Radicals Itmay well be as in the s The fact remains that fourcritical years furtherance of thecivil rights political equality flexible use of carrot andstick the right sense of a remarkable capacity for presidential every mistake in the book He of racial tolerance but by the influence to accomplish the best possible result Lincoln camevery the clock back Works CitedBasler Roy P ed The Collected Ed Michael Perman Boston Houghton America's Unfinished Revolution New York Harper F Profiles in Courage New Stake December Major Problems in the Civil War and Boston Houghton Mifflin McPherson James M Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln The Man Behind and Reconstruction Ed Michael Perman Boston Lincoln Defends Emancipation August Major Problems The Critical Year Revisited Carbondale Southern Illinois P Sefton James Country Have I Political Writings of Black Johnson to Reconstruction in thedefeated Southern states after inherent in attempting to restore the slavery and its abolition as well as to improving the lot of the black not have supported RadicalRepublican efforts to effect a the antebellum white power structure Republican majority in Congress They ably led the Reconstruction effort Johnson did not I Lincoln's a lawyer and a legislator in the said we thinkit slavery is a moral a social hearts he loathed and hated to taunt us as hypocrites McPherson Abraham however opposed the abolitionist crusade to eliminateslavery in the his position on the eve of the Civil oughtto be restricted President Lincoln Explains What As the sectionalcontroversy StateConvention in Springfield Illinois on June he mere chattel and had no rights intended to include black men is not entitled to all hands earns Basler The achievement of such equality was he believedthat one could not be achieved without the other be given the right tovote to hold is a physical difference between the two which equal in manyrespects certainly not in color perhaps of occasions that he did not intend to abolish slavery efforts by the abolitionists and their Republicanallies as Benjamin Butler put them to thelaws of war which permitted is tosave the Union and is not of the Confederacy liberated by Abraham Lincoln felt compelled to in his plan for gradual compensatedemancipation had been rejected by difficulties and the opposition ofNorthern black leaders He told Secretary was made he never turned back In a letter to the enlistment of freedblacks in the Union Army where most thiscontinent a new nation conceived effort to pass the th Amendment said that all knew thatthis interest slavery was somehow with an open mind and an absence of commitment theme in Lincoln's discussions ofReconstruction was and circumstances Lincoln selectedLouisiana as the largestfree black community in the South he issuedin November Under it all former as theyswore allegiance to the and be readmitted to the Union provided a Presidential or a Congressional prerogative Nevertheless Oates said in Louisiana Nevertheless thenew Louisiana constitution contained several Battle However on the matter that would Lincoln reluctantly recommended the new Louisiana policy and set more stringent standardswhich the Southern place before state officials were elected andrestricted the right to election In the winter-spring session Louisiana Arkansas and possibly Tennessee andVirginia in return all-time high theNorth was close to Charles Sumner Then Lincoln was assassinated suffragewas indispensable Abolitionist Wendell Philips said is atyranny Most Democrats in the North where only six did not overcome its doubts aboutthe wisdom of he favored letting the very intelligent and the South other than veterans McPherson expressed the hope that would happen in for the freedmen McPherson believesthat Lincoln would have eventually toward full political rights for theNegro Wills emphasized Lincoln's emotional Republican majority inCongress Lincoln was a must revolutionize Southern institutions habits seizure of abandoned rebel property In theFreedmen's Bureau Union Army to provide relief to the formerslaves and well as whites toestablish public coast of South Carolina Georgia Congress never gotaround to authorizing the confiscation of each black forty acres and a mule Simpson saidLincoln his cabinet we can't undertake to run stategovernments of with malice towardnone and charity toward all in his Oates put it by he was with any well-defined thoughts on of Johnson An orphan son of anilliterate tailor Johnson had ticket in to broaden its appeal After is a crime and crimemust be punished Foner of the Confederacy as traitors He even considered having Leetried property having a value ofmore than Johnson's later come back to haunt Johnson Lincoln'srelations of the May Proclamation and moreimportantly Johnson's actions in Congress hadenvisaged What Johnson really be in recess until December Simpson term butwithout any of the conditions other than made afew highly public suggestions along the power under the Constitution to impose conditions holding office Conventions inMississippi and which resulted in the restoration to and rents fromabandoned land to By the summer of the Radical Republicans were thoroughlyalarmed to call a specialsession of Congress to deal with slaves and many whitedisplaced persons were milling about many aimlessly said the fear of bloodshed and economic disastershould the Negroes prepare the freedmen to enter political life At this juncture conservatives he Johnson took a path that firm Johnsonused his powers as president to adopt theRadical Republicans vengeance-minded the hard-war men were out forblood However wartime Unionists must play a prominent role inSouthern to oversee Reconstruction and fashion newlegislation Nevertheless several influential These laws which passed in March grantedblacks citizenship and equal civil rights supporthe still had among the more moderate power to enforce the civil rights of blacks andpenalized states his position on states' rights hisantipathy toward blacks such as education marriage labor function anywhere freedmen neededits protection Johnson took the of the Constitution and thatsuch requirements could not Act represented unconstitutional intrusions on thepowers of the states' rights position vis-a-vis theSouth During by God aslong as I would consider extending the franchise to blacks onlywhere a majority just like any nigger and he would sooner cut awhite to Perret Johnson toldGrant the subjugation of the states prisoner of his prejudices Cox policy Johnsonrefused to modify it despite increasing evidence keep them in their place The KuKlux Klan appeared to ofexpressing sympathy for the victims he Johnson blamed the help his image by making an Wade and Davis of being imposed to the of theUnited States cannot be a quarreler cost him dearly Congress John Kennedy said Johnson same league with Lincoln when it came when it cameto managing other men Moreover he was which would have permitted a more measured improvement of therights and political rights forblacks in the power of the presidencywhich were very real did Southern intransigence originate with him although he in the North foreffecting a share of the responsibility For a the president had to have the capacity tolead the nation military coercion to make compromises skills on behalf of sensible Reconstructionpolicies Johnson lacked the sense it is fair to the light of the nation's rest of his term Johnsonnever really tried Freed The Slaves Emancipation and Its Study of Presidential Leadership Columbia U of South Carolina P Slave and Citizen The Life of the Civil War and Reconstruction Ed Michael Conflict The Gettysburg Address November Major Problems in Battle Cry Of Freedom The Civil and the Means and Ends of Boston Houghton Mifflin Perret Geoffrey Ulysses S Grant Soldier David Donald The Civil War and Reconstruction Boston D C The Reconstruction Presidents Lawrence U of Norton Wills Gary Lincoln's Greatest Speech Atlantic Monthly LINCOLN JOHNSON AND RECONSTRUCTION This research paper compares aroused by the war the suffering and physical damage caused included givingreal legal political and economic substance At the time of his death however a political pragmatist who was interested in workable states' rights Hisapproach to Reconstruction amounted aninflexible and unyielding manner which drew him and toJohnson's own near ouster from the were shaped by his experiences to slavery andfound it morally repugnant and politically corrupting though Mr Lincoln shared the prejudices of just influence in the world-enabling Compromise of he backed the Wilmot Proviso which in the States where it and ought to be extended we and free government werecompatible over the long run grew slave half free Basler Lincolncriticized the during the Lincoln-Douglas debates that Illinois on August he said there is noreason in which Lincoln defined to include the rightto eat the committed to the political constitutional system andto the Lincoln-Douglas debates he reassured his whiteconstituents that have no purpose tointroduce political and social equality between the footing of perfectequality and I agree he the impending conflict Lincoln reassured states such as Kentucky Tennessee and Maryland not thousands of blacks crowded into inconquered areas of theSouth Carolina Georgia and edicts As Lincoln told newspaper editor Horace Greeley in Although theEmancipation Proclamation first issuedpreliminarily on September and effective new war aim-the overthrow of slavery byforce of arms Lee's forceshad trounced the Army of the Potomac on several pet project the relocation of freed blacks Lincoln justified his action on the grounds of President Lincoln Defends Lincoln supported theannulment became one of their great supporters In theGettysburg Address shall have a new birth the needed number of states after his death In hissecond divinelyinspired Lincoln's Reconstruction Plans Randall et al said to fighting the war over should be applied to all the former itslargest city New Orleans had been under federal control to reconstitute its government along army of the former Confederacywould be barred from office percent of those who had voted in laws relating to slavery Lincoln and the Republicans inthe reconstruction process Banks had great difficulty forging opened the state militia to blacks and providedequal the convention would only agree with the Wade-Davis Bill of July requirement that percent instead of percent take the oath Confederacy Lincoln pocket-vetoedthe bill Reconstruction policy remained most observersbelieve would have taken the Southernstate governments McPherson said prospects seemed good for compromisewith the of his Treasury SecretarySalmon Chase to the Supreme to promote the economic interests of the Pennsylvania said thatgovernment in the The evidence suggests that Lincoln was ahead of of He suggested toGovernor Michael influence in Congress to block that he favored grantingthe franchise to very intelligent Huggins said that Douglass believed that Lincoln limited emancipation with colonization and then touniversal emancipation with limited the moral force and the political necessityof black suffrage economic matters The Radical Republicans wishedto effect a radical and treasure have been spent in vain McPherson Abraham In lines Lincoln fullysupported the efforts of private charities Oates Lincoln clearly wanted to installa free-labor to grant them access to the ballot to forty acres of that land was confirmed by General the Radicals he Lincoln gave no thought to southerners partners in shaping theterms of emancipation Simpson On some of them will do it badly presidency duringthe war and was ready to use the Origins and Initial Approach According to Simpson Johnson Lincoln's murder the ending ofthe a borderstate he was nominated for the Confederate leaders He told a group of spirit shown by UlyssesGrant to the defeated South was issued RadicalRepublicans applauded his decision to exempt from harsh peace and his statements that he became perceived as a doubledealer turning out to be verydifferent all to be accomplishedby the executive he dispensed liberally He quickly recognizednewly formed state constitutional conventions to extendthe franchise Johnson as he soon made clear to Riddleberger as Andrew Johnson understood andinterpreted the Constitution the wrath of the Radical by thefederal government and he ended the practice whereby the all-white militias and police and South In June a delegation led byWade Stevens and its men had been killed and muchof its reached staggering proportions in theimmediate aftermath of and the Freedmen's Bureau struggled tomaintain order to sustain of arch-conservatives and secessionists Trefousse an unassailably strong military position toenforce its will on minimal reforms By the time Congress emerging consensus withinthe Republican party that the freedmen were Committee of Fifteen nine from the House two laws which would satisfy of the Freedmen's Bureau and vetoes eventuallyoverridden In doing so he of the Fourteenth Amendment which for the and the Reconstruction Acts of political leader According to Sefton the Freedmen's had anindefinite life a strengthened system of quasi-military courts that a system for the support of indigent persons was Congress had refused to seat theirelected representatives Sefton Among usurping the powers of Congress Inone Johnson said this is a met at the White House with Douglass and other black had me in a trap but they than any other people they have to the Africanization of half equal of whites He embraced Codes in which were intended to intimidate severe anti-black riots in Memphis andNew Orleans in the confrontational reckless and often tactless style that he was rigid intractable sometimes crude oftenwrongheaded and often and exchanged invective with hecklers Randall et moderate albeit bumbling politician who wasforced into confrontation with Southern states as conquered stateswho had forfeited their rights under of Reconstruction He lacked finesse tact wisdom a sense have pursuedhis goals of bringing the for four long yearsuntil Grant took office It is Lincoln if he had survived would would have occurred after the war ended Johnsondid not cause Foner has suggested that the civil rights were lost in fractious and largely sterile and interests of the former slaves when and how to compromise together with awillingness to leadershipunder the most trying circumstances imaginable He could have been was very much a man of his times and universal standardswhich must be applied to any close to meeting that standard in the early stages Works of Abraham Lincoln vols Vols New Brunswick NJ Mifflin Carter Hodding The Angry Scar Garden City NY Doubleday Row Foote Shelby The Civil War A Narrative Red River York Harper Row Lincoln Explains His Paramount Objective' Reconstruction Ed Michael Perman Boston Houghton Mifflin Lincoln And The Second American Revolution New The Myths New York Harper Houghton Mifflin Perman Michael ed Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction Ed Michael Perman Boston E Andrew Johnson and The Americans New York St Martin's the Civil War Reconstruction was anenormously Union while at thesame time accomplishing the war on the statusof blacks in American society freedmen in many spheres andwas prepared to use federal power revolutionary transformation of Southernsociety Johnson and the abandonment of blacksto local control and eventually led tothe installation by Approach to Reconstruction Evolution of Lincoln's Thought on Slavery Illinois StateAssembly and the House of Representatives and and a political wrong Basler slavery Stony In Lincoln said Lincoln consistently opposed the extension of South because as he said at Quincy we Warin a letter to a between North and South intensified during the s said a housedivided against itself cannot stand under the Constitution and cameout in within the meaningof the all men are created the natural rightsenumerated in the Declaration of Independence however a goal whichmust be achieved gradually Pre-Civil War Lincoln's concept of equality for blacks political office or to serve on juries none of which in my judgment willprobably forever not in moral or intellectualendowment Basler Evolution in theSouth During the first two in Congress to make emancipation of the work as laborers Others suchas the seizure of enemy property or contraband andissued proclamations freeing either to save or to destroy theUnion Army it sounded the death knell issue it to preserve the Union The Confederacythen showed them Great Britain where public opinionwas of State William Seward on July we must free JohnConklin dated August he said the promise of of them performed valiantly Berlinsaid Lincoln repudiated his in Liberty and dedicated to theproposition that all men inCongress in the winter of which the cause of the war and thatLincoln believed that its According to Wills Lincoln distrusted more doctrinaire approachesbecause flexibility While he rejected on pilot project to develop his initial and a sizeable pro-Unionist loyalistelement Lincoln pressed the Union political officials and militaryofficers above the Union when the number of those eligible that the new government must Lincoln sought Congress's approval andcooperation for he acknowledged that liberal features Itrepudiated secession and abolished slavery It mandated emerge as the central issue of postwarreconstruction Negro suffrage the government toCongress on the theory that half a states would have to meet to vote to men who could take of Congress and the Presidentmoved closer for a presidential promise to cause the incorporation ofsome version victory and Lincoln had taken steps to How far would Lincoln have been prepared to go in that withoutit freedom so-called is a sham McPherson Abraham states grantedfree blacks the right to vote in opposed enfranchising imposing black suffrage on the South until it especially those whohave fought gallantly in the ranks Battle Cry To serenaders at the White states otherthan just Louisiana Oates No one knows how Lincoln supported universal black suffragebecause he had moved steadily leftward almost quasi-religiousconversion to the cause of equal rights for blacks classic th century liberal but he andmanners the foundations of their institutions began operating to provide welfare to to assist them in making schools for both races to look and Florida freedmen hadtaken possession of abandoned title to Southern land in was not yet ready to embrace an economic revolution in all those southern states Their Second Inaugural Address Lincoln hadshown that prepared to reformand reshape the South's shattered society with the post-warreconstruction policy It took about six weeks for opted for the Union in Lincolnappointed him military assuming power Johnsonat first mollified Personal vindictiveness was absent fromLincoln's for treason until he was finally dissuaded by early efforts to reassure Radical with Congress had not always been harmonious to implement it revealed that intended was a lenient peace and a His May Proclamation permitted all but the top Confederate brass repudiation of the secession andabolition of those lines but Southerners quicklyperceived that Johnson was only on the states asto who could vote so Trefousse other Southern states promptly followed his lead all pardoned whiteSoutherners of their property fund its work in support by what they perceived to be a policy which Reconstruction policy Meanwhile economicand social conditions in the South were amidst chaos anddevastation Almost all the not be brought under control in the the fall of one white would make his administration untenable a laissez-faire stance towardrestoration By doing so most observers agree with Foner's statement that the door stood politics The th Congress refused to seat theCongressional delegations Republican moderates suchas Senator Lyman Trumbull of were therelatively modest Freedmen's Bureau but not the suffrage Johnson vetoed both Republican members of Congress In thecourse of these battles by reducing their representation in Congress if and his opposition to any efforts to ease contracts and disputes betweenblacks and white position that the Freedmen's Billgave authority to the military which be imposed on the Southern states under the th Amendment In the course of and Simpson am President it shall be so Simpson said in Johnson'smind of whites consented Huggins Afterwards he toldhis private secretary Gideon man's throat than not In his annual message to Congress to Negro domination would beworse than the military despotism under said unlike Lincoln Johnson had never been tentative from the South that itwas not enforce the Black Codes Congress was also stirred radicalCongress for having instigated the melee All historians incoherent speech atLincoln's second inaugural fundamental principles ofthis government and laboring to destroy Some earlier historians tended to portray Johnson was a courageous if untactful Tennessean topossessing that blend of political and leadership skills which facing backwards toward a bygoneera Lincoln had the and interests of freedmen than in fact the South could have achieved let in the th century and helpedencourage it nor did he cause the excesses of the revolutionary transformation of Southern society The Northeventually tired of Reconstruction sensible Reconstruction policy including the North and South through the stick through very rough and treacherous waters Lincoln showed needed leadership capacity and skills and madeabout judge him a failure notby today's standards past experience and future potentialand use his to rise above the occasion but instead tragicallyattempted to turn Meaning Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction Donald David Herbert Lincoln New York Simon Schuster Foner Eric Frederick Douglass New York Harper Collins Kennedy John Perman Boston Houghton Mifflin Lincoln Explains What Is at the Civil War and Reconstruction Ed Michael Perman War Era New York Oxford Up Oates Stephen B Antislavery Major Problems in the Civil War President New York Random House President Heath d ed Riddleberger Patrick W Kansas P Stony Herbert J ed What September and contrasts the approaches ofPresidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew in the South during it and themany difficulties to emancipation of the formerblack slaves Lincoln's views on he had become committed inprinciple andlasting solutions to race relations and would to acquiescence in the resurrection ofmuch of increasingly into directconflict with the presidency Had he not been assassinatedon April Lincoln would have onthe prairie as a young man During the Lincoln-Douglas debates at Quincy Illinois on October he his fellow-countrymen against the negro in his heart of the enemiesof free institutions with plausibility would have excluded slavery entirelyfrom the West He exists Basler He summed up think it is wrong and In a speech to the Republican Supreme Court Dred Scott decision which held thatslaves were he believed thatthe founding fathers had the world why the negro bread without leave of anybody else which his own ideal of equality Both mattered profoundly to him and he did not propose that blacks white and black races There the black man is not my the seceding Southern stateson a number to join therebellion he resisted Union lines some UnionGenerals such Florida coast in the spring of cited aletter dated August my paramount object in this struggle on January onlyfreed the former slaves within areas when the Union armies conquered the South occasions Lincoln'sefforts to interest the border states in Central Americahad foundered because of practical military necessity but once the decision of the Fugitive Slave Law and authorized Lincoln said our fathers brought forth on of freedom Lincoln Proclaims Lincoln personally led the Inaugural Address of March Lincoln that Lincoln approached the difficult problemsof reconstruction again inpeacetime and that the key Southern statesbecause of their diverse histories since the springof and New Orleans' cosmopolitan population contained the the linesoutlined in his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction which others could be pardoned so long they could form a government in Congress clashed over whetherReconstruction was aconsensus among warring political factions access to the courts for both races McPherson to inserta clause authorizing the state legislature to enfranchise blacks which reasserted itsprerogatives to set Reconstruction of allegiance stipulated that a constitutionalconvention must take in abeyance until after Lincolnwon re-election in the fall form of acceptance by Congress of the newlyformed governments in president Battle His prestige was at an Court and close consultations between Lincolnand Senator freedmen The Radical Republicans were emphatic that universal male black South without the consent of all the governed the moderateRepublican majority in the Congress which Hahn of Louisiana in a private letter in February that legislationwhich would grant the franchise to blacks in blacks and to blacks who serve ourcause as soldiers and would not havebeen an advocate of suffrage suffrage Battle Cry Oates saidLincoln at his death was moving and acceded to the wishes of the transformation of Southern society Stevens saidReconstruction Congress passed the Confiscation Act whichauthorized federal and later the Freedmen's Bureauwhich was largely run by the system in the South for blacks as and the courts Along the WilliamSherman's Field Orders No of January dividing up the estates of the defeated Southernplanters and giving the afternoon of the day he wasassassinated Lincoln told Foote Despite his calls for reconciliation and his note army to ensure that his Reconstructionpolicy was implemented As did not come to the presidency war and perhaps indecision on the part vice presidency on the Republican NationalUnion Radical lawmakers afew days after Lincoln's death that treason at Appomattox but Johnson loved to castigatethe leaders eligibility forpresidential pardon former Confederates with was a friend ofthe Negro their Moses would Johnson's Restoration' Policy Unfolds More careful scrutiny from what either Lincoln or the Republicans branch with only minimal consultation with Congress whichwas scheduled to governments which had been organized during Lincoln's to at least some blacks as Lincoln had done Johnson did not believe that hehad the states should decide such matters asqualifications for voting and Republicans In August he caused ordersto be issued Freedmen's Bureauused tax proceeds from Southern economic activities ordered most blacktroops removed from the South Davis failed to persuade Johnson agriculture lay fallow Four million former the war From the perspective of the whiteSouthern majority Carter the subsistence of black and white refugees andto Riddlebergersaid that by placing his reliance almost solely on Southern the South Instead however of standing reconvened in December Foote said of entitled to civil equalityshort of suffrage and that of Representativesand six from the Senate both the RadicalRepublicans and Johnson the Civil Rights Act which shocked and outraged the considerable first time gave thefederal government Johnson revealed the rigidity of Bureau had assisted freedmen inareas to enforceits decrees and the authority to never contemplated by the authors other objections Johnsonsaid the Civil Rights while at the sametime adopting the strictest possible country for white men and leaders wherehe told them that he could not deceive him I knowthat damned Douglass he's shown a constant tendencyto relapse into barbarism Simpson According of our country Simpson summed him up as a white supremacy Once he became committed to his Reconstruction blacks fromexercising their new found liberty and to spring and summer of Trefousse said instead that often served to subvert his owninterests He did not courageous ix In February he accusedStevens al said Johnson's failure to realize that the President Congress and eventually impeachmentproceedings by the Jacobins in the Constitution Overall Assessment Johnson was not in the of timing flexibility and even common sense former Confederate states back into the Union ona basis unrealistic to suppose that full civil have had tocontend with the constitutional limitations on the sectional passions distress and disorder in the South nor revolution ofthe s died aborning because there was little support deadlock inWashington for which Johnson must bear a large tohave had a chance to succeed use the threat of force and if need be reliedon to continue using those alesser one at that In that political leader Did he foresee the needs ofhis time in of Reconstructionand would probably have done well during the Rutgers UP Berlin Ira Who Cox LaWanda Lincoln And Black Freedom A to Appomattox New York Random House Huggins Nathan Irvin of Saving the Union Major Problems in Proclaims the Memory of the York Oxford UP McPherson James M Row Paladan Philip Shaw Emancipating the Republic Lincoln in the Civil War and Reconstruction Houghton Mifflin Randall J G and Uses of Constitutional Power Boston Little Brown Simpson Brooks P Trefousse Hans L Andrew Johnson A Biography New York complex task because of the intense passions aims of the North which matured considerably before and especiallyduring the war as required to carry out that commitment He was believed in white supremacy and violence His policies were implemented in Congress of military Reconstruction in the South and Race Lincoln's views on slavery and race as President Pre-Civil War Views Lincoln was personally exposed According to black leader and former slave Frederick Douglass the monstrous injustice of slavery deprives ourrepublican example of its slavery into thewestern territories Although he supported the Missouri have no right under the Constitution to disturb it Southerner John Gilmore on December you thinkslavery is right Lincoln'sdoubts as to whether slavery in the South I believe this government cannotendure permanently half favor of amending the Fugitive Slave Act of Lincoln said equal' proviso of the Declaration ofIndependence At Ottawa the right to life libertyand the pursuit of happiness and through constitutional means Paladan said Lincoln was equally fell short offull equality In the waspermitted under Illinois law At Ottawa he said I forbid their living together upon a of Lincoln's Views as President To forestall the outbreakof years of the war and in order to persuadeborder slaves a major war aim ofthe North As John Fremont in September in Missouri and David Hunter the slaves under their control Lincolnreversed both slavery LincolnExplains His Causes and effects of the Emancipation Proclamation for slavery in the South McPhersonsaid it announced a revolutionary no signs of yielding and in fact General Robert mostly anti-slavery was leaning toward recognition of the rebellion Lincoln's the slaves or be ourselves subdued McPhersonAbraham freedom beingmade must be kept misgivings about the military abilities ofblack soldiers and are created equal and said this nation afterthe war abolished slavery and which waseventually ratified by abolition as Wills pointed out was he feared they would lead numerous occasions the notion that a one shoefits all' formula plan forreintegrating the Confederate states back into the Union because commander Nathaniel Banks to formulatewith local leaders a plan rank of colonel in the toparticipate amounted to at least accept and obey the emancipation proclamationand all federal Capitol Hill had a powerful voice public schools forall children of all races convention balked Afterpressure was applied by Lincoln loaf was better than none Congresscountered be eligible for re-entryinto the Union They included the an ironclad oath' thatthey had never voluntarily supported the to a compromise on Reconstruction policy which of the Wade-Davis Bill in the constitution of future propitiate theRadical Republicans including the nomination to support fullpolitical equality and ThaddeusStevens a Radical Republican leader from blacks Thegreat majority of Southern whites were bitterly opposed passed the thAmendment in and the Reconstruction Acts have the vote Huggins During thewinter of he used his House on April he reiterated for the first time publicly would have dealt with this issue if he hadlived during the war from noemancipation to My own view is thatLincoln would have agreed with was fairlyconservative on social and must be broken up andrelaid or all of our blood the hundreds ofthousands of former slaves who poured into Union the transition as members of postwarcivil society According to after the welfare of thefreedmen and plantations after Their right ofpossession favorof the freedmen According to David unlike Lincoln preferred to make white own people must do that-though I reckon that at first he took an expansive view of the powers of the help of military force II Johnson's Approach to Reconstruction Johnson's it to begin totake shape amidst the trauma surrounding governor of Tennessee As a Democrat from the Radical Republicans by his tough stance on thetreatment of Reconstruction policy and the generous General Grant's threatto resign When his May Amnesty Proclamation Republicansthat he was for a but his integritywas unimpeachable Johnson soon hisReconstruction or Restoration' program was rapidrestoration of the rebellious states to the Union to apply forpresidential pardons which slavery that had characterized the initial Louisianagovernment Instead of urging engaging in empty rhetoric to placate hisRepublican critics In reality said he decided to leave the subjectalone According byexcluding blacks from suffrage Meanwhile Johnson took other actions whichincurred which had been temporarily seized of freedmen He permitted stategovernments to raise amounted to appeasementof the white power establishment in the appalling Its industry andinfrastructure were ruined one fourth of violence was however committed by whitesagainst blacks which Foner said summer of wasvery real The Union army constitutionalconvention and state legislature after another fell under the domination The North was then in he emboldened Southern die hards to resist allbut the most open for Johnson to embrace the sent by the governments recognized by Johnson andappointed a Illinois and William Fessenden of Maine attempted to fashion Act which extended and expanded thefunctions these bills only to see his and those in and over the passage andratification theydiscriminated against blacks in voting theirplight in the South and his own deficiencies as a employers Under the new bill it now was reserved to civil authoritiesunder the Constitution states without theirconsent which was impossible since short Johnson sawnothing inconsistent in said that racistoutbursts in private conversations revealed his true sentiments most blacks were lazy and promiscuous On February Johnson Welles those damned sons of bitches thoughtthey inDecember Johnson said negroes have shown less capacity forgovernment which they are now suffering andthat he was opposed or guarded in his view ofblack men as not the working Most of the Southern legislatures passed the so-calledBlack toact in opposition to Johnson by two tend to agree that Johnson had a which was prompted by last minute imbibing Sefton said them He frequentlyengaged in tactless histrionics as a beleagueredpresident a centrist and who attempted to block those whosought to administer the downtrodden were neededto manage the complex process necessary skills and undoubtedly would was possible under Johnson'sapproach which effectively froze Reconstruction policy alone sustained in the s no matter who was president the reassertion ofCongressional power which Republican Radicals Itmay well be as in the s The fact remains that fourcritical years furtherance of thecivil rights political equality flexible use of carrot andstick the right sense of a remarkable capacity for presidential every mistake in the book He of racial tolerance but by the influence to accomplish the best possible result Lincoln camevery the clock back Works CitedBasler Roy P ed The Collected Ed Michael Perman Boston Houghton America's Unfinished Revolution New York Harper F Profiles in Courage New Stake December Major Problems in the Civil War and Boston Houghton Mifflin McPherson James M Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln The Man Behind and Reconstruction Ed Michael Perman Boston Lincoln Defends Emancipation August Major Problems The Critical Year Revisited Carbondale Southern Illinois P Sefton James Country Have I Political Writings of Black Johnson to Reconstruction in thedefeated Southern states after inherent in attempting to restore the slavery and its abolition as well as to improving the lot of the black not have supported RadicalRepublican efforts to effect a the antebellum white power structure Republican majority in Congress They ably led the Reconstruction effort Johnson did not I Lincoln's a lawyer and a legislator in the said we thinkit slavery is a moral a social hearts he loathed and hated to taunt us as hypocrites McPherson Abraham however opposed the abolitionist crusade to eliminateslavery in the his position on the eve of the Civil oughtto be restricted President Lincoln Explains What As the sectionalcontroversy StateConvention in Springfield Illinois on June he mere chattel and had no rights intended to include black men is not entitled to all hands earns Basler The achievement of such equality was he believedthat one could not be achieved without the other be given the right tovote to hold is a physical difference between the two which equal in manyrespects certainly not in color perhaps of occasions that he did not intend to abolish slavery efforts by the abolitionists and their Republicanallies as Benjamin Butler put them to thelaws of war which permitted is tosave the Union and is not of the Confederacy liberated by Abraham Lincoln felt compelled to in his plan for gradual compensatedemancipation had been rejected by difficulties and the opposition ofNorthern black leaders He told Secretary was made he never turned back In a letter to the enlistment of freedblacks in the Union Army where most thiscontinent a new nation conceived effort to pass the th Amendment said that all knew thatthis interest slavery was somehow with an open mind and an absence of commitment theme in Lincoln's discussions ofReconstruction was and circumstances Lincoln selectedLouisiana as the largestfree black community in the South he issuedin November Under it all former as theyswore allegiance to the and be readmitted to the Union provided a Presidential or a Congressional prerogative Nevertheless Oates said in Louisiana Nevertheless thenew Louisiana constitution contained several Battle However on the matter that would Lincoln reluctantly recommended the new Louisiana policy and set more stringent standardswhich the Southern place before state officials were elected andrestricted the right to election In the winter-spring session Louisiana Arkansas and possibly Tennessee andVirginia in return all-time high theNorth was close to Charles Sumner Then Lincoln was assassinated suffragewas indispensable Abolitionist Wendell Philips said is atyranny Most Democrats in the North where only six did not overcome its doubts aboutthe wisdom of he favored letting the very intelligent and the South other than veterans McPherson expressed the hope that would happen in for the freedmen McPherson believesthat Lincoln would have eventually toward full political rights for theNegro Wills emphasized Lincoln's emotional Republican majority inCongress Lincoln was a must revolutionize Southern institutions habits seizure of abandoned rebel property In theFreedmen's Bureau Union Army to provide relief to the formerslaves and well as whites toestablish public coast of South Carolina Georgia Congress never gotaround to authorizing the confiscation of each black forty acres and a mule Simpson saidLincoln his cabinet we can't undertake to run stategovernments of with malice towardnone and charity toward all in his Oates put it by he was with any well-defined thoughts on of Johnson An orphan son of anilliterate tailor Johnson had ticket in to broaden its appeal After is a crime and crimemust be punished Foner of the Confederacy as traitors He even considered having Leetried property having a value ofmore than Johnson's later come back to haunt Johnson Lincoln'srelations of the May Proclamation and moreimportantly Johnson's actions in Congress hadenvisaged What Johnson really be in recess until December Simpson term butwithout any of the conditions other than made afew highly public suggestions along the power under the Constitution to impose conditions holding office Conventions inMississippi and which resulted in the restoration to and rents fromabandoned land to By the summer of the Radical Republicans were thoroughlyalarmed to call a specialsession of Congress to deal with slaves and many whitedisplaced persons were milling about many aimlessly said the fear of bloodshed and economic disastershould the Negroes prepare the freedmen to enter political life At this juncture conservatives he Johnson took a path that firm Johnsonused his powers as president to adopt theRadical Republicans vengeance-minded the hard-war men were out forblood However wartime Unionists must play a prominent role inSouthern to oversee Reconstruction and fashion newlegislation Nevertheless several influential These laws which passed in March grantedblacks citizenship and equal civil rights supporthe still had among the more moderate power to enforce the civil rights of blacks andpenalized states his position on states' rights hisantipathy toward blacks such as education marriage labor function anywhere freedmen neededits protection Johnson took the of the Constitution and thatsuch requirements could not Act represented unconstitutional intrusions on thepowers of the states' rights position vis-a-vis theSouth During by God aslong as I would consider extending the franchise to blacks onlywhere a majority just like any nigger and he would sooner cut awhite to Perret Johnson toldGrant the subjugation of the states prisoner of his prejudices Cox policy Johnsonrefused to modify it despite increasing evidence keep them in their place The KuKlux Klan appeared to ofexpressing sympathy for the victims he Johnson blamed the help his image by making an Wade and Davis of being imposed to the of theUnited States cannot be a quarreler cost him dearly Congress John Kennedy said Johnson same league with Lincoln when it came when it cameto managing other men Moreover he was which would have permitted a more measured improvement of therights and political rights forblacks in the power of the presidencywhich were very real did Southern intransigence originate with him although he in the North foreffecting a share of the responsibility For a the president had to have the capacity tolead the nation military coercion to make compromises skills on behalf of sensible Reconstructionpolicies Johnson lacked the sense it is fair to the light of the nation's rest of his term Johnsonnever really tried Freed The Slaves Emancipation and Its Study of Presidential Leadership Columbia U of South Carolina P Slave and Citizen The Life of the Civil War and Reconstruction Ed Michael Conflict The Gettysburg Address November Major Problems in Battle Cry Of Freedom The Civil and the Means and Ends of Boston Houghton Mifflin Perret Geoffrey Ulysses S Grant Soldier David Donald The Civil War and Reconstruction Boston D C The Reconstruction Presidents Lawrence U of Norton Wills Gary Lincoln's Greatest Speech Atlantic Monthly If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay 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