Definition: The period known as reconstruction was the time when the processes of bringing the
11 southern states that seceded during the civil war back into the union occurred. It was a
huge task that involved readmitting the succeeded states, and reconstructing the southern
infrastructure that had been destroyed during war, while reinventing it without slavery.
It unfolded in four stages: wartime Reconstruction, presidential Reconstruction,
congressional Reconstruction, and the Redemption of the South.

Goals: The goals of reconstruction were twofold: to restore harmonious relations between the
two divided sections, and to define and secure freedom for the ex-slaves.

Background: The South paid a very high price for claiming it’s independence during war, and it
had to pay for a bitter defeat. One tenth of all the white men in the southern population
were killed, and much of the rich agricultural land in Virginia , Tennessee , Mississippi,
Georgia , and South Carolina lay in ruins. In addition, Most of the South’s major cities
had been burned and destroyed by the northern Union , and thousands of black and white
refugees were homeless and in dreadful situations. Economic, political, and moral questions
had to be addressed as to how to go about rebuilding the country.

The planning and beginnings of Reconstruction began well before the end of the war, as did
the debates about how to go about rebuilding the country. President Abraham Lincoln’s
Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 officially freed slaves in the south, which only further
angered the confederate states, making Reconstruction even more difficult if the north should
win. Every aspect of the southern economy was based on slavery, so once slavery was abolished,
the nation had to figure out another way for the southern economy to blossom. Reconstruction
after the war would not only involve bringing the white Confederates back into society, but
also setting a place for black people whose status beyond freedom was totally unknown. While
the Union slowly brought the southern territory under northern control, Lincoln wanted to
reinstate loyal civilian governments as soon as possible and demonstrate to the southerners
that the United States, specifically the north, would be forgiving and welcome the southerners
back into the country harmoniously.

On December 8, 1883, Lincoln gave his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. Lincoln
based it on the section of the constitution that says that the president has power to grant
pardons and reprieves for offenses against the country. Lincoln ’s proclamation offered
generous terms to individuals and former Confederates who took an oath of loyalty to the
union were given forgiveness. He also gave an easy way to reestablish local and state
governments. Once ten percent of a state’s voting population in 1860 had sworn allegiance
to the Union , they could write a new constitution and hold elections to establish the state
government, the only requirement being that the states respected the liberation of slaves.

Radical republicans were alarmed that the plan was too easy on the “rebels” and made no
provision for including civil rights for African Americans. They believed that the Confederacy
had committed “state suicide” and should be demoted to being territories again, that way
congress had the control over readmitting them. Congress came up with a Reconstruction program
of its own in July 1865 with the Wade Davis Bill, which was much stricter than Lincoln ’s plan.
Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill in the summer of 1864, shortly before the war ended. Luckily a
standoff between the president and Congress was avoided because of Lincoln ’s reelection and
the Union Victory. Right before his death, Lincoln anticipated working with Congress to form a
sensible compromise on how Reconstruction should go. Surely if Lincoln had been alive during
the rest of his term, reconstruction would have gone much smoother and disastrous conflict
would have been avoided.

President Johnson was determined to follow Lincoln ’s lead and set the terms for Reconstruction
from the White House, unfortunately there was a huge difference between the two. Johnson, an
ex-slave owner, controlled reconstruction for almost eight months, creating a huge amount of
violent protests with his actions. He did not demand that the former confederate states accept
black suffrage, and after eight months his new south looked identical to the pre-civil war south
except slavery was illegal. Radical Republicans were outraged and moderate republicans were
troubled by reports of violence against the newly freed African Americans. Even more troubling
was the fact that the former confederates began acting defiantly, while in control of the newly
reconstructed states.

Congress wanted to oversee the establishment of a real Republican Party in the south, and the
majority of congressmen were still hoping for a workable compromise with the president. They
demanded the acceptance of the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted citizenship to African
Americans. Johnson refused to compromise, and he vetoed the civil rights act, although his veto
was quickly overridden.

President Johnson was crude and insulting in his veto to the republicans and his political
incompetence pushed many moderate republicans to become radical against him. Presidential
Reconstruction was dead with the solid veto-proof Republican congressional majority.

Congressional Reconstruction began when Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, which
divided up the south into Five military districts. Each district would be temporarily governed
by a U.S. army general to oversee the transition of the new states back into the Union . The
Acts also supported freed people and took formal officials of the confederacy out of power.
Johnson tried to stop the Congressional Reconstruction but his vetoes were continually
overridden, and the hostilities between the two groups lead up to Johnson’s impeachment trial,
although he was not actually convicted. Congress then controlled reconstruction throughout the
rest of Johnson’s term in office and continued to rule it during the presidency of Ulysses S.
Grant.

When Grant, the Union General, was elected president in 1868, Congress knew they could control
the Reconstruction without arguments from him, and that he would support them. By the end of
1868, six former Confederate states had rejoined the nation, conforming to the Reconstruction
Acts requirements. In 1870, after the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, the last four states
rejoined the country. Freedmen joined the Union Leagues, voted enthusiastically, and were
elected to all levels of government throughout the south, including the legislator and the
United States Congress. The Republican state governments, that were now in the north and the
south, installed positive changes during the 1870’s, including public school education,
establishing welfare institutions, and encouraging business investment in the region.

The Southern economy was extremely depressed after the war and failed to be revived during
Reconstruction, causing poverty and dir e circumstances during the time period and well beyond.
Southerners fought against what was known as “Black Republicanism” and “Negro rule,” and
terrorist groups like the Ku Klux Klan committed horrible acts of violence against Black
officeholders, Republican politicians, and voters alike. When southerners regained control of
their state governments they immediately removed any African Americans from office and
everything they could to shut down black voters from giving their opinions. In the 1870’s the
Federal government and northern people alike began to get tired of the continual arguments with
the men that killed their brothers, and other issues like the Indian Wars in the West began to
draw their attention away from the southern issues. By April 1877 “salvation” of the South was
complete and every one of the states that had been a part of the confederacy was once again
under Democratic rule. Reconstruction had long since been over.

When looked at from a point of view that the goal was to restore positive relations between
the north and the South, then Reconstruction worked. By 1876 the United States was a strong and
stable, unified nation. If it is looked at from the other goal, giving justice and a positive
future to freed slaves, then it was a failure. Four million slaves were freed from their masters,
but were stuck in poverty and a world of racism which didn’t really give them freedom. Not until
the 1960’s was the promise of Reconstruction fulfilled for the African American people, when the
Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments made during the Reconstruction period lay the
foundation for the Civil Rights Movement. So in full, was the all the work done during the
Reconstruction period a success or a failure?