To what extent is 'Restoration' a more fitting term than'Reconstruction' for the period 1865-1877?
To what extent is 'Restoration' a more fitting term than
'Reconstruction' for the period 1865-1877?
During the period 1865 to 1877, Reconstruction was the period in
American history immediately after the Civil War. The physical
rebuilding of Southern cities, ports, railroads, and farms that had
been destroyed during the war was only a small part of the
Reconstruction process. The major work of Reconstruction involved
restoring the membership of the Southern states in the Union. The main
president during this period was Johnson, following the assassination
of Abraham Lincoln and although Johnson disagreed with slavery he was
opposed to equal rights for blacks and the notion that they were equal
to whites. The main reason for his opposition to slavery was that he
believed that between a slave and his white owner, they were
continuing poor white poor, by doing their jobs for no pay etc.
Johnson wanted reconstruction to essentially be a re-establishment of
the previous America before slavery and this was why he was opposed to
the equality between blacks and whites. This was opposite in opinion
for the Republican Party their view of reconstruction was to ensure
that blacks would become equal to whites and have the same rights they
had, mainly the right to suffrage.
To start on the long and arduous process of equality, the Republican
Party showed that through willpower and determination they would
eventually get to finalise their beliefs, this is shown through the
3th and later the 14th Amendments. The first of these had to be
ratified by any seceded Confederate states before being allowed to
rejoin the Union, the new change to the Constitution was the abolition
of slavery throughout the country, and that all people should be free.
This is an area of which the life during Restoration for slaves
changed, they no longer had masters and had to work for free, in
theory. However, due to the racism in the country during this period,
this amendment was not followed through. So to counteract this,
Congress decided to take Reconstruction into their own hands and
passed the 14th Amendment declaring equality for blacks and the fact
that they, Congress, should have the power to enforce this amendment
(section 5). This turnaround from what life was like previously for
the black people before the war is so significant because before black
people were not even considered to be second-rate citizens, which they
were following the amendment, they weren't even citizens in the eyes
of the law. This amendment was in many ways badly drafted, decided on
...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Congress decided to take Reconstruction into their own hands and
passed the 14th Amendment declaring equality for blacks and the fact
that they, Congress, should have the power to enforce this amendment
(section 5). This turnaround from what life was like previously for
the black people before the war is so significant because before black
people were not even considered to be second-rate citizens, which they
were following the amendment, they weren't even citizens in the eyes
of the law. This amendment was in many ways badly drafted, decided on
through compromise and the need to hurry it through before the
Southern states were readmitted and could object to it.
In the pattern of passing amendments, the first, second and third
Reconstruction Acts were passed in March and July of 1867. These acts
provided a much more radical approach to dealing with the South and
were the result of shock at Johnson's obstructive attitude against
blacks. Unlike the previous bills they only just made the two thirds
majority, which shows that the more moderate of the Republican Party
were beginning to feel uncomfortable at the degree of federal
intervention in the South. The first of these acts divided the South
into military districts, each controlled by a federal army officer who
had the power to overrule any judgements made by the Southern
governments set up by Johnson. The second made provisions for who was
to be allowed to vote in the elections at the conventions to ratify
the 14th amendment and to decide on a constitution. The final banned
the procedure of barring certain people from voting on the grounds of
race.
All the Amendments and Acts passed in Congress show some level of
change in America and this demonstrates that there was some results
being made by the Republican Party and its way of Reconstruction and
how it would reconstruct America, but this effect and impact was
reversed in due course by the Southern states as they began to find
ways around the amendments and were able to avoid giving the blacks
their rights of being proper US citizens, later seen in the
Grandfather clause, when blacks were unable to vote if their
grandfather had been a slave. The reason these Amendments and Acts
were so easy to find loopholes in, was because they were not
fundamental enough, they had to be conservative before they were
presented to Congress for voting. This is due to the fact that the
moderate Republicans within the party would have been too uneasy about
the radical ideas and would never have agreed to the Amendments or
Acts. This factor shows how little the Republican Party were able to
achieve because anything too dramatic would have never achieved the
two thirds majority that was needed for the Amendment to be passed by
Congress.
By 1871, all the Southern states had devised constitutions, ratified
the 14th Amendment and consequently re-entered the Union. However, it
remained to be seen whether once the federal military presence had
disappeared, the new order would last. For example, Georgia was
allowed back into the Union in 1868, but as soon as the federal army
officers had left the state, the state legislature expelled all its
black members. The white southern attitude to the new reconstructed
governments was expressed by a Southern Democrat newspaper; 'These
constitutions and governments will last just as long as the bayonets,
which ushered them into being shall keep them in existence and not one
day longer.' These reconstruction acts were not that effective as
shown by the quote that as soon as the federal officers disappeared,
life would go back to the way that it was, so although being radical,
they were not successful necessarily. Although this idea that the acts
had established federal military dictatorship over the South there
were never more than 20, 000 troops in the south at one time and so
even the amount of control over the south from the Republican Party
was limited because of the small army. These acts show how there was
some change within Reconstruction and the issue of the voting was
consistently attacked by the Reconstruction governments but again the
Southern governments were able to undermine the impact by using their
strong influential supporters, in the case of Reese, the Supreme
Court.
A very significant factor that influenced the reconstruction process
was the setting up of the Freedman's Bureau, originally created in
863 under President Abraham Lincoln. It was proposed by the American
Freedmen's Inquiry Commission and set up to look into how best to deal
with the freed slaves. The Commission visited the South and reported
back to Congress on the need for some kind of agency to oversee the
lives of the newly freed slaves. The subjects that were dealt with
were labour policy, land distribution, relief work, healthcare,
justice, race relations and the most important and the one with the
greatest achievement was education. Literacy rates went up ten times
in one generation, the Freedmen's Bureau itself, was a very small
proportion of he federal budget, with just $7m per year spend on the
Freedmen's Bureau and the entire federal budget being $300m per year.
The Freedmen's Bureau operated over a very short time span and was in
effect replaced when the Reconstruction Acts brought military rule to
the South. It only really had 12 months in which to function, between
March 1866 and March 1867, and cannot have been expected to have
changed the whole culture and labour relations of the South in that
time. In particular, land redistribution was a failure, but in general
the Freedmen's Bureau, as a whole was a historic breakthrough in
social policy.
The Radicals began to commit themselves less and less to the issues
that they had originally raised. It started when the liberal
Republicans began to break away claiming that the group was becoming
too radical for them and that they had become unconstitutional. The
liberals even tried to reverse some of the work the Republican Party
had achieved an Act called Amnesty Act, which was when all the
ex-confederates were invited back into the Union. This was obviously a
step backwards in terms of reconstruction because they were letting
the Johnson's version of the reconstruction government win. Finally,
the Republicans turned their attention away from the issues of the
South to new issues like migration and the economy. 1877 sees the
official end of Reconstruction, this end of the Republican Party could
be seen as their defeat due to the impossible battle they had against
Johnson and his fervent supporters. They saw their battle as useless
and helpless due to the constant undermining that went on.
The term Restoration could be seen as a more fitting term than
Reconstruction because although efforts were made to change black
rights and their equality a certainty, they were never triumphant
because the opposition and the supporters of people like Johnson had
more powerful positions in power and therefore were able to undermine
all they believed. The problems with the differences between the
Republicans and the President is one of the most important reasons why
the Republican party was unable to achieve much because they turn out
to be the weaker party working against the President, the obvious
stronger party. Also because Johnson was President he was supported by
all the authorities and all of the society's natural leaders, who are
easily followed by public, as they are more likely to trust these high
members within society. To achieve any drastic variations, the
Republican Party had to contest against some of these most leading and
important people in the country. This is why the term 'restoration'
could be seen as a more fitting term because the Republican Party were
unable to achieve much adjustment to the way life was for the black
people within the country, because they had very powerful competition
who had more ability to control what happened with Reconstruction than
they themselves could.
