Reconstruction in the South, Civil War AftermathEssay title: Reconstruction in the South, Civil War AftermathThis essay will describe the events that occurred following the Civil War in a period known as Reconstruction. In the South, during this period of time many people suffered from the great amount of property damage done to such things as farms, factories, railroads and several other things that citizens depended on to keep their economy strong. Some of these economic hardships included destruction of the credit system and worthless Confederate money. Though statistics in the South were vague the historian E.B. Long, a careful student of war strengths suggests “perhaps 750,000 individuals would be reasonably a close” as an estimate of Southern enrollments in the armies and navy.
In the South Reconstruction meant rebuilding the economy, establishing new state and local governments and establishing a new social structure between whites and blacks. During the war Lincoln had expanded his presidency. With his power he hoped to set up loyal governments in the Southern states that were under Union control. Lincoln appointed new temporary governors and instructed each to call a convention to create a new state government as soon as a group of the states citizen totaling 10 percent of the voters in the 1860 presidential election had signed oaths of loyalty to the Union. Under this plan new governments were formed in Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas but the Congress refused to recognize them. Republicans in Congress did not want a quick restoration, for the reason that it would bring Democratic representatives and senators to Washington, and in 1864 Congress passed the Wade-Davis Reconstruction Bill. This bill would have delayed the process of rejoining the Union until 50 percent of the people took an oath of loyalty but Lincoln pocket vetoed the bill. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated just as the South surrendered in April 1865, and then Andrew Johnson inherited the problem of Reconstruction. Johnson supported Lincolns plan after taking office.
Enough Confederates signed these oaths to enable the immediate creation of new governments. Johnson required that the new states ratify the 13th Amendment freeing the slaves, abolish slavery in their own constitutions, discard debts incurred while in rebellion, and declare secession null and void. By the end of 1865 all of the secessionist states but Texas had rejoined the Union. Radical Republicans in Congress thought they should control Reconstruction and wished to punish the South for causing the Civil War. Some of these Republicans wished to create a Southern society where blacks and whites were equal. These Republicans opposed the Southern “Black Codes.” Black Codes were harsh local and state laws passed to control blacks in the South after the Civil War.
The Radical Republicans reconstruction plan included the passage of the 13th Amendment and established the Freedmans Bureau(Jackson made the 13th Amendment part of his plan). The Freedmans Bureau is an agency of the Federal government set up in 1865 to help former slaves and other persons suffering from the effects of the Civil War. This reconstruction plan also included passage of a Civil Rights bill and the 14th Amendment(all of these were opposed by Johnson). The 13th Amendment said: “Neither slavery nor forced labor shall exist within the United States or its possessions except as a punishment for one convicted of a crime. Congress may make laws to enforce this article.” The 14th Amendment said in section four: “The Federal Government shall pay all its debts, including debts contracted in putting down rebellion. But neither
*“nor shall any person under the direct or assumed control of any of the United States Government, or any military alliance, be compelled or compelled by his Legislature, to sell, exchange, lend, or lease any person with authority to carry on the trade, and no act of Congress shall become null, void, or otherwise unduly affected by this Constitution. “And no person born in the Union, neither native-born nor foreign born, or of any state, or of any political subdivision thereof, to the States shall, within the limits of his person to which this Constitution applies, be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, or under any legal restraint, in like manner as, though they were citizens of the United States, shall be denied the benefits of life, liberty, or property in the state wherein they reside.” The 17th Amendment said in section one: “ and it has been the law of the United States since the years 1903 and 1905; the Civil War has been a battle between the states. And it is understood by the framers that under the Fourteenth Amendment no state could be excluded from the jurisdiction of the federal government, and any power granted under this act will be absolute and unconditional, and the federal government cannot authorize or promote private interests in any particular place. But the Constitution did enact the 18th Amendment specifically to prohibit the federal government from making any decisions affecting the states — which Congress thought were within its own jurisdiction. It stated: “Neither slavery nor forced labor shall exist within the United States unless they are ordered under the Constitution, to pay all their debts and expenses, and to pay the civil duties and expenses of the government: “The Fourteenth Amendment of the Fourteenth Amendment does not forbid the federal government from making any decisions affecting the States. But the Fourteenth Amendment does not create a federal judiciary. Its only purpose is to provide the federal government with an impartial, impartial Supreme Court. This Court may act in its own discretion, which shall be in such form as the laws may specify. But the Fourteenth Amendment is far from void, and no federal law will be enacted without the assistance of the state legislature having been created to remedy the state-wide government dysfunction in which it exists.” (See the original italics.)
The United States Supreme Court had to go on to describe how this country had changed since those 1820 amendments that were made to correct this horrible country’s injustice of the Civil War. While acknowledging that there are problems that existed at the beginning of the war, it didn’t say what these would include.
The first major problem emerged from “a bill” that Johnson put forward for a new national service during the summer for some veterans who were being considered for future service. The draft would be delayed until August. The draft had to pass a federal court before it could be sent for trials. The bill went nowhere, and it wasn’t heard by the Court during any of Johnson’s sessions. Johnson would not sign it before the second week of August.
Johnson’s bill was defeated by the Senate, and the Supreme Court, without a hearing, rejected it two weeks later.
And then Johnson vetoed the third piece of legislation, which would have created an individual right to bear arms. The bill had no chance of getting to