Reconstruction Of The U.S (1865-1877)

Reconstruction was the period of time after the civil war when America was in disarray. The nation was trying to rebuild its self after a brutal war that claimed over a half a million American lives. With a country so divided it would be a hard fought battle to rebuild it, but it couldn’t be done. With President Lincoln dead after being assassinated the country was already working on shaky ground. For the next 15 years America would attempt to reconstruct its nation but unfortunately this attempt would be all for nothing. Its failure would be the country’s own fault, and it would affect the country for many years to come.

Reconstruction began immediately after the civil war ended in 1865, as planned by President Lincoln. Unfortunately the president was killed only a few days after the decline of the war.  The man to take Abraham Lincoln’s place was Andrew Johnson from Tennessee. Johnson was the wrong man for the job at this time because of his disagreeing views with reconstruction. Without support from the president reconstruction was already running into problems in its early stages. Even without this support though, congress led reconstruction despite what the president’s views were. This rift between the president and congress would continue to grow during Johnson’s time in office, and would ultimately be one of the reasons why reconstruction failed.

Reconstruction began horribly for the nation and their fortunes never changed. The presidents to come during the reconstruction period would also prove unfit for their job, and unhelpful in aiding the divided nation. Congress attempted to counter act this by quickly passing the 13^th Amendment which abolished slavery; and congress soon after passed the 14^th Amendment which made all slaves citizens of America. Congress would continue to try to create a new reconstructed nation by also passing the 15^th Amendment despite President Johnson’s attempt to stop it. The 15^th Amendment allowed all slaves to vote which made a huge impact on the country, but even with these new Amendments reconstruction would still be a failure.

The one reason that most likely contributed to this failure was the lack of participation of the south. The southern states did their best to resist reconstruction which is why reconstruction failed. They did not accept the new changes brought upon them by congress, and the south did this by creating black codes. These black codes attempted to take away the new found freedoms from the former slaves. The 15^th Amendment did take away these black codes but southerner’s retaliated by creating the Ku Klux Klan. This “Klan” was a group of people in the south that were extremely racist towards blacks, and they lynched many former slaves. The Union had to eventually station their troops in the southern states to keep order, but these military states were very unfair to the people and failed. The failure of reconstruction didn’t just affect the nation then but it affects it in present day America. To this day the south has been behind in education and building progress in all areas.

If the United States handled reconstruction better than they did and reconstruction was a success, the country would be a much different place. The country would be a different place because I believe the south would be just as advanced as the north in education. States like Mississippi in the south wouldn’t lack an effective education system, and the United States would rank much better in education on a international level. With better education across the country poverty would also be decreased by a great amount. One area I believe the south would not improve in is in industry. This is because the south has always relied on crops and they wouldn’t change their lives to become industrialized. So this is how I think the United States would be changed if Reconstruction was a success, but if I had the chance I would have organized it much differently.

I would have done this by making sure there was a stable president in office so there wouldn’t be a rift in the government.  With a stable president and without a presidential veto, passing bills and amendments would easily go through and be put in action. The second action I would take is to make northern politicians represent the southern states instead of corrupt and racist southern leaders. With stable northern leaders in place of power in the south, southerners would have no choice but to accept northern policy. With northern politics in place of power union troops would not be needed in the south. Without union troops the corrupted military states would never have to exist. This is how I would of organized reconstruction if I was given the power to. In conclusion reconstruction was a failure because of the lack of effort of the south and because of corrupt presidents who didn’t care enough about their nation. If reconstruction was a success though; I believe the United States would be even more powerful than it is now.