Attempts to Mends the Nation During the Reconstruction Era

Historians are right to call Reconstruction one of the â€Å"darkest† times in American history. Nobody was sure of anything. After the Union victory over the Confederacy, politicians were tasked with trying to mend a nation divided down the middle. It was a time of many questions (Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia, 2008). Questions ranging from: What would be the conditions of readmitting the Confederate States back into the Union? Who would be tasked with creating the terms, Congress or the President? What was to become of the Confederate leaders? What labor system would be replacing slavery? What would former slaves social status be (Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia, 2008)? In the end, three different plans†¦show more content†¦The Wade Davis bill demanded that fifty percent of a Confederate states male voter population take the â€Å"ironclad† oath before reentering the Union. However, President Lincoln used his pocket veto to keep the Wade-Davis Bill from ever becoming a law. By the end of the Civil War President Lincoln’s plan for reconstruction was ultimately a bust. States like Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia followed President Lincoln’s plan for readmission to the Union, but Congress refused to seat the Senators and Representatives elected from those states. President Lincolns assassination followed shortly after and his plan for reconstruction died along with him (HighBeam Research, LLC, 2005). After President Lincoln’s assassination his Vice President Andrew Johnson became the new President and began his own version of reconstruction. Although it was common knowledge at the time President Johnson did not like southern planter elites, he was surprisingly lenient towards them. He even blocked radicals in Congress attempts to pass punitive legislation on the Confederate states (ushistory.org, 2008). Just as his predecessor, President Johnson’s main reconstruction goal was to get the Confederate states back into the Union as fast as possible. To help speed up this process President Johnson returned property confiscated by the Union’s army to southerners. He issued pardons to bothShow MoreRelatedThe Legacy Of The Great Depression3599 Words   |  15 PagesThe election of 1932 focused primarily on the Great Depression, the recent economic crisis that had swallowed the nation. At this time, thirteen million people were unemployed and 774 banks were shutting down annually. Economically unstable, Americans turned to Franklin Delano Roosevelt who claimed, â€Å"better days were ahead† with his New Deal reformation. He promised economic â€Å"recovery, job creation, investment in public works, and civic uplift† (Harvey 88). Immediately upon entering the white houseRead MoreA Comparison Between Booker T. Washington (19th century) and Martin Luther King Jr. (2 0th century)5383 Words   |  22 Pageskeynote speaker at the March on Washington, youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate. But in retrospect, single events are less important than the fact that King, and his policy of nonviolent protest, was the dominant force in the civil rights movement during its decade of greatest achievement, from 1957 to 1968. II.BOOKER T. WASHINGTON A. HISTORY Booker T. Washington was born a slave in Hales Ford, Virginia, reportedly on April 5, 1856. After emancipation, his family was so poverty stricken that heRead MorePerformance of Development Financial Institutions in India4877 Words   |  20 PagesLevel Industrial Development Banks Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) Industrial Credit and Investment Corpn. of India (ICICI) Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) Industrial Reconstruction Bank of India (IRBI) Shipping Credit and Investment Company of India (SCICI) Specialised Financial Institutions Technology Development Information Company of India Limited (TDICI) Risk Capital Technology Finance Corporation Limited (RCTC)Read MoreEssay on The Glory and The Dream9497 Words   |  38 PagesRugged Individualism? a. Rugged Individualism was when someone was called upon for advice, he or she â€Å"was impelled by the conventional wisdom to offer proposals designed to make things worse.† (pg. 21) Chapter 1 1. What businesses flourished during the Great Depression? Why? a. Radio production businesses and radio stations flourished because it was cheap entertainment, in which people could listen to whenever they were. Advertising flourished too because they would act as the Depression was