Question

Journal Entry

What rules would you have for the South before it would be allowed to return to the Union? Would you be strict?

President Abraham Lincoln formulated an outline for Reconstruction two years before the war ended. He called this plan the Ten Percent Plan. It stated that for a state to be readmitted to the Union, ten percent of its voters had to take an oath of loyalty to the United States and the state had to abolish slavery.

Many Republicans did not support Lincoln’s plan because of its leniency, and they proposed an alternate plan that called for more demanding stipulations. Lincoln and Congress eventually agreed upon one proposal: the Freedmen’s Bureau, a government agency to help former slaves. The Bureau provided food, clothing, and employment assistance to blacks; set up schools; and provided medical assistance to more than one million people. This set the foundation for the public school system in the South and created colleges like Howard and Morehouse for African Americans. In addition to helping African Americans, this agency also helped poor whites.

At the end of the war, two differing views emerged concerning the policy of Reconstruction. Moderates wanted to end the resentment between the two sides and avoid unkind treatment toward the South. This group supported Lincoln’s plan. The opposing group, the radicals, wanted the South to be punished and ensure that blacks were being treated better than they had been before the war.

Before these groups reached a compromise, however, John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln. It was just two weeks after the end of the Civil War. Lincoln’s vice-president, Andrew Johnson, rose to the presidency. Although Johnson attempted to continue Lincoln’s policy, he was unable to overcome the radicals, who controlled Congress and passed their own Reconstruction policy. The radicals almost removed Johnson from office, but the Senate voted against removing him by only one vote.

In order to protect Republican leaders who took over local Southern governments, the federal government placed Northern troops in the South. Many Southerners resented this new political system and remained devoutly loyal to their old traditions. Some of them joined the Ku Klux Klan, a secret society that used violence to keep blacks from trying to achieve equality.

During this period in the South, the state governments passed black codes that limited the rights of freedmen, essentially denying them all but second-class civil rights. Restrictions varied from state to state. These codes prevented blacks from gaining political and economic power; they could not vote, own guns, or serve on a jury. Some states forced them to sign one-year contracts to work, without which they could be arrested and sent to a plantation. Other states only allowed them to work as servants or as laborers on farms.

Concurrent with these black codes, the government passed three amendments to the Constitution meant to further the rights of blacks in America, including the Thirteenth Amendment (mentioned above), the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Fifteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment confirmed the citizenship of blacks, and the Fifteenth Amendment made it illegal to deny a person’s right to vote on the basis of race.

In the end, each Southern state was only readmitted to the Union when it agreed to follow all federal laws. Between 1866 and 1870, every Confederate state returned to the Union, although Reconstruction did not end until 1877 when federal troops left the South.

Even though Reconstruction attained some success, discrimination still existed and many Southerners reverted to the old social order based on white supremacy. Although blacks received more rights, including the right to attend public school systems, many historians wonder if Reconstruction would have been different if Abraham Lincoln had lived.

Answer 1

Based on the information presented in the journal entry, it seems that the author is discussing the issue of Reconstruction and the policies implemented to readmit Southern states to the Union after the Civil War. The author discusses the different views that emerged at the end of the war, with moderates favoring a more lenient approach, and radicals advocating for stricter punishment for the South.

The author also highlights the discriminatory laws and practices that existed during Reconstruction, such as the black codes that limited the rights of freedmen and the violence perpetrated by groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Despite some progress, discrimination persisted, and historians have questioned whether Reconstruction would have been more successful had Abraham Lincoln lived.

In terms of rules for the South to be readmitted to the Union, the author does not express a clear position. However, the journal entry provides information about the policies that were implemented, such as Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan and the Freedmen's Bureau, as well as the constitutional amendments that were passed to further the rights of blacks.

~~~Harsha~~~