The period of Reconstruction

The period of Reconstruction is the era following the Civil War when the country set out to rebuild and to revive the economy of the devastated South. as the war ended, Lincoln faced the question of what to do with the states of the defeated Confederacy, an issue that elicited sharp disagreement among Northerners. Some felt that these states should make voters as well as freedmen of their slaves, and Lincoln said the important thing was to get these states back in their proper place in the Union. Lincoln was assassinated before he could do anything at all about the states of the Old South. Andrew Johnson, his successor, gave assurances that he would carry on with Lincoln's Reconstruction program, though he also gave the impression that he would deal more harshly than Lincoln would have with rebel leaders. The murder of Lincoln only added to that attitude. The path of Reconstruction showed the tensions between those who wanted to restore the South and those who wanted to punish it. The tensions would be seen as between Presidential Reconstruction and Radical Reconstruction under the direction of the so-called radical Republicans. Reconstruction can be considered a success in some of what it accomplished, but those accomplishments never reached the level desired by both Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, for the latter was thwarted time and again by the legislature.

Franklin and Moss cite Howard K. Beale to the effect that Reconstruction cannot be seen as a regional issue b

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in 1864 directed special Treasury agents to assume control of and lease abandoned lands and to provide these leases for the welfare of freedmen. The regulations were suspended after one month and the army placed back in charge, and subsequent legislation and actions only clouded the issue further. Lindsey finds that while Congressional action toward former slaves was fuzzy, its action toward Confederates was clearer. Congress had earlier adopted Treason and Conspiracies legislation, and to enforce these acts effectively, Congress required that jurors serving on Federal court juries take a loyalty oath. A stricter oath had been adopted by the second year of the war and applied to all Federal officials and employees. This was called the ironclad test oath, and it raised problems in administering Federal policies in the former Confederate states. By law, tax assessors, customs officials, and other appointed officers had to be chosen from residents of the local district concerned, but this made it difficult to find persons who could qualify under the ironclad test oath. The matter was complicated further by the ability of Lincoln, using his pardoning power, to authorize military commanders to grant pardon to those who took an

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