Reconstruction Period
This is an excerpt from the paper...
In 1865, the American Civil War came to an end and the period of Reconstruction began. The purpose of Reconstruction was to restore the Southern states to the Union and to insure the rights of the recently freed blacks. From the start, the President and the Congress clashed over which branch of the government should have control of the Reconstruction process. This became an important issue which went beyond the concerns of Reconstruction itself. Specifically, the struggle between Congress and the Presidency was concerned with determining the relative power of the legislative and executive branches. During the course of Reconstruction, Congressional power became dominant in the U.S. government. This dominance was to continue throughout the Reconstruction period, until 1877. During the Civil War, President Lincoln declared a state of emergency and assumed many of the powers that had formerly been held by Congress. There were several occasions in which the President issued wartime orders "without waiting for authority from Congress" (Diamond, 1976, p. 198). Most of the members of Congress were opposed to this assumption of power by the Presidency. The strongest opponents were the so-called "Radical Republicans," who were led by Senator Charles Sumner and House Representative Thaddeus Stevens. Senator Sumner, for example, claimed that Congress had the exclusive power to "the exercise of the rights of war," and that the Presidency was "only the instrument of Congress"
. . .
een President Johnson and the Congress over Reconstruction issues. In addition to wanting to control the Reconstruction processes and thus keep the South from regaining power, Congress claimed that it had a Constitutional right to the control of those processes. The Constitution indicates that Congress has authority over the admission of new state governments. Therefore, in the eyes of the Congressional leaders, "the decision rested with Congress when and under what conditions the vanquished were to be readmitted into the Union" (Fribourg, 1972, p. 261).
Within two years of the Johnson Presidency, Congress had taken complete control over Reconstruction. This was accomplished by the passage of various legislative acts. Although Johnson usually tried to veto these new laws, he was continually outvoted by a majority in the Congress. In passing these laws, Congress hoped to achieve its basic goals of controlling Confederate power and protecting blacks in the South. In addition, these laws sought to centralize power in the national government rather than the states and "to locate that centralized authority in an omnipotent Congress to which executive and courts should be subordinate" (Beale, 1967, p. 211). In 1866, Congress es
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Andrew Johnson, Presidency Congress, Reconstruction Confederate, Congressional Reconstruction, Johnson Grant, Radical Republicans, Reconstruction Acts, Congress Reconstruction, President Congress, Congress Beale, control reconstruction, congress sought, readmitted union, diamond 1976, congress sought control, power presidency, sought control, president congress, keller 1977, confederate leaders, plan reconstruction, congress exclusive power, congress diamond 1976, diamond 1976 101, decision rested congress,
Approximate Word count = 1816
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Reconstruction Period
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
