The Reconstruction Period In 1865, the American Civil War came to an end a

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." 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." The clash between t

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ident 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." 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." In 1866, Congress established the "Freedmen's Bureau" to help protect the c
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Approximate Word count = 1769
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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