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Reconstructing a Nation, 1865-1877
Overview
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Reconstructing the Union and the nation’s political economy presented many questions and few answers. What labor system would replace slavery? How would states be readmitted to the Union? What civil and political rights would freed men and women have? Because there was no plan in place at the end of the war, many options were tried. With Lincoln’s assassination, Vice President Andrew Johnson became president. A man who possessed neither flexibility nor good humor, Jackson was committed to limited government and resisted Republican plans to use federal power to help freed people. He also had no sympathy for African Americans. His reconstruction plans failed miserably. The result of the election of 1866 marked the end of Presidential Reconstruction. Congressional Reconstruction prevailed and this time an even more Radical Congress took power. The Republicans backed away from Radical Reconstruction in part because voters seemed to be tiring of the topic. The Republicans portrayed themselves as the party of moderation especially when compared to the Democrats who, according to the Republicans, represented extremism and continued disruption. Reconstruction politics affected Northerners in ways that were not predicted. White feminists asked why they were denied the right to vote while black male freed slaves were guaranteed the same right. The alliance between abolitionists and feminists in the North was disrupted. Northern workers also protested. Reconstruction came to an end because voters reacted to political corruption in both regions of the country. Equally influential, however, was an economic depression and a new round of electoral violence. The Republicans rallied around a political bargain instead of around a determination to enforce Reconstruction.
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