...Lincoln’s vice president, Andrew Johnson. He was forced into a leading position during one of the nation’s most difficult times, the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, and received a lot of attention, mostly negative. Many suspected him of being very biased towards the South and this ultimately lead to a lot of conflict between Johnson and Congress. The Republicans of Congress at the time, mostly the Radicals, wanted to remove Johnson from office as soon as possible for a number of reasons. First, his plan for reconstruction after the Civil War was much too lenient towards the South. Johnson’s “laid back” plan gave many opportunities for Southern states to move around the rules because none of his terms were even requirements. States chose not to follow his...
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...President Andrew Johnson Although Andrew Johnson was from the Democratic Party, in 1864, Lincoln chose Johnson as his running mate under the National Union Party banner. When Lincoln died April 15, 1865, Johnson became president. He did not have a Vice President. Johnson now had the job of trying to heal the country after the Civil War left the country in ruins. President Andrew Johnson lifted himself out of extreme poverty to become President of the United States. He was a man with little education who climbed the political ladder and held many different high offices. As a strict constitutionalist, Johnson believed in limiting the powers of the federal government. President Johnson was one of the most bellicose Presidents who “fought” Congress, critics, and many others. President Andrew Johnson faced numerous problems post-Civil War Era including reconstructing the Southern states to combine peacefully with the Union, his battles with Congress, and his career ending impeachment. Following Lincoln’s tragic assassination, President Andrew Johnson took on the accountability of making Reconstruction a reality. Andrew Johnson wanted to use Lincoln’s ideas of reconstruction but in a modified form. Since Congress would be in recess for eight more months Johnson decided to go ahead with his plan. Johnson was initially left to devise a Reconstruction policy without legislative intervention, as Congress was not due to meet again until December 1865. Radical Republicans told the...
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...Johnson’s plan were more advanced than Lincoln’s and omitted the Confederates who owned taxable property in excess of $20,000 from the pardon. (Presidential Reconstruction, apstudynotes.org) These prosperous Southerners were the ones Johnson thought led the South into separation. Yet, these Confederates were able to petition him for individual pardons. Before the year was over, Johnson, who seemed to savor authority over the aristocrats who pled for his approval, had issued 13,000 pardons. (Presidential Reconstruction, apstudynotes.org) On December 6, 1865, Johnson broadcasted that the Southern states had met his requirements for Reconstruction and that in his belief the Union had become reestablished. (Presidential Reconstruction,...
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...Reconstruction • Lincoln dies - Andrew Johnson, a Southern Democrat, becomes president Johnson the Politician • Johnson owned a few slaves and defended slavery and "states' rights" • But he was a small time farmer who did not own slaves early in his life. • He got elected by protecting the rights of non-slaveholding yeoman farmers • He proposed the Homestead Act • But he cared more about the Union than he did about slavery, so when the South seceded, he was the only Southern senator to remain loyal to the Union • That is why the republicans chose him to be Lincoln’s vice-presidential candidate in the 1864 election, so that border states with large slave-holding populations would vote for the Republican candidate • But when Lincoln died, Johnson implemented his own Reconstruction Plan during the first 8 months of his term as president. (It was based on Lincoln’s “Ten Percent Plan”) Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan • Handed out thousands of pardons to Confederate soldiers and politicians • Enforced Lincoln’s plan to admit states if they ratified the 13th Amendment • Took back the land promised to the slaves of Edisto Island, South Carolina (“40 Acres and a Mule”) • But, Johnson's plan left rebuilding the South in the hands of the same people who controlled the Southern governments during slavery • “States Rights” , to Johnson, meant not just letting the South rebuild what the Union army destroyed...
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...President Andrew Johnson’s impeachment was the result of a political clash and the burst of belief systems in the fallout of the American Civil War. It emerged from uncompromised convictions and a challenge for power in a country fighting with reconsolidation. Before Abraham Lincoln was killed in 1865, he had defined a reconstruction plan that would be tolerant toward the vanquished South as it rejoined the Union. He wanted to concede a general reprieve to the individuals who promised a vow of reliability to the United States and consented to comply with every single government law relating to subjugation. Andrew Johnson was determined to doing this arrangement when he expected the administration. This strategy, on the other hand, did not...
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...slaves got revenge. When the masters were forced to tell their slaves that they were free, some slaves were suspicious but later they celebrated. Emancipated slaves took on journeys to test their freedom, find lost family, look for jobs, etc. The Freedmen's Bureau Know: Freedmen's Bureau, General Oliver O. Howard 3. Assess the effectiveness of the Freedmen's Bureau. It taught ~ 200,000 blacks how to read and many former slaves had a passion for learning. All generations wanted to learn. But it was less effective in other areas. The bureau was authorized to settle former slaves on 40 acre tracts but it was rare for blacks to actually get land. Labor contracts… Johnson: The Tailor President Know: Andrew Johnson 4. Explain the strengths and weaknesses of Andrew Johnson. Strengths: A misfit. A southerner who...
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...common ground between Northerners, who had suffered great loss in their victory, and the proud but beaten Southerners. Although General Robert E. Lee had surrendered southern forces and the government of the Confederacy crumbled, there were southern sympathizers who still refused to back down. They would not accept the war won victory of the North. Among these was a Maryland native and famed actor, John Wilkes Booth, who developed plans during the war to kidnap Lincoln and his advisors and hold them as bargaining chips. The end of the war did not quash Booth’s plans, in fact, it only strengthened and modified them. He blamed Lincoln for all that had befallen the south and conspired with a group of friends to kill Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of State William Seward and General Ulysses S. Grant on April 14, 1865. His cohorts did not complete their end of the plan, but on that night, Booth entered Lincoln’s box at Ford’s Theater and shot the 16th President in the head and changed the course of history. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth was not successful in protecting the South after the Civil War as Booth predicted; but instead, enraged Northern representatives in Congress, installed a new president who was unable to negotiate Lincoln’s envisioned moderate “restoration” of the South, and evoked a punitive “reconstruction” that would produce ill will between both sides for decades to come. Lincoln offered moderate terms...
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...During both the civil war and civil war reconstruction time periods, there were many changes going on in the Union. The Emancipation Proclamation, as well as legislation such as the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, was causing a new awakening of democracy; while the renouncing of secession by the South marked a definite triumph for Nationalism. As well, the government was involved in altercations of its own. During reconstruction, the legislative and executive branches eventually came to blows over the use of power. The nation was being altered by forces which caused, and later repaired, a broken Union. The first of these "forces", was the expansion of democracy. As early as 1862, Lincoln was taking a major step in that direction. On September 22, Lincoln announced the freeing of all slaves in areas not in Union control. Although the proclamation did not free all slaves everywhere, it was the action that would push Congress to pass the thirteenth amendment in 1865. The amendment, ratified later in 1865, stated that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude . . . shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." It seemed democracy had triumphed by giving freedom to slaves, but the amendment was not complete. It only stopped slavery, and made no provisions for citizenship; therefore, blacks were still not considered United States citizens. The fourteenth amendment was the democratic expansion ...
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...American activists who argued that racial segregation denied them the equal protection of law.” (History Channel) Even after the ratification many states still denied these citizens the right to vote which later was brought upon in the 15th amendment. () After the ratification was over with Congress then moved on to the next amendment even though the 14th amendment is still in dispute by many until this day. After Abraham Lincoln was assinated in 1865 Andrew Johnson was appointed as president of the United States. “Andrew Johnson was the President of the United States during the ratification of the 14th Amendment; he assumed the roles of the Presidency as a result of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.” () Andrew Johnson was not in favor of what the 14th amendement represented in giving African Americans their equal rights. “Johnson was in favor of leaving the future of black people in the hands of white Southerners.” () Andrew Johnson didn’t have a problem with voicing his opinion and how he felt about the Reconstruction Act, especially in a letter to his friend William Cullen Bryant. “The president grew much excited and expressed the most bitter hatred of the measure in all its parts, declaring that it was nothing but anarchy and chaos, that the people of the South, poor, quiet, unoffending, harmless, were to be trodden under foot "to protect niggers," that the States were already in the Union, that in no part of the country were life and property so safe as in the Southern...
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...The Reconstruction Era The Reconstruction Era was a rebuilding period in American history following the Civil War. After winning the war in 1865, the Union states began the exhausting process of reconstructing the United States, as well as each side's belief system. The two main goals of this era in American history was to ensure basic civil rights to former slaves, as well as reunite the North and the South to form one Union again. However, with each side having it's own agenda, accomplishing those goals proved to be quite a task. During the Reconstruction Era, several factions of American politics formed within the Republican and Democratic parties. The most noted include the Radical Republicans, Southern Conservatives, and the Southern Freedmen. Radical Republicans demanded extreme policies be put in place for Confederate states, and stressed the civil rights and liberties of former slaves. Although their agenda compared well to Lincoln's, the Radicals wanted to make re-entry into the Union a difficult one for the Confederate states. Another faction formed, the Southern Conservatives, believed the south would rise again to its former economic status, and wanted little to no rights for African-Americans. The last faction, the Southern Freedmen, saw the greatest success for ensuring the basic civil rights to former slaves. Made up of former slaves and supported by whites who believed African-Americans should have equal rights and civil liberties, the Freedman's Bureau, initiated...
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...Andrew Johnson had a lot of interesting things happen to him and his family in his life. He had family members die, had some rebellions, and even held many different official positions. In this paper I am going to tell you about how his life began and all the different things that happened, and about the offices he held. Andrew Johnson was born on December 29, 1808 in Raleigh, North Carolina, to his dad Jacob Johnson, and his mother Marry McDonough. He was born into a family that was in poverty. He also had a brother and a sister, but his sister died during her childhood. His father died when he was three, and his mom got remarried to Turner Doughtry. When Andrew Johnson was ten his mom sent him to be an apprentice to a tailor. He had to work...
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...there are times when he makes executive agreement that the Senate can do nothing about. There are also times when the president is impeached, which is the greatest of punishments when concerning the president. The president has many powers, both given by the Constitution and inferred. The president has a list of his powers and what he is allowed to do while in office. The Constitution itself gives the president his rights and boundaries. For instance, the president is allowed to be elected to a term for four years according to Article II of the Constitution. “He shall hold his office during the Term of four Years, together with the Vice President…” (Lawler, pg. 411) A follow up to this would be the 22nd Amendment which states that the president cannot be elected for more than two terms. “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice…” (Lawler, pg 422) This amendment was put into place after Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for and won the presidency three times in a row and Congress realized that there could be some people who would continue to run and perhaps win until they die in office. This could lead to a dictatorship and it is better to not risk it, just in case a president decides to take more power than he has. My point in this is that from the beginning the Founding Fathers were trying not to make the...
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...Social Gospel = liberal movement within American Protestantism that attempted to apply biblical teachings to problems associated with industrialization. It took form during the latter half of the 19th cent. under the leadership of Washington Gladden and Walter Rauschenbusch, who feared the isolation of religion from the working class. They believed in social progress and the essential goodness of humanity. The views of the Social Gospel movement were given formal expression in 1908 when the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America adopted what was later called "the social creed of the churches." Advocated in the creed were the abolition of child labor, better working conditions for women, one day off during the week, and the right of every worker to a living wage. With the rise of the organized labor movement in the early 20th cent. the Social Gospel movement lost much of its appeal as an independent force. However, many of its ideals were later embodied in the New Deal legislation of the 1930s New Nationalism was Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive political philosophy during the 1912 election. He made the case for what he called the New Nationalism in a speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, in August 1910. The central issue, he argued, was human welfare versus property rights. He insisted that only a powerful federal government could regulate the economy and guarantee social justice. Roosevelt believed that the concentration in industry was not necessarily bad, if the industry...
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...Sectionalism, Civil War, And Reconstruction. 1853 To 1877 1. Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854 – A Bill introduced by Steven Douglas to organize the Nebraska territory. He hoped to build a transcontinental railroad making Chicago the terminus, but they could not do this until the Indians were cleared away and the land was in control. Nebraska would presumably become a free state due to the Missouri Compromise but to please the South Douglas argued that the territories should be left open to popular sovereignty. Douglas pushed for the bill and won, therefore the Missouri Compromise was repealed and the North was in an uproar. 2. Birth of the Republican Party- Made up of former Free Soilers, Conscience Whigs, and “Anti-Nebraska” Democrats. Presented themselves as the party of freedom though they were not abolitionist, but they believed that slavery be kept out of the territories. The Republican Party appealed too many to voters who not only disagreed with slavery but also wanted to keep slavery out of their states. 3. Stephan A. Douglas- Known as the “Little Giant,” he was the most prominent spokesman of the Young American movement. He held a series of state offices before being elected for the United States Senate at the age of 29. Douglas wanted to get on with the development of the nation; to build railroads, acquire new territory, and expand trade. This made him suggest and push for the Kansas-Nebraska Act. 4. Popular Sovereignty- Also known as “squatter sovereignty,” the doctrine...
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...First African slaves brought to British America. 15. Virginia begins representative assembly – House of Burgesses 1620: Plymouth Colony is founded. - Mayflower Compact signed – agreed rule by majority • 1624 – New York founded by Dutch 1629: Mass. Bay founded – “City Upon a Hill” - Gov. Winthrop - Bi-cameral legislature, schools 1630: The Puritan Migration 1632: Maryland – for profit – proprietorship 1634 – Roger Williams banished from Mass. Bay Colony 1635: Connecticut founded 1636: Rhode Island is founded – by Roger Williams 23. Harvard College is founded • 1638 – Delaware founded – 1st church, 1st school • 1649 – Maryland Toleration Act – for Christains – latter repealed 1650-1696: The Navigation Acts are enacted by Parliament. - limited trade, put tax on items 1660 – Half Way Covenant – get people back into...
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