Essay on Presidential Reconstruction Vs Congressional Reconstruction

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Some differences and similarities came with the Wartime, Presidential, and Congressional Reconstruction. The wartime reconstruction took place from 1863-1865. The presidential reconstruction took place from 1865-1867. The congressional reconstruction took place in 1867.

The wartime reconstruction started in 1863 during the war (Shi 534). The person who was responsible for the wartime reconstruction was President Lincon, he believed that reconstruction during the war was a good decision, but Congress had different views on that. Lincoln’s main concern was unity within the nation. In December of 1863, Lincoln gave his proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. Lincoln’s purpose with this was to abolish slavery and bring peace (Shi 534). Congress responded to this by not agreeing with Lincoln, so Congress came up with their plan called the Wade Davis Bill in July of 1864 (Shi 535). What this did was raise the oath requirement to fifty percent, rather than ten percent which was what Lincoln came up with and it also guaranteed equality of freedmen (Shi 535). Just before Lincoln died he gave a speech where he stated that he was for black suffrage, around 1865 (Shi 535). Andrew Johnson took over when Lincoln died and he was the one who led the next reconstruction called the Presidential Reconstruction which took place in 1865 (Shi 536).

During the presidential reconstruction, Andrew Johnson had around the same views as Lincoln, but he was a little more lenient with the South. What Johnson had allowed for the South to do was reconstruct themselves. Due to no guidance or no one stopping the South on what to do, this caused a rise in inequality for the blacks, this was called the black codes. What the black codes did was they kept the blacks from voting, kept them from job opportunities, and limited some of their rights (Shi 583). These laws of inequality were noticed by the North and they thought they needed to come in and fix the South, which led to our next reconstruction called the Congressional Reconstruction that happened in 1867. The major difference between the presidential and congressional reconstruction is that the congressional reconstruction takes a more strict approach to change the South. When Congress came to help change the South they told them they needed to change their ways and laws before they were going to be let back into the union (Shi 540). With this congressional reconstruction, this is where the Fifteenth Amendment happened, which allowed all men to vote, this passed in the year 1870.

These are the differences and similarities between all three reconstructions. Overall the two that are most similar were the wartime and presidential reconstruction. That was because both of the people in charge of these reconstructions were very lenient on what they let the South do, but with that came issues. That led to the reconstruction that was mostly different from the other two, which was the congressional reconstruction. The major difference here was how strict this reconstruction was on the south, the south had no choice but to change their ways on how they were treated the black people.

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