On April 9th, 1865 one of the Union generals, Grant, intercepted one of the Confederate’s generals, Lee at Appomattox. Lee with no other option surrendered. Although there were a number of Confederate armies who hadn’t surrendered yet this signaled the end of the war. This is where reconstruction began. Through the arguments and actions put forward by the Radicals, the newly freed slaves, and Andrew Jackson and Yeoman farmers, the reconstruction process through the late 1860’s and early 1870’s was a failure. It was a failure because government officials were not able to agree with one another or work together, it was almost impossible to enforce laws put in place, and African Americans were not given enough support.
While America was attempting to begin reconstruction most government officials refused to work together and agree with one another. The Radical Republicans wished to be much more strict on the confederates and readmission to the union versus the Yeomen farmers or the Northern Moderates. One example of these two sides not working together is the Wade-Davis Bill. In this bill the Republican’s wished to be much more strict on Confederates by requiring 50% of the population to take an oath of loyalty rather than Lincoln’s proposal of 10%. With disagreements like these it was very hard for anything to get done to further reconstruction process. Lincoln ended up pocket vetoing the bill so the congressmen would not be able to overrule the veto with a 2/3 vote because congress was not in session. Another example of this was in 1866 when the radical republicans in congress passed the Civil Rights Act but then President Andrew Johnson vetoed it. This was very counter-productive. Also the Radical Republicans refused to allow representatives of “restored” states or allow them to for their own reconstruction committees. The radicals may have thought of the reconstruction as success but President Johnson surely did not because he was impeached.
Another reason why the reconstruction was a failure was because there were no effective ways to enforce the laws put forward by congress or the president. There were always ideas of plans and people to carry them out but there were never the funds to execute the plan. One group that needed this was the Radical Republican party. They were in favor of black suffrage and they when the 13th amendment was passed they needed a way to enforce it. They wanted to put the military in the South to enforce this. At first this was tough because it cost a lot but then they ended organizing the south into military districts. An example of idea without adequate funding today is the “No Child Left Behind” plan. When Bush put this plan in effect it looked very good politically for him but almost no money went to fund this plan. As the great philosopher, Mr. Eschle, who has much wisdom says, “Strait cash homie.”
Another reason that reconstruction wasn’t very successful is because African Americans were not given much support. The radicals created the Freedmen’s Bureau. This bureau was created to help the slaves’ transition after the war. This idea was another thing that was a good idea and had a lot of support but was not given much money. One of the main groups in the South was Ku Klux Klan. They pledged to maintain white supremacy. They installed fear within blacks and whites that supported black rights. This slowed down the process it also deterred many blacks or republicans for running for office or even voting. Newly freed slaves thought of the reconstruction process as a complete failure. They technically had freedom but a lot ended up working for the same plantation owners for low wages because they had no other options. They were often fined for not having homes instead of being helped transition after the war. This created a never-ending cycle, which was not effective and slowed down the process of reconstruction greatly.
Because of the lack of agreement, the lack of power or money to carry out laws, and the lack of support given to African Americans the reconstruction process never made much process and was a complete failure. The only group that may have thought that reconstruction was successful was the Radicals. The freed slaves and President Andrew Johnson would definitely think of it as a failure.
