Download WS009 Reconstruction part 1 - Milton

Reconstruction
If you were a parent, and one of your children ran away, what would
you do once the child had been returned? W ould you punish the
child to discourage him or her from running away again, or accept a
promise from the child that he or she wou ld never run away again?
Reconstruction
The month before the war ended, Lincoln began arguing with
members of Congress about how the Southern States should be
brought back into the Union. At the end of the war, Lincoln was
assassinated.
Lincoln’s vice -president, Andrew Johnson, was immediately
inaugurated and began the task of bringing the Southern states back
into the Union.
At this point, many of the men elected into Congress were Radical
Republicans. A Radical Republican was a group of members in
Congress that fought for equal rights for newly freed slaves and
wanted harsh rules for the Southern states.
So w hat do you think?
W hat is your plan f or what should be done for the Southerners who
rebelled against the United States ?
The Radical Republi can’s Plan for the Rebels freedoms
Southerners should be punished so they would not rebel again. One
idea was to confiscate (take away) all the plantations and divide up
the land among the freedmen.
Leaders of the South should lose their governmental pos itions. A
new set of leaders should be brought in to reconstruct the South.
Any person who held a leadership position before the war could not
hold public office until he is pardoned by Congress.
President Johnson’s Plan for the Rebels freedoms
Southerners had to take an oath to support, protect, and defend the
Constitution of the United States. The oath also included a promise
to obey all laws passed during the war, especially regarding the
freeing of the slaves.
Confederate officers, large landowners , and many other leaders of
the South, during the war, had to be pardoned is they wanted to
become citizens again.
So w hat do you think?
W hat is your plan f or what should be done for the Southern states’
rights who rebelled against the United States?
The Radical Republican’s Plan for the Southern States
Southern states had given up statehood be seceding from the union.
They needed to be punished for their actions.
In order for a Southern state to come back into the union, they
would have to meet the f ollowing requirements:
1) Call a Constitutional Convention
2) Guarantee African Americans full rights and freedoms
3) Give African Americans the right to vote.
4) Former Confederates are not allowed to vote in the Constitution.
The states would be ruled b y the military until all new laws were
enforced.
President Johnson’s Plan for the Southern States
Individuals of the Southern States, not the states themselves, had
made the decision to secede; therefore states should not be
punished so harshly for seces sion.
In order for a Southern state to come back into the union, they
would have to meet the following requirements:
1) Call a Constitutional Convention.
2) Get rid of secession.
3) Cancel all Confederate debts.
4) Approve the 13 t h Amendment, which abolis hed slavery.
Once these conditions were met, Southern states were allowed to
run their governments, elect officials, and send people to Congress.
So w hat do you think?
W hat is your plan f or what should be done for the Freedmen?
Freedmen: The name given for the former slaves after the Civil W ar.
The Radical Republican’s Plan for the Freedmen
African Americans should be given equal rights and the government
should help these people adjust to their new freedoms. Congress
should pass laws to give land to freedmen and help build schools for
them.
Freedmen should receive full rights as a citizen, including the right
to vote. The military should come in and make sure that these new
rights are being followed by all Southerners.
President Johnson’s Plan fo r the Freedmen
Equal rights for the Freedmen, should be entirely decided by the
state governments. If a state does not want to help the Freedmen,
or even recognize their citizenship, then that is up to the state.
African American citizens should not be a llowed to vote, unless they
can pass a reading and writing test.