Despite the Union victory that resulted in the liberation of more than four million slaves in the United States of America, Reconstruction arguably to many historians could be largely considered a failure due to the fact that the struggle between the Union and the Confederacy that resulted in a war shifted from a conflict on the field to a conflict within the political agenda, yet despite the outcome and setbacks of the Reconstruction, when one analyzes the period in full detail, he or she is able to note that there’s an equal amount of successes and failures that came about from the era of Reconstruction after the Civil War.
The reason as to why Reconstruction can be considered such a failure can be rooted in the division among the federal government on a solid plan for rebuilding the torn Union that was awaiting to be pieced back together. Although President Abraham Lincoln proposed the 10 percent plan which at the time was a generally lenient plan that would easily allow for the Southern States to rejoin the Union, being as he was assassinated five days after the end of the Civil War, his vice-president then came into power which interrupted the flow of President Lincoln’s Reconstruction plan. President Andrew Johnson who himself was a former slave owner, immediately enacted his own plan for Reconstruction during his presidency which would allow for the pardon of wealthy plantation owners into the Union once again. During Johnson’s time in office, many influential Confederate leaders such as Alexander H. Stephens, who was the Vice President of the Confederacy, were able to gain seats in office. Now if one were to think about the whole reason as to why the Civil War occurred, it essentially beat the purpose of the whole war if Confederate leaders were to be elected into office. With the passing of the Black Codes in the South during President Johnson’s term, the now emancipated African Americans had to abide by harsh laws that regulated their every move. When forming the codes, Southern officials were attempting to suppress the newfound freedom that were bestowed upon the freedmen in the 13th Amendment by creating a strikingly parallel structure to that of the Slave Codes (Costly, 2018). Following Andrew Johnson’s term, Ulysses S. Grant’s presidency which lasted for two terms, could be described as a time in which the Republican party was corrupt due to the involvement of many scandals that occurred such as Black Friday, the New York Custom House Ring, the Whiskey Ring, and etc (Amyx, Raleigh Degeer, Scandals of Ulysses S. Grant). During his presidency, President Grant enacted the third Reconstruction plan that was known as the Reconstruction Act of 1867. In this act, the South was able to be divided into five military districts, and within each district that was placed under military rule, elections were strictly held with voting that was allowed by Congress' approved voters (Which consisted of freedmen and poor whites). Then through this act, each state was also to ratify and enforce the 13th and 14th amendments after drafting new state constitutions (Study.com, 2018). Yet with this positive push towards a betterment for the freedmen’s condition, the following president, Rutherford Hayes removed the Reconstruction Act of 1867 and never presented America with another Reconstruction act. Coincidentally, just before Rutherford Hayes was elected president, at the National Republican Convention of 1876, Frederic Douglass challenged the delegates on what they had and hadn’t done for the Reconstruction. With the removal of the Act, the freedmen no longer were protected and with that, racially charged groups such as the White League and the Ku Klux Klan emerged and began to antagonize and intimidate freedmen in order to limit their newly given rights that they had just received, such as suffrage. With the restriction that were imposed upon the freedmen from many racially charged groups also brought the call for the Jim Crow laws. In the Jim Crow law, African Americans were to be segregated from the whites and also gave the right to whites to be able to physically attack anyone that is of color. As Frederic Douglass said, the reconstruction policies were “radically defective” and by saying that in 1880 nearly 4 years after his speech at the Republican Convention of 1876, he offered a critique on the freedom and citizenship that had been offered to the freedmen of the Union, he furthers his message of the cruelty behind the lack of growth in the Reconstruction by illustrating the idea of the lack of protection against violence or intimidation that the freedmen must endure even “after having been freed from the slaveholder’s lash, he is to be subject to the slaveholder’s shotgun. The question now is do you mean to make good to us the promises in the Constitution?” Frederic Douglass presents the question as to whether America will ever truly live up to its promises that all men were created equal, but with this question, one must recognize the advances
that has been made in the nation (Eric Foner, 2015).
Yet despite all the failures and mishaps that the Reconstruction presented during its time, it would be unjust to shy away and ignore the many possibilities that the Reconstruction opened for America. During this period, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment were granted to the American citizens which all touched basis on slavery, rights of citizens, and suffrage. Even though laws such as the Black Codes and Jim Crow laws existed to reprimand the African Americans of the 14th amendment, they were now able to even be considered citizens of America and not just “property” as it was believed before as seen in the Dred Scott v. Sanford ruling. And although there were numerous amounts of groups and tactics that attempted to overshadow the 15th amendment by presenting literacy tests, poll taxes, and intimidation, being able to have the 15th amendment can be seen as a step forward for the movement of racial equality between those of color and whites. With the abolitionist movement during and before the Civil War, many supporters were females themselves whom advocated for women suffrage rights, and even though the women of the time didn’t receive suffrage rights at the same time as African American males, it only motivated the women to speak out more on the issue of equality involving suffrage. And one must not forget that because of Reconstruction, it also became possible to spread education to the South and for freemen to hold office, and an example of this case would be of Hiram Revels. Revels for his time was considered to be the first freeman to hold a seat in both Senate and the House.
More than a hundred years after the Reconstruction, there’s still has been an influential mark and impact that has been reflected on the many issues we still face today in American politics (Eric Foner, 2015). With questions being asked such as who truly is an American citizen, and what rights come with being an American citizen? And as Frederic Douglass presented himself challenging the Republican delegates, what are the promises of the constitution? Whether Reconstruction is seen as a failure or a success, there is without a doubt that this period of history is still deeply engraved in our roots and we are to accept what occurred and learn from it.