Rebuilding the Government

Somebody ... | |

| Wanted ... | But ... | So ... |

President Abraham Lincoln | the nation to heal as quickly as possible from the Civil War and planned to reunify the nation quickly | he was assassinated in 1865 only days after Robert E. Lee’s surrender | plans for Reconstruction were taken over by Vice President Andrew Johnson, who became president after Lincoln’s death |

President Andrew Johnson | The country to reunite for presidential Reconstruction. | Congress passed the reconstruction act of 1867 which undo everything Johnson completed. | Johnson dismissed Stanton, once dismissed congress brought impeachment charges against Johnson. |

Radical Republicans | to control the south to prevent them from returning to its pre-civil war ways with the Wade-Davis bill | Lincoln didn’t want such a strict bill so he refused to sign it into law | the bill was automatically vetoed and prevented the bill from becoming a law |

Southern Democrats | To implement the “Black Codes” that prevented freed slaves from having their civil rights. | Congress passed the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which gave African Americans full citizenship and allowed them to vote. | Southern Democrats became furious with the Congress. |

Although the Civil War was over, the Republicans were divided on what action to take for the South. Radical Republicans wanted to punish the South. If I were a member of Congress, I would support Johnson’s plan for Reconstruction because the plan of the Radical Republicans would create a lot of tension as the forced slavery, which would just be a repeat of the same mistake. However, I would not allow the “Black Codes” to take effect since they treated colored freed slaves as if they were not citizens.