When the Civil War came to a close on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Courthouse, it was obvious that making amends between the conflicting regions was going to be a difficult task. Reconstruction was a period plagued by conflict because there was no precedent or blueprints on how to deal with secession because the Founding Fathers never thought it would happen. There were several different ideas on how to go about Reconstruction, but they all conflicted with one another. I agree with these different plans by Lincoln, Johnson, and Congress to a certain extent, the Reconstruction policies were mediocre and could have been improved, Southern resistance was provoked but not justified, and lastly the most lasting impact of Reconstruction was the increase …show more content…
With Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan, it allowed the country to “forgive and forget”, which is what the country needed: to industrialize the country and unify both the North and South again. If Congress did not reject this plan, I think there would have been less tension because lingering on the aftermath of the Civil War gave way to Northerners to continue to mock and ridicule the South for losing. Lincoln’s plan could have decreased the amounts of tension and racial segregation because it would have stopped the South from continuing to feel unwanted in the Union and inferior. It only called for 10% loyalty in each state and for them to abolish slavery officially. However, Lincoln’s leniency could have been taken for granted as well. The South romanticized the Civil War into the “Lost Cause” and it allowed the Southerners to remain bitter towards the Union they already despised. I believe it could have been possible that the South would have risen up again against the North, if they were not punished. It is important to note that the Confederates only surrendered to the Union because they ran out of supplies and men, not because they lost the spirit and drive for independence. Therefore, it is a possibility that if the Ten Percent Plan was …show more content…
When the war ended, the South knew that slavery would be abolished, but they were not ready to accept it. The formation of the white supremacy group called the Ku Klux Klan is a reason why the South’s resistance will never be justified. Men in this group killed and terrorized blacks by using violence and they resorted to murder, if they deemed it necessary. This organization was provoked by the 13th Amendment, but their violent acts were cowardly. Violence should never have been used as a way to express dissatisfaction because it only propelled the country into an era of racism for nearly a hundred years. The Ku Klux Klan wore white masks to hide their identity, which shows they were obviously embarrassed by their actions and they knew what they were doing was wrong in every aspect. Another reason as to why the South was provoked was the government’s idea of turning the South into five military districts. In addition to that, Field Order Number 15 took land from whites in the South and redistributed to the freed blacks. Both of these orders gave the Ku Klux Klan and other organizations to make blacks the scapegoat and blame them for the reason why this was happening. Martial law propelled Southern whites to act hatefully because they wanted to fight back. Giving land to the blacks proved that whites and blacks were equal, which people like the KKK did not want to