Reconstruction Essay By the time that the civil war came to an end the South was in shambles in just about every area imaginable. Many things were destroyed in the South, entire cities, farms and plantations were destroyed and left the South in much need of being rebuilt. The economy of the South was also very bad, inflation became such an issue that very simple items began to cost hundreds of dollars each and as a result many people died of starvation and couldn’t afford essential items. Taking all of this into account, by 1865 Washington had a pretty daunting task of rebuilding the South. Right after major victories in Gettysburg and Vicksburg in 1863 President Lincoln began putting his plan into action to reunify the North and the South. Lincoln was under belief that the South had never legally seceded from the Union so as a first act to get reconstruction under way he announced the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in 1863. Lincoln created another plan to move reconstruction forward and this was the Ten Percent Plan. The Ten Percent Plan specified that a Southern state could be readmitted to the Union after ten percent of its voters swore an oath of allegiance to the Union. This plan effectively and efficiently ended the war quickly although radical republicans clamored for a higher percentage of people to swear an oath to the Union. It was definitely a plan that enticed the South to surrender quickly. Similar to Lincoln, President Johnson wanted to get Reconstruction completed in a short amount of time. As President he helped return land that was taken from Southerners back to them and issued a lot of pardons to former Confederate officers and officials. Johnson also agreed that if each state accepted the thirteenth amendment which had abolished slavery, they would be able to rejoin the Union. Johnson deemed that Reconstruction was over in 1865. In 1866 congress passed the Civil Rights Act, this act guaranteed citizenship to all Americans regardless of race. This also gave former slaves the right to own property, sue and testify in court. President Johnson had actually vetoed this bill, but congress overrode his veto. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 did not bode over well for whites in the south, in reaction Southern legislature passed laws to restrict opportunities for blacks. The black codes ranged widely from place to place but were used as a tactic to prevent blacks from gaining any political power as blacks outnumbered whites in certain areas. During the election of 1866 Radical Republicans gained a lot of control of policy making in Congress, they would be able to put in to place congressional Reconstruction. They gained control over the House and the Senate, thus being able to override any veto that came their way from President Johnson. This new Congress wasted little time executing its plan for Congressional Reconstruction. The fourteenth amendment helped former slaves obtain citizenship and rights. This amendment also had to be ratified by Southern states in order to have representation. The Southern Republican Governments attempted to fix the problems that the civil war and the end of slavery had left behind. They were essential in rebuilding the Southern economy and Society. Agricultural production begins to come back and schooling was extended both to blacks and poor whites. The redeemers were usually white Democratic southerners who were looking to get rid of the Republican freedman, carpetbaggers and scalawags. This group of people also helped the southern democrats regain control of the south and discouraged and forcibly brought down blacks whom were seeking political power. Once all the southern states had become ‘redeemed’ all hope of the amendments congress had passed died as they largely went ignored in the south for a long time. The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant is often looked upon as one with a lot of scandal and mishaps. Grant hadn’t even been in office for a full year before his first scandal took place. Businessman Jay Gould and Jim Fisk had bribed people in Grant’s cabinet which allowed them to corner the gold market; these two men also got Grant not to release gold into the economy when they had a lot of it. The Credit Mobilier scandal was a scandal in which ex Union Pacific Railroad executives created a dummy company called Credit Mobilier. They contracted themselves out as track layers for this made up company and profited a lot. Grant Vice President was told to keep quiet and once the news broke it put a damper on Grant’s reputation. In the election of 1876 the republican candidate was Rutherford B. Hayes and he was running against the Democrats candidate Samuel J. Tilden. The electoral vote came down to 184 for Tilden and 165 for Hayes as there were 4 states that were disputed and that left 20 electoral votes and 185 were needed to win the election. The electoral commission was a temporary group created by congress in order to resolve the disputed states and determine the outcome of the election. The Commission had 15 members, 8 republicans and 7 democrats, these people voted according to party and Hayes was awarded the 20 remaining electoral votes and won the election. At first the result outraged Democrats, but they soon saw this as an opportunity for them to strike a bargain in order to let Hayes become President. With this the Compromise of 1877 took place, right after Hayes became President he withdrew the rest of the Federal Troops from Southern states, thus ending the Reconstruction era.