Civil War Reconstruction

Success and Failure of Reconstruction

America had just endured the bloodiest war of its history. The American Civil War ended and the country had many problems to fix. Following the blood bath president Abraham Lincoln had many choices to make about how to fix our broken country. Due to his assassination his plan was never able to flower. With the sound of John Wilkes Booths deadly gunshot it sent the country backwards. It began an arduous process of piecing together a wounded nation, everyone had an opinion and no one knew which one was right. Reconstruction began and it was not easy but our country survived and grew together. During the time of reconstruction there many highs and some very low lows.
Republicans of this time period were looking to get out reconstruction by giving blacks and freed slave’s equal rights, the right to vote, education and the opportunity to earn money. I feel Abraham Lincoln would have accomplished some of these goals if he did not get assassinated. The Republican Party was split on how the country should be brought back up. Radicals wanted to punish the South for war crimes, while Lincoln and his vice president Andrew Johnson had a gentler lenient plan. The last words spoken by John Wilkes Booth was, “Now, by God! I'll put him through. That is the last speech he will ever make." Lincoln was giving a speech on black voting rights. Some people who felt the same way as Booth did in the country did not like the idea of equal opportunities for blacks because it was the most controversial idea of radical reconstruction. People who were angry about the way the country was going expressed themselves with violence. Groups such as the Klu-Klux Klan sprang up all over the south and began terrorizing the black population.  
With Johnson now the acting president, he had some enemies. Even though he was a Southern Democrat, most of the Southern Democrats did not like him. They felt like he was a traitor to the cause because of his actions...