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Governments have a tendency to struggle with enforcement of new legislature when there is a lack of determination for change. People don't like change, especially when it conflicts their way of life. This can be seen through the Compromise of 1877.  The Democrats did not believe in the Republican views on black rights and wanted to conform back to the old ways of the south. With Democrats later in full control, they changed the  beliefs in the government that had just been changed. No matter what is implicated in legislature, there will always be someone opposed who has the ability to disrupt the system. No matter what someone does there will always be someone with a different opinion which makes enforcement all the more difficult. Governments always have conflicting opinions which makes it difficult to solve injustices

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1. Write a well-supported argument that addresses at least two of those reasons in the course of answering the question:  Why did Reconstruction Fail?

1. Then, discuss this idea more generally.  What does the failure of Reconstruction tell us about why governments would fail to change behavior and solve injustices in society?

1. This is more of a "what do you think?" question.  What do the specifics of why Reconstruction failed tell you about the more general idea of why governments might fail to solve problems?

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The three major reasons reconstruction failed was the diminished desire for change after years of hardships, the debt left from the war and the attempts at reconstruction being costly, and the conflicting ideologies and plans between different people in power.

After the war, people were hit with major depression which contributed to the lack of determination to change. The Depression of 1873 crushed the nation’s already suffering laboring class and it also destroyed any remaining ideas and hopes the northerners had about Reconstruction.  This economic turmoil allowed the Democrats to take control of the House of Representatives after the 1874 elections, it weakened the legislature’s capacity to any longer direct Reconstruction. The depression left people weary and drained with no will to fight for the rebuilding of the broken country.

After years and years of spending money on different plans to help rebuild the mass destruction left over from the war, the plans that were implicated were extremely costly which contributed to even more debt. Ideas such as public work programs were good in theory but were ultimately unsuccessful because they were super expensive but did not help contribute to the greater good of the reconstruction. The railroads built alongside the Homestead Act, meant to open the West to small farmers, was often frustrated by railroad corporations and speculators. The Transcontinental Railroad, launched during the war, failed to produce substantial economic gains for years.

There was no agreed upon plans and there was always opposition to a plan in place/being created. the three main people in power all had different approaches to the attempt at reconstruction. Lincoln, Johnson, Hayes, and the Republicans all wanted reconstruction but all had different ideas about how to accomplish that goal. The Compromise of 1877 was an unwritten, informal deal that stated that President Hayes would pull all of the remaining troops out of the south. Once this became a reality and the troops started leaving the south the reconstruction of the south had no hope. The troops in the south were helping the reconstruction era and removing them left the south in ruins.This led to the retreatment from republicans and democrats. Republicans and Democrats responded to economic uncertainty by retreating from Reconstruction. The retreatment of the reconstruction left no desire for any other personnel to pick up and there was no determination to fix it

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Republicans and Democrats responded to economic uncertainty by retreating from Reconstruction.
The retreatment of the reconstruction left no desire for any other personnel to pick up and there was no determination to fix it

War-weary from a decade of military and political strife, so-called Stalwart Republicans turned from the idealism of civil rights to the practicality of economics and party politics. They won particular influence during Ulysses S. Grant’s first term as president (1868–1872). By the early 1870s, Stalwart Republicans assumed control of Republican Party politics

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The Depression of 1873 crushed the nation’s already suffering laboring class and it also destroyed any remaining ideas and hopes the northerners had about Reconstruction. This economic turmoil allowed the Democrats to take control of the House of Representatives after the 1874 elections, it weakened the legislature’s capacity to any longer direct Reconstruction. So by 1875, the Democrats in Mississippi devised the Mississippi Plan, a wave of violence designed to intimidate and suppress the black people. This led to Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican, winning the Ohio gubernatorial election without mentioning Reconstruction, he focused on fighting corruption and promoting economic recovery. Since the Democrats threatened to boycott Hayes’ inauguration, the Republicans reached out to the Democrats and came to an agreement known as the Compromise of 1877. The Compromise of 1877: Democrats conceded the presidency to Hayes on the condition that all remaining troops would be removed from the South and that the South would receive special economic favors. This compromise influenced the people to move forward, but the promises of Reconstruction were still unmet so it was overall, a failure.

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The Compromise of 1877 contributed to the failure of the reconstruction of the south. The Compromise of 1877 was an unwritten, informal deal that stated that president hayes would pull all of the remaining troops out of the south. Once this became a reality and the troops started leaving the south the reconstruction of the south had no hope. The troops in the south were helping the reconstruction era and removing them left the south in ruins.

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scroll down for section 4, why did reconstruction fail

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scroll down for section 4, why did reconstruction fail

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our 3 major reasons

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The passing of the 15th Amendment was a success because it allowed African American men to vote. This is another example of how colored people were making their way to having equal rights.

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the amendment granted achievements of black veterans, the voting rights protected by the amendment, the right to marry and establish families, the creation and protection of black churches, and the right to own and improve land. Unfortunately, many of these freedoms would be short-lived as the United States retreated from Reconstruction.

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The Freedmen's Bureau Acts was also a good idea, but while it may've been a good idea, many white Southerners (including President Andrew Johnson) were opposed to it and  challenged the Bureau's legitimacy, this sparked racial violence in the South and it led to the failure of the Bureau.

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The 14th Amendment was a success because it allowed for any African American born in the United States would be granted civil rights. This was the start of getting people of color equal rights.

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The railroads built alongside the Homestead Act, meant to open the West to small farmers, was often frustrated by railroad corporations and speculators. The Transcontinental Railroad, launched during the war, failed to produce substantial economic gains for years. The war years forged a close relationship between government and the business elite, a relationship that sometimes resulted in corruption and catastrophe, as it did when markets crashed on Black Friday, September 24, 1869. This new relationship created a political backlash, especially in the West and South, against Washington’s perceived eastern and industrial bias. Conflicts over emancipation and civil rights quickly gave way to long political conflict over the direction of American economic development.

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The Ten-Percent Plan was a good idea that Lincoln came up with but it failed once the republicans won majority of the congress and were able to change the plan that Lincoln had put in place.

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Medical and educational support for freed slaves and war refugees.

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granted citizenship and equal civil and legal rights to African Americans and slaves who had been emancipated after the American Civil War, including them under the umbrella phrase “all persons born or naturalized in the United States.” In all, the amendment comprises five sections, four of which began in 1866 as separate proposals that stalled in legislative process and were later amalgamated, along with a fifth enforcement section, into a single amendment

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Slaves of all ages now have freedom to have an education.

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A southern state could be readmitted into the Union once 10 percent of its voters (from the voter rolls for the election of 1860) swore an Oath Of Allegiance to the Union.

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- During Reconstruction, African Americans took advantage of their new freedom to go where they wanted.
- The majority of freed African Americans
who moved, however, were not just testing
their freedom. Thousands were eager to leave plantations that they associated with oppression and move to Southern towns and cities where they could find jobs.

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-Radicals and moderates joined to pass this act which did not recognize new state governments formed under Lincoln and Johnson.
-This allowed them to take control and re-write constitutions for each of the ten confederate states to return to apart of the Union.

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The Republican governments built roads, bridges, and railroads and established orphanages and institutions for the care of the mentally ill and disabled. They also created the first public school systems that most Southern states had ever had.

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-In the 1866 Congressional elections the Radical Republicans won over the democrats.
-This gave them two thirds majority in congress. This gave them the numbers to override the presidential veteos.

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We believe Lincolns plan would do the best job at restoring and rebuilding the south as it isn't as radical as Johnson's and the Republicans. Although Lincolns plan woud upset the radical revolution minority, they are minority in congress and shouldn't cause as strong of a disturbance as the others.

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None of these three plans are anything like our plan. Our plan is to take our time to rebuild the South. All of these plans were in favor of quick action but ours was to do it gradually so that it wasn't such a radical change that angered most of the people still damaged from the war.

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Provisions:
-In July 1864, the Radicals responded to the Ten-Percent Plan by passing the Wade-Davis Bill, which proposed that Congress, not the president, be responsible for Reconstruction. It also declared that for a state government to be formed, a majority, not just ten percent, of those eligible to vote in 1860 would have to

take a solemn oath to support the Constitution.

Strengths:
-The Radical Republicans were in favor of the abolishment of slavery.
-Some of them believed that freed slaves should have complete equality with white citizens.
-The Radicals wanted to destroy former slaveholders' political power.
-They also wanted African Americans to be given full citizenship and the right to vote, so it'd be a huge step for the former slaves.
-The Radical Republicans looked for ways on how they could impeach President Johnson since "Johnson vetoed the Reconstruction Act of 1867 because he believed it was in conflict with the Constitution".
-They were able to pass the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments.

Weaknesses:
- The southern economy was still left in a shambles.
-Poor white and black citizens often became sharecroppers.
-Resentment led to terrorism, Jim Crow laws, and the Ku Klux Kan.

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The Three Plans For The Reconstruction Of The South

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The Three Plans For The Reconstruction Of The South

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Strengths:
- Johnson supported states rights instead of a strong central government which reassured the southern states
- supported abolition
- believes that the amendment treated former confederate leaders too harshly and that it was wrong to force states to accept an amendment that their legislators had no part in drafting.

Weakness:
- President Johnson opposed the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment and vetoed the Civil Rights Act.

- He hated wealthy southerners who he held responsible for dragging poor whites into the war.

- expressed his intent to harshly deal with Confederate Leaders

- Southerners saw him as a traitor to them

- Johnson wished to prevent most high ranking confederates and wealthy southern landowners from taking the oath  needed got voting privileges. Most upset because he failed to acknowledge the needs of former slaves, land, voting, protection.

- "white men alone must manage the south"

- he was impeached for not carrying out his constitutional obligation to enforce the reconstruction act.

- removed military personnels who enforced the act

- Johnson, a states’-rights, strict-constructionist, and unapologetic racist from Tennessee, offered southern states a quick restoration into the Union. His Reconstruction plan required provisional southern governments to void their ordinances of secession, repudiate their Confederate debts, and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. On all other matters, the conventions could do what they wanted with no federal interference. He pardoned all southerners engaged in the rebellion with the exception of wealthy planters who possessed more than $20,000 in property

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-Lincoln wanted to make the South's return to the Union quick and easy.
-The ten-percent plan would pardon confederates who would swear allegiance to the Union.
-After ten-percent of those on the 1860 voting list took the allegiance then a new confederate state government could be formed and be recognized by congress.

-The benefits to this plan would be rebuilding a stronger state government, forming an allegiance with confederate states, and allow for the South to then get the help they need to rebuild.

-The weakness to this plan has to do with the Radical Republicans. When Lincoln announced this plan they were furious and they proposed a bill that would cut Lincoln out of the reconstruction of the South and let congress handle it.

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Owen Pettit, Kathleen Condos, Bella Szabo

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Owen Pettit, Kathleen Condos, Bella Szabo