Reconstruction as Argued Upon by Booker T. Washington - Essay Example

According to Washington, reconstruction had a serious challenge in its attempt to establish freedom. In the modern era, the procedures of putting an end to war involved a simple method whereby representatives from the warring parties would sit together in a round table and discuss measures to take in order to achieve peace. This depended on things like intensity and duration of war and reasons for fighting thereby, settlements regarding peace would range form harsh to generous. In case of a harsh resolution, the assumption was that these parties would again meet in the battlefield.

Regarding America’s civil war, resolution of such kind were impossible as people regarded the warring parties that is, the Union and the Confederacy as unequal. This is because Unions accused Confederacy of their right to exist as a separate nation (57). Having ended the Confederacy’s political independence claim, the Unions perceived that, no any other party that they could negotiate with anything regarding peace. Therefore, they left it to the federal government to decide on how to treat the defeated Confederates.

Washington points out that President Lincoln had proposed an end to civil war in the midst of it. Nevertheless, it worth noting that reconstruction began sometimes prior the war in 1860 when Crittenden Committee attempted to sort for comprise that would reverse the secession course. The committee proposed Constitutional amendments that guaranteed continuum of slavery in areas where it already existed. However, all these attempts were bound to bear no fruits in response to the prevailing mood in the South.

Following victories in Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga, President Lincoln hoped that the Confederates would find it reasonable to join the Union if presented with generous terms. In December 1863, he presented an Amnesty and Reconstruction Proclamation stating that those states whose ten percent of their 1860 electorates would swear a loyalty oath to Union and accept to emancipation would get readmission. However, the Congress did not approve of Lincoln’s strategy and responded with a much harsher approach.

As Washington puts across that, President Lincoln did not stop his idea of trying to treat the Southerners with generosity. In fact, his second Inaugural Address famously perceived for the inscription on Lincoln Memorial’s wall in Washington in which kind words without malice encouraged treatment with charity and firmness in the right. After Lee surrendered at Appomattox, he again, President Lincoln outlined his plan of generosity for reconstruction. Nonetheless, April 14, 1865 President Lincoln was shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth and died in the morning of the following day.

Booth, an actor from Virginia blamed his action on egregious South’s defeat. With his assassination, hopes for a more lenient reconstruction suffered a fatal blow and brought a chilling effect on potential sympathy for the South. With Lincoln dead, Vice President Andrew Johnson accessed the presidency seat according to the Constitution. Apparently, Johnson intended to carry forward generous reconstruction policies when he carried a distinct animus towards the Southern planting class who were rich.

Johnson’