From: Jack D. Drummond
Date: 4/25/00
Time: 12:15:45 AM
Remote Name: 216.59.55.200
In order to ensure a speedy national recovery, the Southern states ended up faring pretty well under the terms of Reconstruction. However, things were not looking too good for the South following the assassination of Lincoln. While Lincoln had plans for “malice toward none and charity for all,” it was feared that Andrew Johnson would be a lot more likely to punish ex-Confederates. He had a reputation as a champion of the people, and a deep dislike for the plantation system in the South. However, his hardline stance on the South was weakened by the fact that he pardoned many ex-Confederates who came to him “hat in hand”, seeking amnesty. Because of this, many ex-Confederates were allowed to remain in power where they would have otherwise been tried as traitors and punished. However, the main reason the South got off so easily in Reconstruction was because it was felt that a more liberal plan of action would get the Union back on its feet much more quickly. There were Radical Republicans like Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens who wished to see the South under military rule, with land being redistributed to freedmen. However, these plans not only would have created bitterness in the South, but they also were at odds with the American traditions of federalism and the regard for property rights. Also, many of the concessions made to the South came at the expense of blacks, which helped preserve the Southern way of life. When all was said and done, most freedman had no other choice but to go back to work for their former masters to sustain a quality of life that wasn’t much better than what they had known in slavery. In all, while there were injustices, inconsistencies and inequalities in the treatment of the South during Reconstruction, at the time preserving the Union was more important to the country than punishing ex-Confederates.