es of America, as the government tried to make those states united again. Following the assassination of the 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, the government was in a total state of disarray, and they were facing a challenge that surpassed that of any other, of reuniting and reconstructing the South. The Government was hoping that they could bring the states back together as a whole while satisfying the needs of the southern citizens, and keeping all the northern citizens happy with the way that the South was punished.
They failed at all three attempts. The government may have tried to reconstruct the South, but because of Andrew Johnson, all attempts were shot down due to his utter contempt for Congress and his love for his southern friends. Politically, Johnson failed as a President, economically, Johnson failed as a Southerner, and socially, Johnson failed as a Citizen. Andrew Johnson was nominated as vice-president of the United States in 1964, and took over the office of the President after the fateful death of Abraham Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth believed he was helping the South by assinating Lincoln.
In the end, it would turn out to have the exact opposite effect, as Johnson would take over the following morning. Andrew Johnson took over the Presidency with promises of trials and court-marshals and over-all, promised to punish the South for their rebellion. Only one Confederate soldier was hanged for the Civil War, and he was a leader of a southern war prison. The rest were pardoned with a blanket pardon. Andrew Johnson repealed bills that would have helped bring slaves back on their feet, such as the Freedmans Bureau bill, which would have extended the life of the Freedmans Bureau, which was an organization that helped former slaves find jobs, among other things. The slaves were given the right to vote, however to vote they had to b!e literate or follow what was known as the grandfather law, which allowed you to vote if your grandfather had voted.
Most blacks were separated from their grandfather at birth. Johnson was also lenient on his proposal which allowed Southern states back into the Union. He agreed on a bill that allowed women to own land, however, in the end, Andrew Johnson failed as a President of the States of America. He was the reason in the end the states were not united. The slaves were given their freedom after the end of the civil war, but when most learned the news in the crops and fields of their former owners, they smiled and went back to work. They were elated that they were now their own owners, that they most likely would never be beaten again, but they also probably realized that the most difficult struggles were ahead.
They now had to find jobs, clothing, shelter, family they had been split apart from. And the government did not help them, they reduced their chances of becoming Americans. America is the land of the free, but yet the government passed such laws as the Jim Crow laws, which put segregation into place and the black codes, which were limitations on the blacks so called freedom. The United States probably would have helped the slaves more if they had offered the slaves jobs on the plantations on which they worked, and demanded that the former slave owners pay them for a year, and that would be the Souths punishment. !But it was not to be, because Andrew Johnson failed as a Southerner and a President. Society is vicious, and the blacks would soon realize that as they came into their new settings.
The blacks realized that slavery had continued, but in a completely new fashion. Slavery to society. For the next 100 years, the blacks would fight for rights that they should have been given since day one. Whites did not accept blacks for such reasons as their race, their former occupation, because they were different, but I believe that blacks were not accepted because the government did not support them in any way. If the government had found them jobs, if they had given them equal rights in the first place, who knows how advanced society could be.
But because Andrew Johnson failed as a citizen, as a southerner, and as a President, America is 100 years behind other nations. After the Civil War ended, chaos engulfed the States of America, as the Government tried to make those states united again while satisfying the needs of the Southern citizens, and keeping all the northern citizens happy with the way that the South was punished. I feel they failed at all three attempts. Andrew Johnson should have never been given the vice-presidency, he should have been impeached, but most of all, the South, and the slaves, should have been treated fairly and with compassion that only one man knew.
Unfortunately, that man was assassinated by a Southerner who thought he was right. His mistake cost the United States of America more than it will ever comprehend.
