Question.1883 - In this essay, you will compare and contrast Reconstruction under both the executive branch and the legislative branch. This essay should address the reasons and legal arguments made by both branches to enforce Reconstruction, and what Reconstruction looked like under both branches. What should come across in this essay is a clear command for all the lessons and themeless of this unit.
Answer Below:
Introduction At the time of the Reconstruction in the United States after the Civil war, there were both executive and legislative branches that had their main role to play in bringing a proper shape to the nation that included different policies. This essay discuss this aspect in the transformative era at that time in the United States and different reasons that both the branches had put up to bring up Reconstruction and gives a picture of what Reconstruction was like under both branch followed by a conclusion. Executive Branch: It was under the President Lincoln and after him President Johnson, where there begun Presidential Reconstruction and under this the executive branch had shown a more tolerant than expected approach with respect to the Southern states. Lincoln had a 10% plan with the main aim of restoring it quickly by helping the Southern States to get readmitted (Tsesis, 2021). This was done after 10% of their total voting population had to be pledged loyalty towards the Union and this approach was taken further by Johnson after Lincoln got assassinated. The executive branch put more focus on state autonomy under Johnson and gave more importance to restore the state governments. This way had the main aim to provide to the Southern States good amount of autonomy so that they could understand their own path for getting back to Union. One aspect that was missing in the executive branch approach was limited protection in case of civil rights for the slaves (Onion, 2024). The policies put up by Johnson also did not take care of the racial inequalities that were there in the South and this gave rise to Black Codes and other type of discrimination. Some reasons and their legal arguments revolved around the constitutional authority where both the Presidents argued the fact that the constitutional authority was in their hand as the main head in that branch to manage the process of Reconstruction. Another main reason was preserving the Union as the Executive branch had the aim to mix the Southern States back in the Union with a belief that this was a good way to have reconciliation between the North and South. The Executive government especially under the Presidency of Johnson also prioritized state Autonomy and argued that the Southern States should get free enough to understand their way to join Union with new state governments being formed and new policies getting enacted (Wright, 2014). Legislative Branch: The legislative branch was headed by the Radical Republicans who did not follow the lenient approach like the executive branch and instead had a more confident to have their civil rights secured including political equality for the slaves who got free. They wanted to pull apart the overall power structure of the Southern States in order to take care of the systematic issues with regards to slavery and also racial discrimination. They passed different types of Reconstruction Acts between 1867 and 1868 and these divided the Southern states in the form of small military districts. With these types of acts, there were new state constitutions coming up that made sure that African Americans had the right to vote in elections and the Fourteenth Amendment had to be ratified in order to get readmission. There were different forms of civil rights laws that got passed by the legislative branch at the time of reconstruction like the Civil Rights Act 1866 or the Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871 where all these had the aim to protect the civil rights of the slaves who were free and stop racial violence with bringing up federal authority of South (Tsesis, 2021). Some reasons and their legal arguments revolved around prioritizing the civil rights protection and making political equality for the slaves that got free with a belief to make sure that the federal government got the responsibility to make sure the citizens rights were protected irrespective of the race factor. Further, they wanted to pass the ratification of constitutional amendments to make sure that the civil rights were secured with the thirteenth amendment cutting off slavery and the fourteenth amendment giving citizenship and equal protection to all the individuals and lastly fifteenth amendment giving protection of voting rights irrespective of race. The series of acts passed between 1867 and 1868 by the Legislative branch divided the south in the form of military districts and made sure that the African Americans had the civil rights protected (Onion, 2024). Conclusion To conclude, both executive and legislative branch had the aim to enforce Reconstruction where the former had a lenient approach and the later having more of confident approach and both the branches had their own means to this. In Executive branch, the main focus was on restoration of the state government and in the legislative branch, the focus was on protecting the civil rights and a federal authority in the South. References Tsesis, A. (2021). Enforcement of the Reconstruction Amendments. Law eCommons . Onion, A. (2024). Reconstruction. History . Wright, A. M. (2014). Constitutional Conflict and Congressional Oversight. Marqutte Law Review .More Articles From Literature
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