The restoration era in the United States was characterized by three major amendments. These are the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments of the United States' supreme constitution (Graber 12). The three constitutional amendments discussed the problems of slavery, civil freedom, and citizenship. The conservative republicans never had any acceptable motivations, and they never used the most inclusive means to accomplish their aims (Graber 12). However, history has vindicated the contentious constitutional amendments intended to give rights to freed slaves and has aided in the establishment of one of the world's strongest democratic nations. In this paper, the contribution of President Andrew Johnson in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments will be analyzed.
The Thirteenth Amendment
Slow abolition of slavery started immediately after the Pennsylvania Revolution, and for around 100 years, different states prohibited the practice of slavery or kicked-off a gradual elimination. The 1863 emancipation proclamation was a landmark announcement as it granted freedom to slaves in all defiant states (Graber 12). However, this did not include the lands within the union borders liked Maryland and Missouri. Besides, by the conclusion of the civil war in 1865 slavery was not strictly unconstitutional. But, the Thirteenth enactment on December, 6th, 1865 provided a constitutional illegality of slave keeping (Graber 12).
The Fourteenth Amendment
The Congress passed the 14th amendment when prominent Republican legislators were conflicting with President Andrew Johnson on the best way to handle the southern states from the former Confederacy after the end of the civil war (Bartley 473). Johnson’s approach was lenient, whereas the Congress was a pro-strict control on the lands which had staged a battle against it. The 14th amendment was tremendous in the quest to grant the freed slaves equal rights like any other U.S citizen (Bartley 473). The ratification of this amendment clarified that from then henceforth, no individual in the United States, even the president or the Supreme court judge could deny a black person citizenship based on color (Bartley 473).
Post-Lincoln reconstruction
The assassination of Lincoln apparently granted the radical Republicans in the Congress an open channel they yearned for to enact their reconstruction plan. The incoming president, Andrew Johnson appeared supportive of disciplinary steps against the southerners in the past: he did not work with the southern planter elites and held a view that they were the influential proponents of the civil war (Maltz 273). He frustrated the attempts of the radical southerners of enacting punitive laws.
Johnson, a leader of the Democratic Party stood for a stronger executive and held a laissez-faire doctrine which postulated that federal authorities should stay off the economic activities of its subjects (Maltz 273). Johnson stood firm with his perspective that state rights were supreme to the central administration and rejected all legislations which hampered the American economy. He disapproved all attempts by radical Republicans to do away with the plantation framework, restructure the economic set-up of the south and safeguard the civil rights of black people (Maltz 273).
Even though President Johnson was in disagreement with elites from the south, his moves suggested otherwise: he exonerated many people than any American head of state before him, and the majority of those forgiven were wealthy southern landowners (Maltz 273). Further, he held the same southern aristocrats’ perspective that the freed slaves should not enjoy the same rights as their white counterparts in the union. Johnson was against the Freedmen’s bureau because he believed that approaching former slaves for exceptional aid would hurt the south (Maltz 273).
The presidential reconstruction
President Johnson had the same ambition as Lincoln of restoring the union in the shortest time possible. He started his plans when the Congress was in the recess which was later dubbed, the presidential reconstruction (Maltz 273). Johnson gave back the confiscated property to the white southerners, granted amnesty to former Confederate leaders, and dismantled the freedmen’s bureau by commanding them to surrender all confiscated land to the owners (Maltz 273). Besides, he chose governors to oversee the formulation of the new state supreme laws and agreed to welcome back each state under the precondition that it approved the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed slavery. Believing that reconstruction would be complete by the time the congress started its business in a few months; he announced the end of restoration by the close of 1865 (Maltz 273).
Reconstruction joint committee
The planning and implementation of the reconstruction work in the south without the approval of the Congress did not go well with the moderate and radical Republicans. Johnson did not guarantee security to the freed slaves, and his amnesty provided loopholes to the wealthy southern landowners who were in power before to administer state governments again (Maltz 273). To counter the presidential reconstruction, the Congress assembled a joint reconstruction committee to enact stricter conditions for bringing back the southern states (Maltz 273).
Conclusion
The first two years after reconstruction witnessed southern states amend their constitutions and the approval of the Fourteenth Amendment. The congress took full control, but President Johnson was the barrier to its operations. To remove the obstacle, the radical congressmen applied a constitutional provision to get him out of power and in the wake of 1868 spring, Johnson was impeached and became the first American head of state to leave power through impeachment.
Works cited
Bartley, Abel A. "The Fourteenth Amendment: The Great Equalizer of the American People." Akron L. Rev. 36 (2002): 473.
Graber, Mark A. "Plus or Minus One: The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments." Md. L. Rev. 71 (2011): 12.
Maltz, Earl M. "Moving Beyond Race: The Joint Committee on Reconstruction and the Drafting of the Fourteenth Amendment." Hastings Const. LQ 42 (2014): 287.
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