The Period of 1860-1877

Aron McCusker

Mr. Nolan

APUSH

1/27/2018

DBQ Reconstruction

The period of 1860-1877 saw great change to the structure of America, and subsequently led to an increasing development of many country-wide issues. America’s reaction to these issues on both a constitutional and social level directly led to the boiling over of tension and the outbreak of revolution. Constitutional debates over states’ rights, civil rights, and Reconstruction, coupled with social developments like the KKK, forming national unity, and the Freedmen’s Bureau, America was driven to a revolution that reshaped the structure of the country entirely.

        Since the advent of the nation itself in 1776, and the drafting of the AOC as the first Constitution of the United States, America has slowly been traveling on a path towards the separation of ideas and polarization of social and political norms. From the political divide between antifederalists and federalists over the interpretations of the Constitution to the differing standpoints of Andrew Jackson and Nicholas Biddle over the BUS, the United States has had a history of controversy and resolution. The social, economic, and political atmosphere of the 19th century is developing such a controversy primarily regarding slavery, and as tensions rise around the topic, so does the probability of revolution [Contextualization].

Among the greatest of conflicts was the constitutional debate over the power of the federal government vs that of states’ rights. A debate that has existed since the drafting of the Constitution itself, the states’ rights issue began to boil during the early 1800s as it divided the North and South over the matters of tariffs and slavery. Some states, claiming certain federal laws were unconstitutional, would nullify them within their own state. 1860, however, saw the extent of this tension, as with the election of Lincoln, South Carolina drew upon the 10th Amendment (Powers not delegated to the US by the Constitution nor prohibited to the states, are reserved for the states) and seceded claiming the Federal Government impeded upon its reserved right to slavery [Doc A]. South Carolina was the product of a history of nullification, as in the nullification crisis in 1828 and 1833. Coupled with its rash history and the southern belief in states’ rights, resulting from their more liberal plantation economy, it was almost destined for South Carolina to secede [POV]. Agreement among other southern states began to form, and the secession of 10 more states ensued. This secession was only resolved after the end of the Civil War, and Congress passed the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment to clear the issue of slavery by freeing all slaves, as well as making it so that a state did not have the power to nullify a federal law. The end of the Civil War brought about the Reconstruction period, and other constitutional debates over the rights and fate of freedmen, which further brought into question the right of the federal government to grant civil rights and suffrage laws. Lincoln’s own Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, diarized that the right of the Federal Government does not pertain to state suffrage, and thus has and will not intervene in such matters [D]. Most of the newly reassumed South plead the 10th Amendment and claimed the Constitution did not allow such powers, thus hoping to assume them for themselves. However, in 1866 Congress made a move on the matter, overriding the veto of white-supremacist President Johnson, passing the Civil Rights Act which totally altered the state of America by declaring that all those born in America were now citizens [Doc F]. The South found itself almost entirely ignoring this act, as it still believed it was in their power to do so. Though a battled topic shortly after the Civil War, the debate over the actual power of the federal government was resolved officially in the passing of the 14th and 15th Amendments, declaring that all people would be equally protected under the law, and universal male suffrage. Though these outraged the South, and in many places, gave rise to radical racist groups, the three Civil Rights Amendments confirmed and solidified the constitutional power of the federal government, in this case playing off the idea that it was the duty of the federal government to protect all life and property, increasing its power [Doc H]. The power of the federal government to pass such legislation was made real as Thomas Mundy Peterson became the first ever African American to cast a vote on March 31, 1870 [Doc G].

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