American History: Post Civil War Reconstruction

The idea of Reconstruction sounds like an honest and noble plan, but the way it was carried out was a disaster. Instead of using freedom and equality, the very ideals the north stood for, Reconstruction was a coercive scheme to advance political agendas. Even with the direct efforts put forth by Presidents Lincoln and Johnson, Congress was able to morph Reconstruction to fit their own needs. One Reconstruction plan, which President Lincoln promoted, called for …

…was their duty to help and offer aid, but instead because of political agendas. At the time it was the thing to do because they had to mend relationships after the civil war, but after a while, their agenda was to fix the economy and get rid of the corruption in government. For those reasons, Reconstruction was a noble plan, but was tainted by self interest, greed, and politics which led it to be ineffective.