This Week in Reconstruction, January 1-7, 1867

This Week in Reconstruction, January 1-7, 1867

Being only a little over a year since the war ended, the North and South and still conflicting and arguing. The main question during this period is how the South will be incorporated back into the Union and create the nation that once was. Senator Wade of Ohio feels very strongly towards the fact that the South betrayed the country and they should be punished rightfully. He thinks if they want to be reinstated into the United States again, they should have no input in their rights and governments. He still believes that Southern democrats are filled with insecurity and perjury, but he will accept their return if they can prove their loyalty. He states, "And the Congress of the United States is the Congress of the North; and its express will is "what the North wants us to do," and therefore the supreme law." One of the biggest questions if the Southern States are readmitted, is what rights they will be allowed and what rights they will be stripped. This has caused a division among Congressmen in the North. Some believe that if they are going to be a part of this country they should be treated like normal citizens. The Radicals believe that any white man that pledged loyalty to the Confederacy should be disenfranchised with very limited rights. Thaddeus Stevens proposed a bill that would follow through with the idea of disenfranchising any man who pledges allegiance to the Confederacy. One Congressman counters this, saying that would be unethical and illogical because that would include almost any adult male of the South. The paper states, "Thad. is evidently not aware that there was a wholesale swearing off that kind done here during the war. Mechanics, officers, laborers, clerks, and all, including a good many now claiming to be loyalists, took that oath at one time or another."

January 1-7, 1867

Walker Black

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