These issues were rebuilding the south, readmitting the southern states to the Union, and racial equality. Problems like these led to chaos in nearly every direction. In my opinion, you had too many problems to try to solve in too little time. There were also too many people you had to deal with. Let me give you a example of this: The Union wanted equal rights for African Americans, but a lot of the southern states passed Black Codes. These codes were as close to slavery as they could get. Stampp is an expert in Civil War history and is the
author of Indiana Politics during the Civil War, And the War Came, and The Peculiar Institution. He edited The Causes of the Civil War and was co-author of The American Experience.
Stampp calls himself a revisionist and I agree and disagree with him about naming his views like this. To start out his first chapter of The Era of Reconstruction 1865-1877, he named it "The Tragic Legend of Reconstruction." This signifies to me that he thought the Reconstruction was a disaster. In short, I get the feeling of his whole overview in that one chapter title.
The first problem I would like to address with Reconstruction is the treatment of the former Confederacy. In earlier
In Chapter II, Clemenceau conversed about the President versus Congress. They disagreed on nearly everything from politics to economics. On January 19, 1867 the first questions that led to an investigation by the Committee on Judicial Affairs to impeach President Johnson arose. Because of President Johnson's views against abolishing slavery or preserving the Union he was at odds with the Republican Party. These differences pulled the party together and helped them appear united. Clemenceau thought that the guilty verdict was inevitable. In the end, even the Democrats did not back President Johnson and he stood alone. President Andrew Johnson left office when his term ended in 1869 with the South despising him and Northern Republicans hating him for his views against Negroes.
Eugene Franklin Georges Clemenceau was born in 1841 in Vendee, France. He spent all of his childhood in the French countryside. He was trained as a doctor, but his republican views created controversy with the government of Napoleon III. He did not agree with Napoleon's governing so he did something about it, by moving to where he could have his opinion heard. In the fall of 1865, he landed in New York from a cruise liner. His first chore in America was to find John Stuart Hill, whose writings he wanted to translate to French. His attitude in New York was one of an observer. While in the United States, Clemenceau was a journalist and a teacher. He was a democratic idealist, and in those days these people would turn to America. Clemenceau turned here for a country of free institutions after the Civil War. In the latter part of 1868, he met a young lady only described as General Plummer's daughter of Springfield. Clemenceau and Miss Plummer were united in marriage at City Hall in New York on June 25, 1869. Not too long after getting married, they went back to Vendee, France. After the overthrow of Napoleon III, Clemenceau was mayor of Montmarte in Paris. In 1906, he became minister of the interior, just four years after being elected senator. Years before World War I, Clemenceau verbally attacked Germany at any chance and was pushing for military preparedness. In November 1917, he was premier and minister of war. After the war, he was defeated in the presidential election of 1920. He then retired to his hometown of Vendee. There he wrote, "In the Evening of My Thought," and "American Reconstruction," and some others.
In June 1869, the new president General Grant appointed black men to his administration. He practiced what he believed in the equality of all races. It was hoped General Grant would help ease the ill feelings caused by the Civil War.
The other book I chose was "American Reconstruction" by Georges Clemenceau. I prefer this book for one reason, it is a non-American's point of view. Another reason I chose this book is because it is a primary source. This is Clemenceau 's journal writings for 1865-1870.
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