Congressional Radical Reconstruction After American Civil War

This thesis is aimed at probing into the process of the establishment and failure ofcongressional radical reconstruction after the Civil War of the United States, and expoundingon the divergent opinions between presidents and Congress, so as to analyze the majorobjective of radicals who stood for enduing the black people right to vote, to draw thecausations why congressional reconstruction failed, and to delve into the influences ofAmerica's political system on solving social realistic issues.The thesis consists of three parts: introduction, main body and conclusion.The first part mainly introduces the basis of selecting the subject and significance of thisresearch. It also includes a brief commentary on recent developments in American andChinese academic communities and explanations of related terms and questions.The main body is made up of three parts. The first part examines the establishmentprocedure of congressional radical reconstruction. The divergence on reconstruction betweenpresidents and congress mainly manifests in three aspects: the confine of rebels who cannotbe pardoned, the maintenance of freedmen's right and the guarantee of republican's politicaldominance. Congressional radicals proposed reconstruction policy out of moral principlesinstead of the economic interest of industry capitalists.The second part describes the policy of radical reconstruction being carried intoexecution and southern democrats revolted it with violence. Special emphasis is laid on theanalysis of why democrats did so from the traditional and cultural angles.The third part relates the failure of congressional radical reconstruction and analyzesreasons. They are as follows: the amounts of voter for Republic and Democratic Partychanged sharply due to two aspects, which are that a great deal of white republicans in thesouth seceded and a large number of ex-rebels resumed right to vote;republicansreconstruction government was not capable of resisting the violent offensive of democrats;thegovernments were lack of the support from the mass in the north;the use of army was limitedand congressional reconstruction conflicted with federal system. In short, congressionalgovernment's being incapable of protecting itself and insufficient supporting of federalgovernment led to the collapse of congressional radical government and the failure of itsreconstruction policy.The conclusion part sums up the whole paper, induces the reasons why congressionalradical reconstruction established and failed in the end, and inquires into the influences ofAmerica's political system on social issues through congressional reconstruction...