Rizwan Alam

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A.P.U.S.History
Analyze the social, economic, and political problems facing the nation after the
Civil War.

The Civil War was perhaps the most momentous event in American history. The
survival of the United States as one nation was at risk and on the outcome of the
war depended the nation's ability to bring to reality the ideals of liberty,
equality, justice, and human dignity. Right after the conclusion of the war,
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, which brought America to depression and added
scorn towards each other, which led to the slow process of reconstruction. Despite
both sides involved in the bloodshed of the whole nation, South and North faced
many more problems after the War. After the Civil War it was not obscure to see
the unbalance in the economy, but after the unfortunate event of Lincoln’s
assassination, the nation’s political stand was weakened and the level of power
was unbalance, these two effects of civil war obviously shaped many changes in the
community as well.

The war was over and men returned, one side with glory of victory, and the
other the sorrow of defeat, one with satisfying mind, other with anger. There were
many other feelings involved, the widows and the orphans on street, in fact one
historian said, “ Outcome of the war was more horrific and harder to swallow then
the bloodshed and hard work of men spent on the war. South was not satisfied at
all, and to their deprivation, they soon were seen as the low and treasonous part
of the nation by the scornful looks of rich northerner’s. People in the north had
the government on their side and on the other hand South’s government was put in
prison for treason. The unbalance in the nation, especially in South, was making
many people corrupt and violent towards each other; the nation was not moving
together or even towards each other. The white southerners started relying on
black codes and re enslaved the newly free blacks, they states reasons such as,
the local town, city, or state has to vote upon a thing for it to be ruled.
Northerners started to question themselves like, did we actually won? Hatred
towards Blacks also was active in North, but their bad deeds were overlooked by
the Southerners and Southerner’s bad deeds in a sense helped the Northerners to
decide who they want to be with, let the war be of no means or support the blacks
just to feel that they actually accomplished something in the war. Northerners we
acting very bossy on the treasonous Southerners, they even taught their
generations of the difference between them and the Southerners. The Blacks still
were satisfied with at least the taste of freedom, and took this as a blessing and
started to adapt and learn the white’s way of life, most though, due to extreme
economic problems, considered praying day and night and be in church day in and
day out. Besides many changes happening right after the war, the most tasteful or
the one making rapid change was, the women movements. Although many women were
unemployed after their men came back from the war, many widow women were employed
because of brutal occurring regarding the death of their companion. The nation was
very satisfied and started to respect its women due to its support and brave
hearts to lend their men and then work to keep the nation moving smoothly. This
love, care, and patriotism towards nation made the men think and be a little
lenient on them and let them be active outside of the house.

Money during the war was spent as much as the bloodshed of millions of men.
Even though the war brought great instability towards the economy, it wasn’t the
dominant reason for it. The many people migrating t the rich area of the nation
was one of the biggest if not the biggest, conclusion to the description of the
instability in the economy of the nation. But the biggest reasons that actually
lead to the depression of 1873, might have been corruption, lack hard work put in
by the government, and lack of security for nation’s citizens. South’s gold and
its way of life was burned and their economy was desperately seeking a solutions
towards its crippled economy. Corruption was not only seen in politicians or huge
figures at the time, but it was common to an extent, that police or community
security groups took stealing as a little break of law. Blacks were also hit badly
and horrifically with this depressions. They already had no savings, most slept on
streets or looked for their owners and adapted slave life in exchange for a place
of living and a meal to eat. Many people were getting sick, diseases were
spreading due to ongoing migration from Europe to America, and most just felt
hopeless and were not getting the quality of life they had hoped for after the
Civil War. This was causing some to unite, some to take the easy way out, by
cheating, stealing, or being corrupt, which only hurt the nation, some looked to
be religious. The industries were harmed substantially by it, and therefore could
not provide enough jobs to the people. Unemployment, depression, stress,
corruption, helpless, horrific, violence, and second thoughts of God’s existence,
were all the factors majority of the people had to go through between, 1860-1878.

Politics were greatly influenced and effected by the Civil War. The three
branches were never on the same page, it seemed like three different nations, on
the other hand they were as corrupt and as they had ever been. After Lincoln’s
death, Andrew Johnson took over and changed some of Lincoln’s plans which led to
the expected slow process of reconstruction. Andrew Johnson took everything slowly
and made some changes, but he could not satisfy and come across the many problems
occurring in the nation. Because of people constantly looking for change, and
their belief in a military leader being able to lead the country, and the fact
that the congress was filled with republicans, the election of 1868 turned against
Andrew Johnson and towards lazy but victorious Grant. Most historians now-a-days,
after analyzing and concentrating on Grant, believe that he could not lead any
nation, granted it was the most complex years in American history, and connecting
sea to sea yet again was a hard task to accomplish, and Grant was the worst
prospect for it. But Grant not only served the country for one term, he went on to
defeat many accomplished and popular figures in the second term. His lack of
discipline made the many corrupted politicians to feel like they can get away with
just about anything while Grant is in charge. Government’s was so corrupted, that
its news kept the people entertained and gave them some pleasure. But the
government’s act of corruption led many people to have second thoughts about the
nation they are being loyal to, this inexistence of comfort zone led many people
and societies to act violently, mainly to feed themselves and their families,
these events only helped in the bringing of the great depression, which led to the
inexistence of middle social class. Businesses and Banks were not connected with
the government, because of their well reputation regarding stealing the taxes. The
politics contributed greatly in the struggles of the nation, and were a huge part
of its slow movement in officially ending the separation of the two parts of the
nation.

The principles of civil war and Lincoln’s plan regarding reconstruction did
not go as they were presented or thought of by Lincoln. The post war still had the
friends as foes toward each other, and it was seriously hindering unity, economy,
social classes, nation’s achievement, and giving the government more power then
the people.