Analysis of primary sources
In this article famous politician, President of the United States and professor of the Princeton University Woodrow Wilson analyzes the reconstruction of Southern States thirty years after the process. He points out that the task of a historian is to decide old questions in a new light, to be both a statesman and a constitutional. After thirty years even the Reconstruction process can be analyzed with a little tolerance. The author states that effects of the Civil War were temporal and effects of the Reconstruction can be considered as permanent. The main idea of this process is that the Union was created of indestructible states and those states, which seceded from it, should come back and participate in the life of the union as they did before. But as it was hard to implement such theory the states were destroyed by war and therefore the reconstruction was started. Wilson writes that in case the Reconstruction would have been finished by Abraham Lincoln the process would have been smoother and simple. Lincoln never fought against Southern states but against people, who wanted to secede. According to Wilson, Lincoln wanted to unite the whole America and not to conquer Southern parts of it. Lincoln’s idea of cooperation and restoration was adopted by Andrew Johnson after the former President died. He implemented this idea in Tennessee. Woodrow Wilson blames Johnson for being unskilled to run Lincoln’s plan. For Wilson Johnson seems to be inappropriate candidate for continuing reconstruction process because of his personality disadvantages. Meanwhile, Johnson managed to set up the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution and more and more Southern states agreed to join the union. But the liberty offered for the black and for the southern states administrations had another side – uneducated former slaves became a dangerous force for their former masters. Trying to reduce the hazard administrations implemented lot of fines and other restrictions. Such processes seemed to be unfavorable and the Congress decided to take power in its arms. It restricted the freedom of the southern states to join the Union. Word by word, Wilson explains the situation of that time adding new characters and describing them. He points out that Southern administrations were destroyed by the war. Years were passing and the President was sure that everything went well, yet the Congress kept military divisions in the Southern states and did not allow them to join Senate. The adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment was an attempt to proof Southern temper, according to Wilson. Congress made Southern states waiting for their places in Senate, and therefore making the situation worse.
Summarizing the article, Wilson writes that the War was unconstitutional because the Constitution did not possess any information for citizens on how to deal with times of discord and disruption. The author points out that the Amendments to the Constitution, which should be implemented in all the states, affected actually only the Southern ones. Yet, he writes a lot about positive changes brought by the Reconstruction.
The issue of the Reconstruction is still an arguable one among the historians. In his paper Woodrow Wilson gives a detailed overview of the Reconstruction process. He tries to explain the inner conflict that led to such unclear and disputable results. He analyzes the mistakes made by the President Andrew Johnson and the Congress. Besides, the author provides interesting information about personalities involved in the process. The article contains a detailed description of the reasons and motives of every single party of the Reconstruction process. The paper is not only of historical value. It contains lots of philosophic thoughts of the author and his own psychological experience. The author finishes his article pointing out at the moral issues of historical processes. This means that future generations should be taught on mistakes made by elder one.
Works Cited
Wilson, Woodrow. “The Reconstruction of the Southern States.” The Atlantic Monthly April 1886: 542-553. Web. 3 December 2011
