The Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida - Assignment Example

Northern businessmen helped get the "Tariff Act" passed which in turn raised the prices of manufactured products from Europe mainly sold in the South. This angered the Southern people to have to pay more for these goods and hence developed hatred towards the Northern people (Davis). The political power in the Federal government led further to the escalation of the conflict. Since the Northern States were becoming more and more powerful, the Southern States felt a growing need for freedom and as such wanted to break away from the north and govern themselves.

The north would not allow this and hence the civil war. Finally, the martial confrontation between the Federal States and the Confederate States of America further fueled the Civil War when Fort Sumter in South Carolina was attacked (Davis). In most polls of presidents by historians, Lincoln is either ranked first or second. Does he deserved such an exalted position, or as his detractors claim, he should be ranked lower because he presided over a war that killed 620,000 of his fellow citizens? Explain.In my opinion, Abraham Lincoln should be ranked lower as the President of the United States because he presided over a war that killed 620,000 of his fellow citizens.

Firstly, he vowed to keep the country united and the new western territories free from slavery. Sadly, this was not so. First of all, many Southerners were afraid that he was not sympathetic to their way of life and therefore could not treat them fairly (Davis). This feeling led the South to break away from the United States and joined together to form a new nation named the Confederate States of America. Although more than half of the said deaths were caused by disease, documented statistics indicate that one-third of all Southern soldiers died in the civil war during Lincoln’s reign (Davis).

Consequently, a big majority of families felt this pain and loss, a testimony of how much the War had scarred and devastated the American nation.  Was there a better plan for reconstructing the south than the one that the federal government implemented? Explain.Similar to all nation-building efforts, reconstruction of the South required prolonged military occupation and cooperation by the defeated even though the Americans saw it as a horrible episode in their history. The federal government instituted the best reconstruction plan in U.S. history (Davis).

It involved two Reconstructions namely Presidential and Congressional. Both were complicated by the people who were affected. Firstly, the defeated Southern whites looked to the victors to tell them what to do but with limitations. The black southerners, on the other hand, wanted real freedom including the right to own property, vote, hold public office, education, and move at will (Davis). Presidential Reconstruction was found to be conciliatory in nature while Congress was not so forgiving of those who had led the fight against the United States.

It maintained that confederate leaders, state government officials, and those who had volunteered to fight the United States of America would be ineligible to attend the state conventions, vote, or elected to office (Davis). For this reason, most Southern states disliked Congressional reconstruction as opposed to the presidential.