Analysis of American Reconstruction and the 14th Amendment

Legal scholar Gene Healy has made a powerful argument in favor of abolishing the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. When a fair vote was taken on it in 1865, in the aftermath of the War for Southern Independence, it was rejected by the Southern states and all the border states. Failing to secure the necessary three-fourths of the states, the Republican party, which controlled Congress, passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867 which placed the entire South under military rule.

The purpose of this, according to one Republican congressman, was to coerce Southern legislators to vote for the amendment 'at the point of a bayonet.' President Andrew Johnson called this tactic 'absolute despotism,' the likes of which had not been exercised by any British monarch 'for more than 500 years.' For his outspokenness Johnson was impeached by the Republican Congress.

The South eventually voted to ratify the amendment, after......

Join Now to view the rest of this term paper!
Members: Login to view this research paper.

Title: War
Approximate Word Count: 845
Approximate Pages: 4 (250 words per double-spaced page)

With the Term Papers Lab Membership Pass, you get instant access to every essay on this site, including this essay on War, for as long as you remain a member.

Other essays sites charge almost $100 for a single term paper. At Term Papers Lab, you can get instant access to over 100,000 research papers for as little as $29.95!