Congressional Era Of Reconstruction During Post Civil War...

â€Å"Failure is simply an opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.† —Henry Ford. This was the Southern optimist’s view of what the results of post Civil War Reconstruction could be. Unfortunately, once the Congressional era of Reconstruction began, this view was squandered under federal punishment of the South. This policy led to strained relations between Congress and the ex-Confederate states. The difference of opinion was over how harshly the South should be punished for leaving the Union. The South wanted to be readmitted with as little friction as possible, so they sided with the Democrats, like Robert E. Lee, and Moderate Republicans. Congress on the other hand, being mostly controlled by Radical Republicans, believed†¦show more content†¦One explicit difference of policy was over the use of troops to put the South into military districts that were under martial law and putting Northern Generals over Southern troops. As historian S. Chase said in the Democratic National Committee of 1873 â€Å"There should have been as l ittle military government as possible.† This policy was even more harshly debated because these troops were there to enforce a law that the Southerners were not ever able to vote on until they were forced to vote for it if they wanted to rejoin the United States, which they had to do because they lost the Civil War. This force, both physically and ideologically, seemed very out of place in a country that claimed to be the land of the free, and even more out of place since it was a Democracy. This ideological difference between Southerners and Congress has been a major point of contention in discussions about Reconstruction policy since it was put into practice. Another point of policy disagreement can be seen in how representation in the South would be handled. In accordance with Congressional Reconstruction, certain classes of ex-Confederates, such as the class that Robert E. Lee was in, were excluded from being granted their suffrage . This was an outrage to Southerners for two reasons. The first is that the certain classes being exempted from regaining their suffrage were the highest part of the upper class and the people of high rank from the ex-Confederate