Despite many hardships that remained from the antebellum state of the union, reconstruction was a socially and constitutionally revolutionary The attempts to deter black voters were greatly outweighed by thenumbers of blacks voting, as well as the laws that were passed to protectthe rights of American citizens, black and white alike.The years after the war saw a rise in the number of human rights lawsthat were passed, most of which were primarily focused on blacks, butincluded whites as well. In document D, Gideon Welles stated that thenational government didn’t hold the power to grant suffrage to anyone, norhad it shown any interest in the matter. Because of this, the stategovernments were able to enact black codes which restrained citizens, bothblack and white, from voting because they were illiterate or because theyweren’t of a high enough economic status. This later changed as blacksbecame more active in government and voiced their upset to the nationalgovernment, as shown by Document C. Because of petitions like these, thenational government banned the black codes, allowing blacks from everystate to vote. Political cartoons such as Document G showed the progressthat was being made with black voters, despite the lack of secret ballots. With all the newly freed slaves as well as freedmen, land was in desperateneed in order to survive and to support a family. The Petition to theCommissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau and the President (Document E)cried out for the opportunity to legally own land, and showed the progressionof the American government in supporting the freedmen and their wellbeing.After the Thirteenth Amendment was passed in order to ban slavery,many more revolutionary Constitutional changes were put in place. Theestablishment of a national bank helped to strengthen the ties betweennorth and south by using a standard currency with a set worth, as SenatorJohn Sherman claimed in his speech to Con...
