SPC
Chuck Hagel 08
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« on: December 22, 2014, 04:17:57 PM » |
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Not long after the election of Grant to the Presidency on a platform of a harsher tone toward the Confederacy, the newly-elected President was assassinated in Ford's Theater by actor and Southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. Revelations that Booth may have had covert support from rogue elements of the Confederate leadership proved to be the casus belli for resumption of the bloody conflict. While the Confederacy meagerly benefited from the international trade that the four and a half year ceasefire had provided, it still proved to be a paper tiger against Northern military incursions, with capitulation coming within two years of the renewed conflict.
With the war over, the political debate turned to the issue of Reconstruction of the nine remaining states. Democrats and many liberal Republicans favored a quick reintegration into the Union, while Radical Republicans, led by President Colfax, desired a complete reformation of the Southern political and economic system before readmission was granted. Amendments to the Constitution banning slavery and granting equal rights to freed slaves were passed.
The Democrats face a wide-open field to challenge the incumbent, while President Colfax faces opposition to his renomination from politicians of both Liberal and Radical factions.
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