What were the political problems of the readmission of the southern states after the civil war?

Answer 1

The Union had spent the entire war claiming that the Confederate States had never left the Union. Now the Confederate States were forced to apply for "readmission", which would hardly have been necessary if the Union's theory of the war was correct. Several southern states relatively quickly satisfied requirements and resumed a state government, before Radical Reconstruction was begun, and these then had usually to redraft their state constitutions to suit the radicals. All southern states were required to "ratify" the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution as the price of readmission. A number of states in the south had already considered and rejected these amendments. It takes three fourths of the states ratifying an amendment for it to become effective as law. Since the north wanted to pretend the southern states had never left, they needed the southern "ratifications" for these amendments to become effective. So the southern states were forced to "ratify" them with a gun to their heads, as the price of being able to "resume" having their own state governments and ending their military occupation. The southern states were forced to allow the freed slaves to vote, something free blacks in the north could not do. White southerners were not allowed to vote if they had anything to do with the Confederacy. Since this was practically every man in the south, this meant the freed slaves could vote but white people could not. This bred a great deal of resentment in white southerners, and helped fuel the rise of the Klan. After the Republicans stole the election of 1876 and agreed to withdraw the last of the military occupation of the south if the Democrats would shut up about it, then the white southerners returned to power and instituted "Jim Crow" laws and "black codes", to strip away the rights recently given to freed slaves.

Answer 2

The main political problem was how to readmit the Southern states to the Union while ensuring their loyalty and commitment to the new political order. There were disagreements over the terms of readmission, including the treatment of former Confederates, African Americans' civil rights, and the extent of federal control over Reconstruction efforts. Additionally, there was debate over the balance of power between the President and Congress in shaping Reconstruction policies.