Claim: There was a politician named Abraham Lincoln.

The term Reconstruction Era , in the context of the history of the United States , has two senses : the first covers the complete history of the entire country from 1865 to 1877 following the American Civil War -LRB- 1861 to 1865 -RRB- ; the second sense focuses on the attempted transformation of the Southern United States from 1863 to 1877 , as directed by Congress , with the reconstruction of state and society .   Three visions of Civil War memory appeared during Reconstruction : the reconciliationist vision , which was rooted in coping with the death and devastation the war had brought ; the white supremacist vision , which included terror and violence ; and the emancipationist vision , which sought full freedom , citizenship and Constitutional equality for African Americans .   Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson both took moderate positions designed to bring the South back into the union as quickly as possible , while Radical Republicans in Congress sought stronger measures to upgrade the rights of African Americans , including the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , while curtailing the rights of former Confederates , such as through the provisions of the Wade -- Davis Bill . Johnson followed a lenient policy toward ex-Confederates . Lincoln 's last speeches show that he was leaning toward supporting the enfranchisement of all freedmen , whereas Johnson was opposed to this .   Johnson 's interpretations of Lincoln 's policies prevailed until the Congressional elections of 1866 in the North , which enabled the Radicals to take control of policy , remove former Confederates from power , and enfranchise the freedmen . A Republican coalition came to power in nearly all the southern states and set out to transform the society by setting up a free labor economy , using the U.S. Army and the Freedmen 's Bureau . The Bureau protected the legal rights of freedmen , negotiated labor contracts , and set up schools and churches for them . Thousands of Northerners came south as missionaries , teachers , businessmen and politicians . Some also entered politics . Hostile whites called them `` Carpetbaggers '' . In early 1866 , Congress passed the Freedmen 's Bureau and Civil Rights Bills and sent them to Johnson for his signature . The first bill extended the life of the bureau , originally established as a temporary organization charged with assisting refugees and freed slaves , while the second defined all persons born in the United States as national citizens with equality before the law . After Johnson vetoed the bills , Congress overrode his veto , making the Civil Rights Act the first major bill in the history of the United States to become law through an override of a presidential veto . The Radicals in the House of Representatives , frustrated by Johnson 's opposition to Congressional Reconstruction , filed impeachment charges . The action failed by one vote in the Senate .   Elected in 1868 , Republican President Ulysses S. Grant supported Congressional Reconstruction and enforced the protection of African Americans in the South through the use of the Enforcement Acts passed by Congress . Grant used the Enforcement Acts to effectively combat the Ku Klux Klan , which was essentially wiped out -LRB- although a new incarnation of the Klan eventually would again come to national prominence in the 1920s -RRB- , but was unable to resolve the escalating tensions inside the Republican party between the northerners on the one hand , and those Republicans originally hailing from the South on the other -LRB- this latter group would be labelled `` Scalawags '' by those opposing Reconstruction -RRB- . Meanwhile , self-styled Conservatives -LRB- in close cooperation with the Democratic Party -RRB- strongly opposed reconstruction . They alleged widespread corruption by the Carpetbaggers , excessive state spending and ruinous taxes . Meanwhile , public support for Reconstruction policies , requiring continued supervision of the South , faded in the North , largely due to concerns over the Panic of 1873 . The Democrats , who strongly opposed Reconstruction , regained control of the House of Representatives in 1874 . In 1877 , as part of a Congressional bargain to elect Republican Rutherford B. Hayes as president following the close 1876 presidential election , U.S. Army troops were removed from the South , ending Reconstruction and allowing Democrats to return to power .   Reconstruction was a significant chapter in the history of civil rights in the United States , and in economic history . After Reconstruction ended , the South remained a poverty-stricken `` backwater '' dependent on agriculture . White Southerners soon succeeded in re-establishing legal and political dominance over blacks through violence , intimidation and discrimination . Historian Eric Foner argues , `` What remains certain is that Reconstruction failed , and that for blacks its failure was a disaster whose magnitude can not be obscured by the genuine accomplishments that did endure . ''