Douglass reflecting on War and Recontruction

In an article he wrote for The Atlantic, December 16th, 1866 ed. famed abolitionist and writer Fredrick Douglass wrote an analysis of both the Civil War and Reconstruction from his own perspective. Douglass first begins by praising the Civil war as having been a heroic cause in and of itself. However, he quickly begins to question whether the war will go down in history as a great victory or as a miserable failure. to show this reasoning, he argues several points about the conditions the war has brought onto the south and whether society post war has changed at all. 

His first point is that the war has failed to reunite the nation, its original purpose. He argues that the South has not been fully reintegrated into the nation, but rather are treated as conquered territory, forced into an unequal position in the Union too which, quote, "an attempt to re-establish a Union by force . . . . must be the merest mockery of a Union." He then goes on to say that the last session of Congress (before the article was written) had not done anything to permanently solve the situation and determine whether the nation would be reunited fully or not. This reflects what we know about the period from class, as this tie period would be around the beginning of the long struggle between the radical Republicans that controlled Congress at the time and President Andrew Johnson, who was very pro-South and for leniency.

Next,  Douglass looked at the condition of the lives of the former slaves and found it lacking. he notes that their are still large discrepancies between how the freed slaves are treated and how the former white Southerners are treated. he notes the requirement of federal troops or other similar forces in an area in order to enforce federal mandates in the South, and how when not present the local black population is subject to abuses and reprisals and other mistreatment by the former white slave holders and ex-confederates. He even questions the usefulness of the then recently passed 13th and 14th amendments, believing them to be a step in the right direction but overall being far from solving the issues. He notes that, "no republic is safe that tolerates a privileged class, or denies any of its citizens equal rights and the equal means to maintain them. " This corresponds with what we have learned about the conditions and struggles  the freed former slave population faced, requiring federal troops or Union Leagues or other such groups in order to enforce federal legislation giving black citizens their rights, and how when troops moved on from such areas then the White Southern population was quick to revert to the former way of life and deny or refuse o enforce such legislation.

In the end, Douglass is unsure of how effective both the war and reconstruction will be in the long run. However, he fears it will be a failure unless more Federal support is provided to the Black population through more legislation and stronger enforcement of said legislation, and urges congress to not wait but act.