Reconstruction Both Lincoln and Johnson had foreseen that the Congress would have the right to deny Southern legislators seats in the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives, under the Constitution. This came to pass when, under the leadership of Thaddeus Stevens, those congressmen, also known as radical republicans, who sought to punish the South refused to seat its elected senators and representatives. Then, within the next few months, the Congress proceeded to work out …showed first 75 words of 898 total…

…showed last 75 words of 898 total…to reconstruction, that's where the historians disagree. Reconstruction is all opinion, there is no right or wrong answer; either the historian views reconstruction as good or bad, or somewhere in between. The point is that no matter how much the topic of reconstruction is debated there will never been a clear answer over who is right and who is wrong. It all comes down to a matter of personal belief and inner morality toward equality.