Reconstruction of the United States after the Civil War essays

Reconstruction of the United States after the Civil War essays The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 freed African Americans in rebel states, and after the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment emancipated all U.S. slaves wherever they were. As a result of this free African Americans faced the problem of hostile whites around them preventing them to prosper. Despite the defeat of the Confederacy the nation was still unprepared to deal with the question of full citizenship for its newly freed black population. The Reconstruction was the time after the Civil War (1865-1877) when the United States was reorganizing the southern states and providing the means to accepting them back to the Union. Also to define how whites and blacks could live together, peacefully. These two major problems were placed on the weight of the soldiers of Andrew Johnson. Johnson became president after Abraham Lincoln. He was born in to a poor family, so he taught himself how to read and married a wife who taught him how to write. Before his presidency, he was the only senator from a confederate state to remain loyal to the Union. He hated wealthy slave owners. Before Abraham Lincolns assassination, he made it clear that he wanted a lenient Reconstruction plan. In December 1863, he announced his Proclamation of Amnesty which is also known as the Ten-Percent Plan. Lincoln's Reconstruction plan was designed to make an easy, peaceful reentry of the former Confederate states into the Union. Lincoln's policy was to forgive the South, rather than to punish them. Lincoln's Ten-Percent Plan allowed the former Confederate states to rejoin the Union when ten percent of the voters declared their loyalty to the Union. Lincoln's plan would let white southerners control the reconstruction process. Under this plan, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia came back to the Union. Lincoln wanted to let plantation owners keep their property, rather than divide up plantation property and give the land to former slaves. Lincoln's p...

Idiom Corner The Exception That Proves the Rule

Idiom Corner The Exception That Proves the Rule Idiom Corner: The Exception That Proves the Rule â€Å"The exception that proves the rule† is a commonly misused phrase in English. Yet it’s also one that most people have heard, so let us clarify how an exception can prove a rule. The Exception That Proves the Rule Librarians are notorious food thieves.(Image: Enokson/flickr) This phrase has its origins in a Latin legal principle that stated â€Å"the exception confirms the rule in cases not excepted.† In other words, when there’s an exception to a rule, we know that there must be a rule to which it is an exception (even when this rule isn’t explicit). For example, if you see a sign saying â€Å"No food or drink in the library,† you can work out from this alone that food and drink is allowed in other places. So the exception (i.e., â€Å"No food or drink in the library†) proves that another rule must exist (i.e., â€Å"Food and drink is permitted outside of the library†). This is the original use of the phrase and still the â€Å"correct† use for many passionate pedants. But it is not what most people now mean by â€Å"the exception that proves the rule.† Read on to find out more. Modern Usage Old Latin legal principles are not all that popular anymore. Consequently, the phrase â€Å"the exception that proves the rule† has taken on a new meaning. Nowadays, then, it usually means the exception that tests the rule. This is based on a definition of â€Å"proves† that we also see in phrases like â€Å"proving ground,† â€Å"the proof of the pudding is in the eating,† and even in â€Å"proofreading.† In all these cases, â€Å"proof† means test something to check that it’s valid or correct. As such, an exception can â€Å"prove† a rule if it makes us question it (or even reject it). For example, we might believe   â€Å"everyone loves pudding† as a rule. But the existence of one person who hates pudding would then be an exception that â€Å"proves† or tests this rule. Who put the proof in the pudding?(Images: Rita E F=q(E+v^B)) You’ll want to avoid this usage in formal writing, as it is based on a confusion. But people will know what you mean if you use â€Å"the exception that proves the rule† this way in conversation. How Not to Use the Phrase This phrase is used in another way sometimes: i.e., taking â€Å"the exception that proves the rule† to mean an exception can confirm a rule. Unfortunately, this does not make sense because it involves a direct contradiction. For instance, let us return to the world in which â€Å"everyone loves pudding† is a rule. If an exception could  Ã¢â‚¬Å"confirm† this, we would have to treat someone who hates pudding as â€Å"proof† our original rule was true. And this is clearly absurd, as well as unfair on people who don’t like pudding. Summary: The Exception That Proves the Rule To summarize, this phrase has two common uses: In formal writing, an exception can â€Å"prove† the existence of an unstated rule (i.e., if there is an exception to a rule, there must be a rule to which it is an exception). This original use of the phrase is rare in modern English. The modern use of this phrase is to mean â€Å"the exception that tests the rule† (i.e., an exception that makes us question a rule). However, you should never use this phrase to mean â€Å"the exception confirms the rule.† This would be incorrect and illogical. And if you want someone to make sure you’re using idioms correctly, let us know.