Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Impact of American Civil War & Reconstruction On Federal vs. States Rights & Racial Equality Analyzed. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 6 page research paper examines whether or not the American Civil War and the Reconstruction (1861-1877) adequately resolved the two central conflicts facing the fledgling nation -- the power of the federal government in relation to the states and the meaning of racial equality. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_Civlwrec.doc
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
patriotic rhetoric? Was the issue of racial equality ever seriously considered by the Founding Fathers. After all, most were Southern born-and-bred plantation owners, whose houses and lands were
tended by Negro slaves. It is quite possible that the aristocratic founders of the United States never truly regarded the black man as an American citizen. Although the
sentiments of the North were a bit more sympathetic in terms of Negro slaves, neither region considered the issue of racial equality to be particularly important during the first years
of the fledgling nation. One problem which was always rather prickly was the fact that America was not a single nation in the conventional sense, but was
comprised of individual states. How could laws be established so that states could maintain at least a modicum of independence, while the federal government still retained the central concentration
of power. The unique federalist approach to government adopted by the American Constitution was examined 100 years later by British scholar James Bryce in his classic study, The American
Commonwealth. Bryce methodically examined the American system, and described its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages, according to Bryce, included one united nation with distinct state identities; internal flexibility,
particularly concerning territorial expansionism; effective deterrent of despotism; and greater efficiency because concentrated emphasis on state and local governments better served the individual needs of citizens (Woll and Binstock
125). The disadvantages of federalism, as defined by Bryce -- "weakness in home government through a lack of authority over the states and individual citizens; threat of secessions or
rebellion of states; threat of division into groups and factions by the formation of separate alliances among the states" -- sowed the seeds of discontent which inevitably grew into the
...