논문 / 미국 연방의회와 재건정책 - 연방헌법 수정조항 제 14 조를 중심으로 - = Congress , Reconstruction , and the Fourteenth Amendment

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

`Reconstructing` the Union was the central issue in American politics after the Civil War. But Reconstruction wasn`t merely to restore the seceded states to the Union. Rather, Reconstruction meant the reflection and criticism on the past and the building of a new nation based on American liberty system, federal supremacy, and national greatness. For successful Reconstruction, Republicans in Congress made an attempt to alter the state-centered federal system, to form a new system of government by curtailing previously exclusive state power. They rejected a little lenient Presidential Reconstruction, accordingly, advancing radical Congressional Reconstruction of its own. The Fourteenth Amendment, passed by both Houses of Congress in June, 1866, was the most important one among the Congressional Reconstruction legislations, for it shows what kind of position Republicans had with regard to Reconstruction`s significant issues such as the legal status and rights of the emancipated slaves, the conditions of southern states` readmission, federalism, and a new national identity. The Amendment provided the primacy of national citizenship and the federal protection of inalienable human rights and civil ones from abridgement by the states: federal supremacy over states. The limits on state authority represented new thoughts of Republicans after the Civil War. The Fourteenth Amendment was the outcome of the antislavery movements since the 1830s as well. The Civil War and Reconstruction provided a chance for all Americans to reconsider the flaws of pro-slavery constitutionalism. Congress challenged legal discrimination throughout the nation and changed and broadened the meaning of freedom for all Americans in the Fourteenth Amendment. As a result, Congress accomplished the great reform that would establish the American system of liberty and a new changed American nationality. Congressional Reconstruction produced enduring changes in the Constitution and laws that fundamentally altered federal-state relations and redefined the American citizenship. In the end, Congress accomplished the revolutionary constitutionalism. With economic developments during the second half of 19th century, the United States would achieve a rapid expansion through the political and social experiences and constitutional achievements during the Reconstruction.