The+Tortoises



=== 1. With a gruesome war behind us, our government has recognized the need to implement new procedures in order to reunite the United States of America. After analyzing all possible ways of succeeding in our primary goal of reunification, we have decided that the below items offer the best chance of a smooth reconstruction process. ===

2. The primary goal of Reconstruction is to peacefully reunify of the Union. Progress cannot be achieved if the North and South refuse to cooperate. Therefore, the ex-Confederates will be allowed back into the Union without difficulty and will be allowed to run for public office. However, if their actions in any way threaten the life and liberty of other citizens, they will be immediately removed and possibly incarcerated (based on the severity of the crime). Offices held in both parts of the country will be filled with Northerners and Southerners to ensure a stable, effective, and fair government. Southerners will also have access to new job opportunities in the areas of industrialization and agriculture, and will work with the freedmen to rebuild and improve their shared home. 3. The freedmen are now full citizens of the United States, and as such they must be given equal rights. These include but are not limited to the rights to free speech, free press, free religion, and the rights to hold office and vote. If any of these rights are infringed upon, the person/people responsible will be tried and punished by a fair court of law. In addition, these rights will be upheld by the United States government, and they will be protected by the new police force. As citizens, freedmen will work alongside their white brethren to improve their agriculture, their industry and their homeland.

4. After surviving a bloody war fought to reunite a broken country, and in order to honor those who died for this nation, every citizen of the United States shall be represented by this government. In his Gettysburg Address, Lincoln spoke these words: “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” As Lincoln said, we must honor those who died and we must insure that citizens are able to enjoy the inalienable rights that we are born with. It is recognized that there is bitterness entrenched in both the North and South, however, this must be a time of restoration and tolerance. Government positions will be open to any literate citizen. We recognize that many citizens are not literate and because of this fact, a public school system will be formed. Schools will be biracial as segregation will only allow hatred to build up between both parties. Any so-called ex-Confederates who violate new laws will face retribution proportionate to the gravity of their crime. The United States Police Force will enforce the observation of federal law.

5. States that seceded from the Union must go through several crucial steps before they again become apart of this nation. The first is to provide a two thirds pledge of loyalty to the United States. Also, to ensure that the North and South is unified more quickly, there will be a United States Police Force that shall patrol the nation and employ both Northerners and Southerners, including blacks. Roughly 10% of the population should be employed by the force, whether by draft or volunteers, in order to create relationships that will ease the tension between the country. Also, due to the ideals of equality that we have attempted to uphold since our founding, the Confederate states must adopt the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment guaranteeing civil rights to all men. These requirements shall bring the Southern states back onto the same level as the rest of the country. In this way, the United States can begin reconstructing itself on a strong base that is extended throughout the country.

6. Is this Manifest Destiny amongst Americans today? Is the killing and pillaging of our Southern brethren the bridge to economic prosperity and growth? The idealistic approach to restoring this nation’s economy is to build on what strengths we have as a nation currently. In order for burgeon of the South; the emphasis of agriculture would be most familiar. Food crops, cotton, and tobacco movements must be re-instituted into the treaded soil. Railroads resembling corkscrews must be straitened into parallel lines; with the North and South traveling the same lines amenably to transport America’s food, grain, textiles, and tobacco throughout the country that manifest destiny was intended to entitle. In turn for a thriving economy upon the horizon, the paramount of restoring the economy of the South is to establish industrial movements. Industrialization spread evenly and bountifully in the South will do two things: one being that factories and machines will recompense for want of labor and will increase the efficient organization detrimental to any successful economy respectively. The new myriad of employment in agriculture and the succeeding industry to distribute the agriculture will be an unbiased hiring system within which qualification amongst blacks and whites are to be considered equally without discrimination. Accordingly, legislation will be passed to establish one factory(s) of necessity to the area’s agriculture for every twenty square miles.

7. The preceding Civil War has shown that aggression is of no use; neither to the aggressor nor aggressed. Lincoln observantly stated, “Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.” The war is complete; hence the troops of the Union dispersed throughout established America shall be of no use. For this reason, Union and Confederate troops shall be discharged. Thus a national policing force will be established. Individuals whom desire to stay in law enforcement shall reapply under contract. Within contract, one must obey unbiased law enforcement and of paramount pledge to serve the United States Police Department with the liberty of Northerner and Southerner in practice. Officers whom abuse the generous act by of disregarded war records shall be demystified by divulge of breach of contract and shall be discharged perhaps for the second time in their life. In addition to a stringent police force in the name of the United States Police Department or USPD, there will also be a branch dedicated to keeping track of the crimes of America. The records of previous crimes and its criminals will help enforce stricter punishments of repeating perpetrators to the new policies of protecting the unified United States citizens.

8. If these policies are adopted by this country, we shall once again become a shining beacon of united liberty, peace and justice.