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Reconstruction Plans
Lincoln’s Plan (1865)
During the closing days of the Civil War, President Lincoln developed a plan,
commonly called the “Ten-Percent Plan,” to rebuild the South and restore the southern
states to the Union as soon as possible. The process was known as Reconstruction.
Lincoln’s plan had two simple steps: (1) All southerners, except high-ranking
Confederate civil and military leaders, would be pardoned after taking an oath of
allegiance to the United States; and (2) when ten percent of the voters in each state had
taken the oath of loyalty (allegiance), the state would be
permitted to form a legal government and rejoin the Union.
Congressional Plan
Congress and many northerners thought that the South
should be punished. They believed that the Confederate
states who had seceded should be treated like a conquered
country. In 1864, Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill,
which Lincoln saw as an attempt to punish the South for the
actions of the secessionists. Lincoln did not sign the bill into
law; he let it die quietly.
When the southern states passed a set of laws called the
Black Codes, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
This law extended citizenship to African Americans and gave
the federal government the right and responsibility to
intervene any time civil rights were taken away from freedmen. To ensure this
happened, Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted citizenship to
the freedmen and forbade any state from denying anyone the “equal protection of the
law.” President Andrew Johnson vetoed the bill, but the veto was overturned by
Congress. So the bill became law. Johnson's attitude contributed the growth of the
Radical Republican movement, which favored increased intervention in the South
and more aid to former slaves, and ultimately to Johnson's impeachment trial. When
Georgia, along with other southern states, refused to ratify the 14th amendment, the
South was placed under authority of Congress. With their continued refusal to pass
this amendment and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, Congress passed the Reconstruction
Act of 1867
Johnson’s Plan (1866)
Lincoln’s assassination took place before his plan for Reconstruction went into effect.
Upon Lincoln’s death, Vice-President Andrew Johnson, a North Carolinian, became the
nation’s seventeenth president. Soon after taking office, he took the responsibility for
returning the former Confederate states to the Union. Johnson’s Reconstruction plan
was much like Lincoln’s except Johnson expanded the group of southerners not given a
general pardon. Those who owned property worth more than $20, 000, or those who
had held high military or civil positions had to apply directly to the president for a
pardon. At first, some of the radicals were willing to work with Johnson because they
approved of his plan to offer a reward for the arrest of Confederate President Jefferson
Davis. However, after Davis was captured and imprisoned, the radicals turned their
attention back to the president’s plan and began to disagree with it. They were afraid
that the freedmen would be disenfranchised (have their voting rights taken away).
They also thought that the South deserved a greater punishment than the plan
provided.
After some pressure, President Johnson added several more requirements. First the
southern states had to approve the Thirteenth Amendment that made slavery illegal.
Second, the southern states had to nullify their ordinances of secession. Third, the
southern states had to promise NOT to repay individuals and institutions that had
helped to finance the war.
The Military Reconstruction Act, 1867
When Georgia, along with other southern states, refused to ratify the 14th amendment,
the South was placed under authority of Congress. With their continued refusal to pass
this amendment and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, Congress passed the Reconstruction
Act of 1867. This placed the former Confederate states under military authority and
divided the states into five districts with a Union general in charge of each district.
Georgia, Alabama, and Florida made up the third district. The United States Army
became the government in these districts until such time as new governments were
constituted.
 Congress charged the former Confederate states with creating new state
constitutions and new governments. The military directed the registration of
voting for all adult males including African American males who swore they were
qualified.
 Congress asserted its right to reframe the state governments and constitutions,
and the Supreme Court upheld this curtailment of state power in the court case,
Texas v. White (1869).
 Congress demanded that all the new state governments disfranchise high-ranking
Confederates.
 Congress demanded that all new state governments ratify the Fourteenth
Amendment.
If the states fulfilled these requirements, they would be readmitted to the Union.
During the spring and summer of 1868, with blacks voting in large numbers, seven of
the former Confederate states (North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida,
Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana) completed the requirements and were reseated in
the Union. In 1870 Texas, Mississippi, and Virginia also fulfilled the requirements,
after ratifying the Fifteenth Amendment.