Download The Politics of Reconstruction

Synopsis: Congress opposed Lincoln’s and Johnson’s plans for
Reconstruction and instead implemented its own plan to rebuild
the South. However, Southern opposition to Radical
Reconstruction, along with economic problems in the North,
ended Reconstruction.
Reconstruction and it’s Effects
Lesson 20
Lincoln’s Plan for
Reconstruction
Lesson 20: Reconstruction and it’s Effects part 1
Reconstruction was the period of rebuilding after the Civil
War. It also refers to the process of bringing the Southern
states back into the nation. Reconstruction lasted from 1865
to 1877.
Lincoln’s view that the
United States was one
indivisible nation had
prevailed. He believed
that since secession
was illegal,
Confederate
governments in the
Southern states were
illegitimate and the
states had never
really left the Union.
Lincoln also believed that to reunify the nation, the federal government
should not punish the South, but act “with malice towards none, with
charity for all… to bind up the nation’s wounds….”
In December 1863, President
Lincoln announced his
Proclamation of Amnesty and
Reconstruction, also known as
the Ten-Percent Plan. The
government would pardon all
Confederates—except highranking Confederate officials
and those accused of crimes
against prisoners of war—who
would swear allegiance to the
Union.
After ten percent of those on the 1860 voting lists took this oath of
allegiance, a Confederate state could form a new state government and
gain representation in Congress.
However, Lincoln’s moderate Reconstruction plan angered a minority of
Republicans in Congress, known as Radical Republicans. They wanted to
influence the process of Reconstruction in a manner much more punitive
towards the former Confederate states.
The Radical Republicans were led by
Representative Thaddeus Stevens of
Pennsylvania and Senator Charles Sumner
of Massachusetts. the Radicals wanted to
destroy the political power of former
slaveholders. Most of all, they wanted
African Americans to be given full
citizenship and the right to vote.
In July 1864, the Radicals
passed the Wade Davis
Bill. The bill called for
Congress, not the
president, to be in charge
of Reconstruction.