Main Idea
After the war, Northern leaders differed over the best way to rebuild the nation.
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Lincoln’s Plan |
Johnson’s Plan |
Radicals’ Plan |
Objectives
After studying this section, you should be able to
? compare the Lincoln and Johnson plans for Reconstruction with the plans of the Radical Republicans.
? explain how the black codes and the return of former Confederates to power affected Reconstruction.
Key Terms
Amnesty, mandate, disenfranchise, impeach
> Ticket to impeachment trial
Reading Strategy
Classifying Information As you read about the reconstruction of the South, highlight aspects of the various rebuilding plans in a chart such as the one shown here.
Econstruction did involve much more than merely rebuilding and repairing the war damage inflicted on the South. It also meant restructuring Southern society by granting rights to formerly enslaved persons and restoring the nation by readmitting Southern states to the Union.
Before the end of the war, Congress and President Lincoln struggled with, and frequently clashed over, Reconstruction policies and programs.
Some believed that the South should be punished. President Lincoln argued that the task before the country was to restore the Union.
Before the war ended, Lincoln began to plan for the peace that would follow the war. Because his primary goal was to restore the Union as quickly as possible, the President favored a generous policy. Except for a few high-ranking Confederate officials, he offered amnesty, or pardon, to all Southerners who pledged an oath of loyalty to the United States. Lincoln proposed that when 10 percent of a state's voters in the 1860 presidential election had taken this oath, Congress would readmit the state to the Union.
Lincoln's plan did not address the plight of the newly freed African Americans. Although Lincoln strongly supported the Thirteenth Amendment, for a long time he personally had favored colonization of free African Americans in Africa and the Caribbean. He was willing, though, to let the
South handle the matter. The President urged, however, that African Americans who could read and write and those who had served in the Union army be allowed to vote.
Resistance to Lincoln's plan surfaced at once from his Radical Republican opponents in Congress. The Radicals' alternative to Lincoln's plan came in the Wade-Davis Bill of 1864. This legislation proposed putting the South under military rule and required a majority of a state's electorate to take the loyalty oath as a condition for the state's readmission. Lincoln killed this bill with a pocket veto—he let the session of Congress expire without signing the legislation. However, when the states of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana met the conditions of Lincoln's plan, Congress refused to readmit them to the Union. The President then realized that a peace based on "malice toward none and charity for all" was not possible, and he began to negotiate with Radical congressional leaders. At this critical point, Lincoln was assassinated.
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded to the presidency, attempted to carry out Lincoln's Reconstruction policies. He was hampered in this effort because, as an unelected President, he had little popular following. In addition, as a former Democrat, he could not command the support of the Republican majority in Congress, and as a Tennessean and former slaveholder, he offended the Radicals. If these handicaps were not enough, he was viewed by his critics as being self-righteous, hot-tempered, stubborn, and crude.
In the summer of 1865, with Congress in recess, Johnson began to implement his Reconstruction program. His conditions for readmission were that each Southern state abolish slavery, repeal its ordinance of secession, and repudiate its war debts. When Congress returned in December, every state except Texas had followed Johnson's formula and asked to return to the Union. The Radicals, however, expressed alarm because the leniency of Johnson's plan allowed the return of traditional leadership in each of
Visualizing © istory
A Congressional Action Controlled by the Radical Republicans, the Joint Committee on Reconstruction maintained the authority of Congress over Reconstruction. What was the goal of the Civil Rights Bill of 1866?
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Linking Pastand Present
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Honoring the Nation's Military Heroes
Since the beginning of history, heads of state have awarded decorations and medals to individuals for bravery or merit during times of war. Until the Civil War, the United States did not have any permanent national military decorations or medals.
World History
