There were many different opinions on how Reconstruction should have been handled. Johnson’s plan was extremely lenient towards the Southerners, while the Radical Republicans’ plan punished the South greatly. Lincoln’s plan was the middle ground of the spectrum. In my opinion, I believe that Lincoln’s plan would have been the most effective plan in bringing the Union back together in a stable and fair way. Lincoln’s plan offered amnesty to to all Southerners, except for high ranking Confederate officers and government officials. Plus, he promised to protect their private property, asides from their slaves. This would have been the best way to deal with the issue of what to do with the Southerners who rebelled. It is neither too punishing, nor too lenient, in comparison to the other two plans. The Radical Republicans’ plan punished the South severely, dividing up their plantations amongst the freedmen, while also taking away the …show more content…
It gave freedmen a reliable source of help, and helped them adjust to freedom. The Radical Republicans’ plan would enforce martial law on the South, causing controversy and outrage throughout the region, while Johnson’s plan gave the Southerners the choice of whether or not they want to give the freedmen rights. It is obvious what the Southerners’ choice would be, and all the fighting in the Civil War would have been for nothing, and thus, would make it unfair for the freedmen. In conclusion, I believe that Lincoln’s plan would have been most effective in bringing the Union back together in a stable and fair way, as the Radical Republicans’ plan would cause far too much unrest in the South, not even close to bringing the Union back together in a stable fashion, while Johnson’s plan would have been grossly unfair towards the freedmen, making the war fought in vain, thus ruling out the fair portion in bringing back the Union
The original purpose of Reconstruction was to restore the buildings and the economy of the south the best they could, but without the immoral element of slavery. But, reconstruction under the Johnson Presidency was a failure for a few reasons: 1) Convict Leasing, 2) Sharecropping, 3) the Ku Klux Klan, 4) Segregation in schools, even in the North, 5) Carpetbaggers/Scalawags, 6) misleading statistics, and 7) racism.
One of the reasons that Lincoln’s plan would be most beneficial to the United States is it would keep the states united as one country. Since the 10% Plan is less harsh than the Wade-Davis bill, the South wouldn’t be as angry about their punishment and would be more motivated to put all their efforts into rejoining the nation.
The reconstriction plan for Lincoln, Johnson and congresses were all very much their own plans. All the plans had there ups and downs. Lincoln's plan mainly focused on the Union and getting everything back to the way it was. It was called the ten percent plan, because it said that ten percent of the people that vote have to say they were back in the Union. Johnson's plan did have the same thing as Lincoln's in that people have to come back to the Union, but Johnson's plan also took a lot of the southerens have to.Johnson's plan also took a lot of the southerens out of government. Congress have a diffent plann all together between the both of them. Congress didn't like LIncoln's plan and because of that they enacted the Davis Bill. The Davis
for as opposed to requiring the south to rejoin the union, the radicals expected to repel the south. there plan expected to situated excitedly the iron clad vow. where past confederates or some other person who had successfully maintained the confederates would not be approved to vote. the novel republicans in addition gave more prominent protection to the freed darkish folks than johnson. they additionally depended on that lincolns and johnson. they in addition assumed that lincolns and johnson's course of action changed into too much benevolent, making it difficult toward the
Lincoln viewed Reconstruction as part of the larger effort to win the war and abolish slavery. He wanted to weaken the Confederacy by creating new state governments that could win broad support from southern white people. With Lincoln’s vision, he wanted things to be over quickly he didn’t want it to be dragged out and a long process. Lincoln’s plan angered the Radical Republicans (who advocated not only equal rights for the freedman but also a tougher stance toward the white South). Lincoln biggest fear was that if they asked for 50 percent instead of the 10 percent that it would continue the war making it longer and costlier for the United States. Unfortunately, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14th, 1865. At the time of his assassination, Lincoln’s reconstruction policy remained unsettled and
The views of Lincoln and Johnson about slavery were to abolish slavery in the southern states. Lincoln opposed the expansion of slavery, but with opposition he soon realized that the South’s economy was built around slavery. Whereas, Johnson believed slaves should be free, but not have a whole part in reconstruction. Johnson believed that slaves weren’t able to manage their own lives. With this being a huge issue many Northern states felt angry about the laws that were given to the Radical Republican party.
In 1863, Lincoln did issue his plan for Reconstruction, the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction that did allow for the pardon and restoration of property of all confederate soldier except for the highest ranking officials and leaders, a new government to be created when 10% of all eligible voters after they took an oath of allegiance to the US, and that states that were admitted back into the Union had to come up with a plan to deal with the newly freed slaves that did not compromise their freedom. He started to implement his plan during the end of the Civil War and he planned to continue on with it after the war until all the southern states had met the requirements and had rejoined the Union. Some of the radical republicans did oppose
President Johnson’s plan for reconstruction appeared simple at first, but makes you question his true motives behind his enthusiasm. There are multifactorial issues that seem irrational, given the change that was needed post wartime. On one hand he wanted the south to be independent but it seems like the socio -economic situation was very poor for the time being ,and help from the northerners would be beneficial to reconstruct and rebuild.
The differences between both presidents was that Lincoln wanted equality for all and wanted reconstruction of both South and North states. While Lincoln felt that way about how the North and South should act with equality, Johnson believed the Union should stay intact but, give slaves limited opportunities. Johnson’s view made many citizens dislike him because of slavery and what states should agree with what. The government knew that with Johnson as President nothing would come out of him being in the presidency because instead of reuniting the nations he was parting them in different ways.
President Abraham Lincoln believed that reconstruction was a matter of executive responsibility. Congress just asserted its jurisdiction. They both had authority to devise a plan for reconstructing the Union. But they didn’t give much thought to the South’s land and labor. Lincoln’s plan for reconstruction aimed primarily at shortening the war and ending slavery. His terms got sent out by “Lincoln’s Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction”. He first offered a full pardon, restoring property (except slaves), and political rights, to most rebels to renounce secession and to accept emancipation. His term enraged abolitionists. And Congress agreed that Lincoln’s plan was inadequate. So Congress put out a plan of their own, but Lincoln
Had Abraham Lincoln lived, the Reconstruction period no doubt would have been far different. The first way that Reconstruction would have been different would have been as a result of Lincoln's famous sense of empathy. He no doubt would have exhibited a greater sense of empathy to the Southern states and would have sympathized more greatly with their rebuilding process, in all likelihood, attempting to make it easier for them (Lamb & Swain, 2008). As some have argued, the death of Lincoln only bolstered the sense of hatred and vengeance from those in the North onto the Southern states; had Lincoln lived, Radical Republicans of Congress would have not been able to push such inflammatory bills such as the Wade-Davis bill which just sought to punish southerners (Jensia, 2008). Such radicals would have had to follow a more diplomatic plan established by Lincoln. Many southerners believed in Lincoln's sense of justice and temperance, and they believed that if there was a leader who could bridge the sense of animosity and hostility between north and south, it was no doubt him (Jensia, 2008). Lincoln's death meant that Reconstruction for the south was a far more involved, debilitating process, characterized heavily by a sense of Northerners attempting to discipline the South.
The Johnson plan went further than Lincoln’s and was more severe. He proposed that Confederates who owned property in excess of $20,000 would not be granted a pardon. He also suggested that prior to readmitting a state back into the Union, slavery had to be completely abolished, they had to pay annulled Confederate war debts, and each state had to repeal its succession ordinance. Initially, the plan proposed that high officials not be allowed to take an oath that would allow voting privileges, this was later changed and allowed for the restoration of property, voting rights, and political
Viewing Lincoln's plans for Reconstruction as a "kindness" is an interesting perspective. His plan, involving what would be the slow but steady economic return of the South, was certainly much more lenient than what more radical members of Congress wanted. However, I think it's more so that Lincoln simply persisted with his original intentions on the reunification of the Union. After all, it'd be difficult to have a whole state when one half of it is still left in the ruination of a lost war. Lincoln always thought ahead, and I believe he knew if the North and Washington did nothing to help the South after the end of the Civil War, bad feelings would remain and make it more difficult to truly
Johnson stated that the seven remaining states would be admitted if: they withdrew its secession, swore allegiance to Union, anul Confederate was debts, and ratify the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. The only main difference being that Johnson did not want high-ranking Confederates and wealthy Southern landowners to take the oath needed to vote. The Radical Republicans were infuriated by Johnson’s Plan because it failed to effectively help former slaves. They wanted a plan stricter on the punishment of the Southerners, and one that addressed the land, voting, and protection under the law of slaves. This is why when Johnson pardoned all Southerners the Radicals refused to admit the Southern representatives back into Congress.
When Johnson let the South back into the Union he helped to make all the people who had died for the right to equality for all worthless. President Johnson was from the south originally. He had been a poor white living in Kentucky, and so had learned to hate the rich, white Plantation owners. But he always felt above the slaves which later influenced his decision to let the very people he had grown up hating back in to the Union. When congress passed the 13th Amendment banning slavery many of the people in the south feared what would happen to them. Johnson, who related to the poor white folk, knew that they needed someone who they could say "at least I'm better than you" about. The only way he saw to do that was by letting the South have their lands and rights back so that they could do something about their former slaves. So the pardons started rolling out of the Round Office like a printing press. The Radical Republicans weren't happy about it but at that point they couldn't stop him. The south began to return to the way it was.