How Did Lincoln's Reconstruction Plan

As soon as President Andrew Johnson signed a Proclamation which promised order and peace to the United States on August 20th, 1865, the Civil War was formally ended. Though the Confederates had been dominated, there was still a battle to preserve the Southern lifestyle against the impeding Northern republican ideals. President Lincoln had plans to peacefully restore the country to the Union it was prior to the war, but his assassination created set-backs to his plan. While both the North and the South were working toward reconciliation in the nation, the north was more interested in creating a controlling, centralized government while the south was concerned with protecting and preserving their southern customs and ideals. While there were many attempts at reconstructing, the Reconstruction era ultimately failed at unifying the Union under agreed terms due to the constant disagreements between the north and the south.

After the Civil War, the United States had many problems to solve. The country had to figure out how to integrate newly freed slaves into society and bring the former Confederate states back into the Union. Reconstruction was period of time after the civil war in which the United States addressed these problems. Reconstruction had two different phases: Presidential Reconstruction took place from 1865 to 1867, and Congressional Reconstruction took place from 1867 to 1877. Presidential Reconstruction began with Abraham Lincoln, who proposed the Proclamation of Amnesty and the ten percent oath plan. Lincoln was focused on leniency and forgiveness; under his plan southerners would take an oath of loyalty to the Union, and after only ten percent of a state’s voters had taken this oath, the state could be readmitted. After Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson took over Reconstruction. Johnson wanted to punish landowners, but liberally handed out pardons, as he greatly enjoyed the power that he had over southerners. Under Johnson, former confederates were re-elected, and southern states discriminated blacks. Eventually, Congress took over Reconstruction. During Congressional Reconstruction, the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments were passed, and the freedman’s bureau was created. Overall, the failures of Reconstruction outweighed the failures because it took a very long time for it to achieve its goals, and the South was still able to

Disagreements over Reconstruction lead to conflict in government and in the South. Andrew Johnson was the vice president of Abraham Lincoln. After Lincoln was assassinated, Johnson became President and was in control of how Reconstruction would go. Johnson was originally from the South, he was pro-slavery, and he wanted a lenient plan for Reconstruction. While Congress was out of session, Johnson created and put into effect a Reconstruction plan. The opposite party to Johnson was the Radical Republicans. Radical Republicans were mostly from the North, they were anti-slavery, and they wanted a strict plan for Reconstruction. They had strong support from scalawags, carpetbaggers, and freedmen. Their main goal of Reconstruction was to be a total reconstruction of society to guarentee black people true equality. Another party in this battle was the Klu Klux Klan. The Klu Klux Klan used terror to stop African Americans from gaining any power. They would whip, torture, shoot, hang, and sometimes burn people alive. There were hundreds of lives lost during the 1868 election. This cause voting from African Americans to decline. After all of the disagreements about Reconstruction, the end of Reconstruction still failed to give African Americans rights.

Government had brought the seceded Southern states back into the Union, and they ended slavery and they tried their best to protect newly emancipated the slaves. But they rebuilt the nation after a lot more four years of fighting. The reconstruction occurred in 2 phases, the Presidential Reconstruction was very lenient in order Southern states to rejoin the Union quickly, this was initiated by President Lincoln but was carried out by President Andrew Johnson. The Congressional Reconstruction was stricter and protected rights from former slaves and they kept Confederate leaders from regaining power. But, before the Civil War Lincoln proposed his 10% Plan, which was lenient and allowed the Confederate states could re-enter the Union when, 10% of their population had sworn an Oath of Loyalty and they ratified the 13th Amendment ending all slavery. But, the Radicals in Congress had rejected his plan because, it did not protect ex-slaves and didn’t keep them from regaining power, they also wanted to have 50% of the population to swear to an oath of loyalty. But, the states could come back once they ratified the 13th amendment. But, the southern passed black codes in order to keep African- Americans from getting any land, jobs, voting rights, and also protection under the law. Finally, in 1865, the Freedmen's Bureau had been established and offered assistance to former slaves and to protect their new

In the beginning of 1865, the Civil War came to a close, abandoning over 620,000 dead and a destructive path of devastating all over the south. The North now was confronted with the task of reconstructing the destroyed and aggrieved Confederate states.

After the tragedy of Lincoln's death, Vice President Andrew Johnson stepped up into the presidential position and started his own plans for reconstruction; his too, would turn out to be a failure. He supported hardcore Democratic principles and restoring Southern power. He brought in the remaining states back into the constitution. He divided the power of planters and restricted there voting He created the idea of "blanket pardons" which allowed Southern states that had abolished slavery and repealed their articles of secession to re-assume their powers of government and elect representatives to the Congress. This all backfired because while the south was happy and the Blacks weren't voting under Johnson, the Radical Republicans were angered and more conflict was started. The whole idea of everyone being happy wasn't working at all with anyone. Johnson was the second to go, being the first impeached president ever.

In 1863 Lincoln’s Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction plan was created for a rapid forgiving restoration of a broken union therefore granting Southern states political power, create new constitutions, organize new government, and create new legislatures within each state. In the beginning this sounded great for all parties but in reality the South encountered difficult circumstances before it was effective. In 1865 Andrew Johnson became president he supported white supremacy and defender of

As the Civil War continued in 1863 Lincoln Had announced his plan called the Ten-Percent Plan of Reconstruction. The main goal of the plan was to abolish slavery by getting ten percent of the voters to take the oath, so that when the ten percent was reached they could elect a new state government, which would abolish slavery. In the textbook it states "Lincoln's plan offered no role to blacks in shaping the post-slavery order." There was only select few states that took this oath and those states were Louisiana, Tennessee, and Arkansas. All of these events has started to take place after the victories at the battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg in 1863, Lincoln felt as If the south had never truly succeeded into the union. Lincoln agreed that

When President Abraham Lincoln assassination occurs on 1865, vice president Andrew Johnson gained office. Lincoln was a moderate Republican, who wanted to rebuild the nation without punishing the South, and wanted to give African American the right to vote or suffrage. Before his assassination, he had a plan for reconstruction in where he would pardon the south and allow them to reintegrate the Union. It would only have been possible if 10% of the voters took an oath of loyalty, but due to his dead, the 10% plan couldn't be carried out. President Johnson was a Democrat that believes that citizenship and voting rights were to be determined by each state individually; he also agreed with Lincoln that states never legally left the Union. In fact,

Many questions emerged after the end of the Civil War. The two most common questions were: “How do we put the South back into the Union” and “What do we do with the free slaves?” The Reconstruction Era is known for its two parts. The first would be the Presidential Plan of Reconstruction and the other would be the Congressional Plan of Reconstruction. The Presidential Plan was proposed by Abraham Lincoln but was enacted by President Andrew Johnson. The plan consisted of ways on how to rebuild the South. This plan was also known as the Ten Percent Plan because the Union will take the certain amount of voters in a Confederate state, at least ten percent of voters from the 1860 Election, to come back to the United States. The Presidential Plan came to an end and then came the Congressional Plan of Reconstruction, which was also known as the Fifty Percent Plan, exactly like the Ten Percent Plan. The only difference is that the Fifty Percent Plan was much more strict. Not only did a Confederate state need at least fifty percent of voters from the 1860 Election but they also needed to rewrite state Constitutions that must be

After the Union claimed victory in the Civil War, America underwent the Reconstruction Era that lasted between 1865 to 1877. This was a time period where the government set conditions that would permit the defiant Southern states once again into the Union and abide by American Government. The “10 percent” plan was part of Abraham Lincolns Reconstruction plan established in 1864, used to rejoin the Southern States back to the Union which Johnson later vetoed because he believed it meant injustice to the Southern States. In 1865, the Freedmen's Bureau was presented in Congress and was made to care for liberated slaves and additionally evacuees and surrendered the land. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act which gave blacks full citizenship and

Before the end of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln began formulating a plan to restore the Confederate states to the Union. His Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction which was being planned in December of 1863, “Provided that if at least ten percent of a state's voters in the 1860 election accepted emancipation and took an oath of allegiance to the United States, then the state could form a new government and return to the Union.” Blacks, who were obviously ignored upon in the 1860 voting, as well as most Confederate officials and army officers of the confederacy. These officials and officers were disenfranchised unless they appealed for and received a presidential pardon from Abraham Lincoln himself. The Radical Republicans considered

Abraham Lincoln is credited to be the reason the Union won the civil war. His death and lack of leadership, rise of the radical republican power, and southern refusal to accept northern policies can arguably be the reason reconstruction failed. After the Union won the war the next task to be addressed was how to readmit the south into the union. Lincoln set the standard in his 1865 second inaugural address stating “malice towards none, and charity for all”. These words would be remembered in the following years as people, like Johnson, look to Lincoln’s ideals during the reconstruction years. Lincoln’s plan for reconstruction supported the idea of a strongly governed united country. Lincoln was one of the few to recognize that one needed to look past personal glory, and instead, do what was best for the country as a whole (Herman Belz pg.5). However, because of Lincoln’s untimely assassination in 1865, the newly re-formed United States was left in the hands

As the Civil War rages on, the question remains, what is next for the United States of America after the North wins? How do we address all the issues for which we went to war for? How do we deal with the people who tried to split our great country into two? Unifying the United States is not going to be an easy task, as the rift between North and the South is enormous, and many differences exist between the two factions. However, I believe that through compromise, perseverance, and communication, the United States can truly be united once again. Confederate states will be let back into the Union after they prove their loyalty. All Confederate generals will be

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