How Was Johnson Similar To Lincoln's Reconstruction Plan

After the Civil War between 1865 and 1877, the country went into Reconstruction. They had to rebuild the south because of Sherman’s plan of total war. In Sherman’s plan, his army took food and burned property, destroying everything that could be used by the Confederates during the war. President Lincoln helped by giving amnesty for Confederate soldiers and a plan for readmission to the Union of the Southern states. He also proposed the Ten Percent Plan. The plan allowed states to be readmitted to the Union if ten percent of its voters swore a loyalty oath to the Union and agreed to the end of slavery. President Johnson took office once Lincoln got assassinated, this changed the course of Reconstruction because he was a southerner and a democrat. He had more sympathy for southerners and many former Confederates assumed political office as soon as their state was readmitted to the Union.

President Andrew Jackson opposed Lincoln’s plan of reconstruction, instead of forgiving the south like Lincoln wanted, Jackson wanted the south to suffer and pay for what it had cause, therefore

Congress comes in to play in December 1865. The Congress was made up mostly of Republicans and they refused to let past Confederates to take their seats in Congress at this time. This marked the beginning of Radical Reconstruction or sometimes known as Congressional Reconstruction. The president and the congress did not agree on many issues. Congress overrode President Johnson on the Civil Rights Act of 1866, The Fourteenth Amendment, and the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill. The Fourteenth Amendment spelled out rights of both black and white citizens as equal. It prolonged Federal powers for the enforcement of civil rights. States that approved the Fourteenth Amendment were considered reconstructed, and Tennessee did so. President Johnson advised other southern states to oppose doing this. Congress passed many laws to limit President Johnson’s powers. They passed the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 which set new

To counter Lincoln’s 10 Percent Plan, Radical Republicans, Senator Benjamin Wade and Representative Henry Winter Davis, prepared a stricter plan of Reconstruction

During the period 1865 to 1941, there were as many as 18 presidents in office and in one way or another, they would’ve had to deal with the ongoing issue of black civil rights, whether that be improving them or reversing them. 1865 was the year of the end of the civil war, which has been a war over the question of whether slavery should be allowed. The South was defending the right to keep slavery within their confederate states, and the north was opposed to any extension of slavery. This was a key point in the fight for African American civil rights. 1865 was also known for the introduction of the 13th

Congress passes the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which divided the South into districts and required Southern states to approve the 14th Amendment to grant blacks citizenship, before rejoining the Union. Later, congress gives African Americans the right to vote by ratifying the 15th Amendment. The Reconstruction established the South’s first state-funded public school systems, created a just taxation legislation, and passed laws against discrimination and economic development programs. The approach of Congress was different than Johnson’s plan, because they worked to improve the lives of African Americans by passing laws in their favor, and expanding their rights. Congress did not care what the South wanted, and expected the South to abide by their rules. On the other hand, Johnson wanted to preserve the nation, and did not want to do anything to anger the South. Moreover, he was a strong believer in states rights, and the idea that the federal government had no right to enforce restrictive laws on the entire country.

On the other hand, the army finally caught up to John Wilkes Booth and killed him. Since President Abraham Lincoln died, Vice President, Andrew Johnson from Tennessee became the new president of the United States. Radical republicans favored him because they thought he would be very harsh on pardoning the south back into the Union.

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,

The first approach towards reconstruction was President Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan—an unsuccessful strategy for the matter that left congress uncertain of its lenient circumstances. The presidential plan was to allow the seceded states to return to the union without punishment, with only one exception. The single rule to Lincoln’s plan was that ten percent of a seceded state’s population had to swear an oath of allegiance to the United States in order to return without discipline. Abraham Lincoln was not on the same page as congress, who believed that his plan was too weak. Congress felt that the south needed to be punished for their actions.

Abraham Lincoln and his Vice President, Andrew Jackson, who took over once he was killed, were only concerned with making sure that the plan for Reconstruction happened quick and easy going. When Congress ended up creating the Freedmen’s Bureau, this

In 1867, Congress passed a new Reconstruction Act, that threw out the state governments of states that refused to ratify the 14th amendment. The 15th amendment was ratified in 1870, providing a constitutional guarantee of voting rights for African American males.

After the death of President Lincoln’s assassination, President Johnson abled himself to take on the responsibility of Reconstruction a possibility. America: A Narrative History states: “Andrew Johnson supported Lincoln’s policies, while a peace wing of the party preferred an end to the fighting, even if that meant risking the Union.” (America, 682) He was to take the concepts of reconstruction from Lincoln but added a more

To make the adjustment easier and quicker, Lincoln proposed the Ten Percent Plan. The Ten Percent Plan essentially created unity of the North and the South. The Ten Percent Plan forgave all the high-ranking confederate officials; however, only if they swore to the Union. Second, if a Southern state abided

The plans for Reconstruction offered by Abraham Lincoln were to give a full pardon to the people that took an oath of honor and loyalty to the United States, so long as they promised to uphold all new federal laws regarding slavery. While doing this he would temporarily exclude those who held offices of high confederate and military positions. He would then allow each state to elect members to Congress, after they had 1/10 of the participating voters from the 1860 election take the oath within the state. The goal of Abraham Lincoln's Reconstruction plan was to end the war quicker and reunite the north and south.

In this paper I will identify two major historical turning points in the period from 1865-1900. I will analyze the impact that these turning had on America’s current society, economy, politics, and culture. I will describe two ways the Reconstitution period may have been affected if President Lincoln had not been assassinated. Finally, I will give examples of how the federal and/or state courts and legislature passed down laws between 1865-1900 that served to discriminate against non-white citizens and immigrants.