Unit 10-Reconstruction Lesson 57-Plans of Reconstruction

Review After four years of fighting, the Civil War was over. The war was costly. Many lives were lost and the country was in debt. Land and homes suffered great destruction. The federal government now had more power than state governments. Millions of African Americans had been freed. How was the nation going to respond to these changes? This was the big question.

Difficult Questions Following the Civil War, there were many questions to be answered. Would the Southerners be punished or forgiven? What rights would be given to the newly freed African Americans? Could the nation be brought back together and be united as one country again?

Reconstruction The South was faced with many problems following the war. Towns and cities were in ruins, plantations had been destroyed and burned, and roads, bridges, and railways had been torn apart. Many Southern families had to rebuild their lives with few resources and without the men. So many had died in the war.

Reconstruction People throughout the nation believed that the South, economically and socially needed to be rebuilt. Many argued how to rebuild the South. This time period refers to the various plans for accomplishing the rebuilding is known as Reconstruction.

Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan President Lincoln proposed the first plan for Reconstruction in December 1863, while the Civil War was still being fought. This became known as the Ten Percent Plan. Lincoln’s plan stated that when ten percent of the voters in a state took an oath of loyalty to the Union, the state could form a new government and constitution – that banned slavery.

Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan

Lincoln wanted Southerners who supported the Union to take control of the state governments. He believed that punishing the South would be useless and only make it harder to repair the damaged nation. The president offered amnesty, a pardon, to all white Southerners, except for Confederate leaders, who swore loyalty to the Union.

Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan Although Lincoln supported giving African Americans rights, who were educated or served in the Union Army, he would not force the Southern states to give rights held by white Americans to African Americans.

Congress Refuses In 1864, three Union controlled Southern states, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee, established governments under Lincoln’s plan. Congress refused to seat the elected state representatives from these Southern states because they did not agree with Lincoln’s plan.

Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan

Radical Republicans A group of Republicans in Congress believed that Lincoln’s plan was too easy on the South, and believed that Congress should create the plan for Reconstruction, not the president. These Republicans became known as the Radical Republicans because they wanted a tougher and more radical, or extreme, plan.

Wade-Davis Bill The Wade-Davis Bill was passed by Congress in 1864 and was a much harsher Reconstruction plan than Lincoln’s. The plan would require a majority of white males in the state to swear loyalty to the Union before they could create a new state government.

Wade-Davis Bill Congress’ plan stated that a state constitutional convention could be held, but only white males who could swear that they never took up arms against the Union could vote for delegates of the convention. Former Confederates would also be denied the right to hold public office. The new state constitution also had to abolish slavery, then they could be admitted to the Union.

Wade-Davis Bill Lincoln refused to sign Congress’ plan into law. He wanted to encourage the creation of the new state governments so order could be restored quickly. A compromise would have to be made.

Wade-Davis Bill

Freedmen’s Bureau The Freedmen’s Bureau was a federal agency created by the President and Congress to assist former slaves, or freedmen. The agency helped by providing freed men with food, clothes and medical care, as well as helping them acquire land. The Bureau also established schools for former slaves that would be staffed with teachers from the North.

Lincoln’s Assassinated The plans for Reconstruction would be changed five days after Robert E. Lee surrendered, and four years to the day of the attack on Fort Sumter. On April 14, 1865, while attending a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., Abraham Lincoln was shot in the back of the head.

Lincoln’s Assassinated During a loud part of the play, an actor and Confederate supporter, named John Wilkes Booth, entered Lincoln’s private box and shot him. Aides carried Lincoln’s body to a nearby house where the president would die three hours later. News of Lincoln’s death shocked the nation.

Lincoln’s Assassinated

Andrew Johnson According to the U.S. Constitution, when a president dies, the vice president will become the president. Lincoln’s vice president, Andrew Johnson, would become the 17 th president of the United States.

Andrew Johnson

Johnson was a Democrat from Tennessee, who was originally from Raleigh, North Carolina. One of the reasons for being chosen as Lincoln’s vice presidential candidate in 1864 was because Johnson was the only Southern senator to support the Union during the Civil War.

Andrew Johnson Johnson had grown up poor in the backcountry of Tennessee, and resented the slaveholders who had dominated control of the South and wanted to punish them. Congress believed he would agree with a harsh plan of Reconstruction, but he believed in giving the states the right in many decisions, and had no desire to help African Americans.

Restoration President Johnson called his plan, for bringing the South back to into the Union, Restoration. He wanted to grant most Southerners amnesty once they took an oath of loyalty to the Union. High-ranking Confederate officers and wealthy landowners could only be granted amnesty by applying personally to the President.

Restoration Johnson believed that the wealthy landowners had tricked the people of the South into seceding. Only whites who had pledged loyalty and been pardoned would be allowed to vote in the creation of new state governments.

Restoration Andrew Johnson was against giving African Americans equal rights or letting them vote. He believed that each state should get to decide what to do with the newly freed African Americans. “White men alone must manage the South.”

Restoration

Johnson’s plan also required each state constitution to declare that secession was wrong and to abolish slavery, before they would be readmitted to the Union. States would also have to ratify, or approve, the 13 th Amendment to the Constitution, which Congress had passed in January, The amendment abolished slavery in all parts of the United States.

Restoration By the end of 1865, all the former Confederate states, except for Texas, had formed new governments and were ready to rejoin the Union. President Johnson believed that “Restoration” was almost complete.

Conclusion Following the Civil War, the people of the United States, including President Lincoln and Congress, could not agree on how to handle the readmission of the Southern states to the Union. As plans were being created, the nation was shocked to learn that Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated. The new president, Andrew Johnson, would change the ideas on how to restore the Union, instead of rebuild.

Assignments Answer the four review questions for this lesson. Compare the three plans of Reconstruction discussed in this lesson, using a Venn Diagram. You will have a your End of Course exam after you complete Lesson 60