Reconstruction

Ketechia Dillon 20/1/10 DBQ Essay on Reconstruction After the American Civil War had ended, plans for reconstruction of the South were being made. Roads, public structures, private housing and railroads needed to be rebuilt, but the seceded states had to be readmitted into the union before any real reconstruction could begin. Abraham Lincoln came up with the ten percent plan, where only ten percent of white males who had voted had to take an oath, for the state to be readmitted. However, congress felt that a stricter plan was due, where fifty percent of the white males had to take oath to be readmitted into the union. After Lincoln’s assassination, Johnson took over presidency. He too had his own plans which were basically made to focus on what Lincoln had started; getting the Southern states back in the union. Johnson’s plan was called The Presidential Plan; congress again was also very upset about this because they didn’t meet again for another eight months and were unable to put a stop to his plans. Lincoln had his ten percent plan; Congress had the Wade-Davis Bill; where fifty percent of the white males had to take oath and Johnson had his Presidential plan, the goal of each were to readmit and rebuild southern states improving the south socially, politically and economically. Lincoln’s primary goal was to readmit southern states so the union can be rebuilt, which is why the ten percent plan was created. Ten percent of the white males who voted in the 1860 presidential elections had to swear an oath of allegiance to the United States so they could establish a state government, elect officials and apply to be returned to their normal relations as a state within the union. After Lincoln’s death, Vice President Andrew Johnson took over presidency. He basically carried on with Lincoln’s goals and plans. He returned confiscated land to Southerners, which undermined the freedmen’s bureau; granted many pardons to former confederate officers and government officials and agreed to readmit each state that ratified the Thirteenth amendment which abolished slavery. On the other hand Senator Benjamin F. Wade and Representative Henry Winter Davis devised a more stringent plan than Lincoln’s ten percent plan; the Wade-Davis bill. The Wade-Davis Bill required that fifty percent of the state white males take the loyalty oath and that blacks should be giving the right to vote in these states. Congress passed the Bill but Lincoln vetoed it. All the plans were generally focused on one particular goal; reunite the union. Also each plan required that a number of white males take an oath of allegiance. The ten percent plan was sure to accomplish the goal of getting the sate back in the union, but it may mean that majority of the population would still be racist and the states would have lacked social improvement. The Wade-Davis Bill however was much stricter. Because it required that fifty percent of the white males take oath, it would be harder to find that much willing to take oath. It might have also been very hard for them to give blacks the right to vote.