Name: _________
1-7-2019
Reconstruction
Learning Target:
1. I can compare and contrast the differences between Johnson’s plan and the Radical Republicans
plan.
2. I can identify the challenges facing the country in the Reconstruction time.
Bridge:
Imagine that you have two sons. Your older son has been bullying and fighting your younger son. The
older son says he is upset because the younger son gets more attention. You punish your older son, and
he responds by running away from home. Before he leaves, he steals $500 from you.
What would you do when your son returns? Would you punish him harshly, so he won’t do it again, or
be lenient with him if he promises not to do it again? Explain your choice.
Civil War Slides:
1. What do you notice about the images of the
South from the Civil War?
[Pair and Share]
List some challenges/problems (at least 3) that the USA is going to have to face after the Civil
War.
Presidential Reconstruction
In the 1864 election, Lincoln chose Andrew Johnson as his
vice-presidential running mate as a gesture of unity.
Johnson was a War Democrat from Tennessee, a state on
the border of the north-south division in the United States.
Johnson was a good political choice as a running mate
because he helped garner votes from the War Democrats
and other pro-Southern groups.
Unfortunately, Johnson was unprepared for the presidency
thrust upon him with Lincoln’s assassination. The Radical
Republicans believed at first that Johnson, unlike Lincoln,
wanted to punish the South for seceding. However, on May
29, 1865, Johnson issued his own reconstruction
proclamation that was largely in agreement with Lincoln’s
plan. Johnson, like Lincoln, held that the southern states
had never legally left the Union, and he retained most of
Lincoln’s 10 percent plan.
Lincoln’s 10 percent plan said that when 10 percent of a
state’s voters had taken an oath of loyalty, the state could re-organize a state government and return to
congress. Although certain people, such as former Confederate government officials and military
officers, could not take the oath.
Johnson’s plan went further than Lincoln’s and excluded those Confederates who owned taxable
property in excess of $20,000 from the pardon. These wealthy Southerners were the ones Johnson
believed led the South into secession. However, these Confederates were allowed to petition him for
personal pardons. Those who he pardoned also had their property returned. Before the year was over,
Johnson, who seemed to savor power over the aristocrats who begged for his favor, had issued some
13,000 such pardons. These pardons allowed many of the planter aristocrats the power to exercise
control over Reconstruction of their states. The Radical Republicans were outraged that the planter elite
once again controlled many areas of the south.
When Congress met in December 1865 for the first time since Lincoln's death, all but Mississippi had
accepted Johnson's easy requirements for re-admission. Though they approved the 13th Amendment
abolishing slavery, the Southern states had restored the old elite to power and sent all-white
delegations to Washington, including many former Confederate leaders. Outraged Radicals, joined now
by the moderates, simply omitted them from the roll call, effectively denying them and their states
admittance.
1. How did Johnson –the only Southerner left in Congress after the South left the Union –
become president?
2. Under Johnson’s plan, how did a state get back into the Union?
A. 50% of the population swore a loyalty oath
B. 10% of the population swore a loyalty oath
C. The new state government had to include the freedmen in decision making
D. The new state government had to pay for the war effort
3. Were Confederate officers and government officials allowed to rejoin the union? Were
there exceptions?
4. What was the goal of Johnson’s plan?
5. Did his plan protect the rights of the newly freedmen?
6. In 1865, most of the South had re-joined the Union. Who did they choose as delegates
to go to Congress? How did Congress respond?
[Summary Question]
7. In your opinion, what do you think of Johnson’s Plan?
i. Describe how the plan treated the South and if you agree with this
treatment.
ii. Did the plan help or protect the newly freed African-Americans?
iii. What would you change about the plan?
iv. Do you think the plan was a success?
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