RIVAL PLANS FOR
RECONSTRUCTION
12.1
OBJECTIVES
Explain why a plan was needed for
Reconstruction of the South.
 Compare the Reconstruction plans of Lincoln,
Johnson, and Congress.
 Discuss Johnson’s political difficulties and
impeachment.

KEY PARTS
The Issues of Reconstruction
 Lincoln Set a Moderate Course
 Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan
 Congressional Reconstruction

INTRODUCTION
Read section 12.1
 Answer questions 4 and 5

THE ISSUES OF RECONSTRUCTION
The era of Reconstruction was 1865-1877.
 The government struggled with how to return the
eleven southern states to the Union, rebuild the
South’s ruined economy and promote the rights of
former slaves.
 The Constitution did not outline the process of
secession or readmission of states.

CONT.
The Civil War devastated the South’s economy,
between 1860 and 1870, the South’s share of the
nations total wealth declined from more than
30% to 12%.
 The Union Army destroyed factories, plantations,
and railroads, and nearly half of the livestock.
 Also ¼ of the southern men from the age of 20 to
40 were dead.

CONT..
There was a large issue of what to do with the
plantation land that was abandoned during the
war.
 General William Tecumseh Sherman proposed
that millions of acres should be confiscated by the
government and be given to former slaves. “Give
them forty acres and a mule”
 The south obviously didn’t agree and even the
slaves said they felt they should have to pay for
the land.

LINCOLN SETS A MODERATE COURSE
Before President Lincoln died he proposed a plan
hoping to let the south back into the union easily.
 In 1863 he issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and
reconstruction known as the Ten Percent Plan.
 This plan meant that once ten percent of the
states voters took loyalty to the Union then they
could set up a new government.

CONT.
The state’s constitution had to abolish slavery
and provide education for African Americans to
regain representation in Congress.
 Radicals begin to oppose the Ten Percent Plan, a
group of Radical Republicans insisted that the
Confederates had committed crimes and should
be punished for them.
 Rejecting Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan, Congress
passed the Wade-Davis Bill in 1864.

CONT..
President Lincoln killed this plan by “pocket
veto” which means he withheld his signature
beyond the ten day deadline at the end of the
congressional session.
 One Radical Republican plan did get presidential
support. The Freedmen’s Bureau was created to
provide food, clothing, healthcare, and education
for both black and white refugees in the South.

JOHNSON RECONSTRUCTION PLAN
After Lincoln’s assassination Vice President
Andrew Johnson took over as President.
 Johnson was like Lincoln in the fact that he
wanted the southern states back in the Union,
however he did not care about the outcome of the
African Americans.
 Johnson was big on states rights and made it
very easy for the south to get back into the Union
as long as they would accept the 13th amendment
which abolished slavery.

CONT.
This worked for the most part except for the fact
that none of the blacks were allowed to vote,
become landowners, and only allowed to do
certain jobs.
 The south developed Black Codes which were
laws that sought to limit the rights of African
Americans and keep the landless workers.
 There also was vagrancy laws that stated African
Americans will be arrested if found not having
employment and be forced to work as prison
labor.

CONT..
Both Radical and moderate Republicans were
infuriated by the South’s disregard of the spirit of
Reconstruction.
 When the southern representatives arrived in
Washington, D.C. Congress refused them their
seats.
 Congress sought to overturn the black codes by
passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866. However
President Johnson vetoed the act.

CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION
Johnson was now openly defying Congress.
 For the first time ever Congress passed major
legislation of over a President’s veto; which took
a 2/3 majority vote. The Civil Rights Act of 1866
became law.
 Congress also passed the Fourteenth Amendment
which guaranteed equality under the law for all
citizens. Also any state that refused to allow
black people to vote would risk losing the number
of seats in the House of Representatives.

CONT.
Congress again passed legislation over Johnson’s
veto with the ratification of the Military
Reconstruction Act of 1867.
 This divided the 10 southern states that had yet
to be readmitted to the Union into five military
districts governed by former Union generals.
 The power struggle between Congress and the
President reached a crisis in 1867.

CONT..
The house of representatives voted to impeach
Johnson in 1867.
 By 1868 the radicals failed by one vote to remove
Johnson from office.
 Johnson promised to enforce the Reconstruction
Acts
 In 1868 Ulysses S. Grant was elected President.
 In 1869 Congress passed the fifteenth
Amendment forbidding any state from denying
suffrage on the grounds of race, color or previous
condition of servitude.
