Reconstruction Agendas
President Lincoln Throughout the entire Civil War, President Lincoln’s primary intentions were directed toward resolving the tension between the states and re-uniting the Union. Lincoln centered his Reconstruction Plan on that same goal, using strategy moves such as re-instating private property (not slaves) and non-harsh managements of rebellion. One of Lincoln’s major Reconstruction actions included his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, issued in 1863, offering full pardon and restoration of property to the South, in exchange for loyalty and adherence to U.S. Law and emancipation.
Another operation encompassed the 10 Percent Plan, allowing Southern states to re-enter the Union, once 10% of voters swore oaths of U.S. allegiance, more of an political maneuver, than a plan fro Reconstruction, intended to get the South to surrender and end the war. Unfortunately, Lincoln was unable to attempt any other efforts in the Reconstruction mission upon his death in 1865, issuing a racist Andrew Johnson as the new President and leader of Reconstruction. Andrew Johnson After being instated into office after the death of President Lincoln, Johnson principally applied his belief that the responsibilities of Reconstruction fell on the hands of the executive, and not the legislative, and notifying his use of “Restoration”, instead of “Reconstruction”.
One of his major actions I this movement, was substantially providing Confederate pardons, often as 100 pardons per day, while also installing a strengthened class bias. The main goal of Johnson’s was to build a alliance between Northern Democrats, conservative Republicans, and Southern Unionists. Johnson plan’s for “Restoration” however never included improving the political freedoms of freedmen, and continuing an anti-black bias, which already proved detrimental to reparation of the Union, causing more Southern racist tension. Congressional “Radical” and Moderate Republicans The Republicans, both Moderate and Democratic, crucial beliefs was in universal political rights and economic opportunity for all U.S.
citizens. “Felt that once free labor, universal education, and equal rights were implanted in the South, that region would be able to share in the North’s material wealth, progress, and fluid social mobility”- Out of Many. The primary goals of the republicans was to cultivate free education, successful manufacturing and arts, and social independence, while also developing political equality and economic opportunities for every U.S. citizen, especially for freed slaves.
Radicals supported the idea that the power of the federal government would be central to the remaking of the southern society, “especially in guaranteeing civil rights and suffrage.” The republicans felt the need, that in order to change the country, they had first needed to change the whole fabric of southern society. This probably seemed like the most effective plan of the Reconstruction movement since one of the foremost reasons for the jolt of the Civil War was racial tension between states, and one of the foremost reasons for stalling the Re-Union, which by providing African American with freedoms and fighting ant-black sentiment would push the United States from the shattered reflection of its past, and into a new goal for its future.
