How Did Abraham Lincoln's Plan For Reconstruction

Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, and Congress offered many different ideas and plans for Reconstruction. Reconstruction was the era succeeding the Civil War in which the United States needed rebuilding. Following the end of the Civil War, the south needed help recognizing slaves as equal citizens after the thirteenth amendment was passed which abolished slavery. Abraham Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction was known as the, Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, also known as the 10% plan. Lincoln’s plan was, a rebel state (southern) could rejoin the Union once ten percent of voters who had voted in 1860 swore an oath of allegiance to the Constitution and the Union and received presidential pardon acquitting them from treason charges (Shi,

The Wade-Davis Bill required that a majority of white male citizens declare their allegiance to the Union and the Constitution before a Confederate state could be re-admitted rather than only ten percent of citizens (Shi, 514). Lincoln vetoed the bill as being too severe and therefore it never became law. The Radical Republicans goal was to punish the south. With the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution being approved it officially abolished slavery everywhere. This caused the question to arise of what exactly freedom meant for the new freed slaves who had nothing (Shi, 515). This lead to Congress creating the Freedmen’s Bureau. The Freedmen’s Bureau aided in helping “freedmen and their wives and children”, and provided assistance directly to the people (Shi, 515). The Freedmen’s Bureau was a major step in the right direction during Reconstruction. It lead to new schools to further education which resulted in creating jobs. It also provided more stability in the states and improved the lives of the people. After Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson was placed into office. Johnson placed a new plan of Reconstruction into action. His plan was comparable to Lincoln’s as it was