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Lincoln And Johnson Approach To Reconstruction Essay

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1. “How did Lincoln and Johnson each approach reconstruction?” Johnson did not have Lincoln’s moral sense and political judgement when it came to reconstruction. “As wartime president, Lincoln had offered amnesty to all but high-ranking Confederates” (464). Lincoln had proposed that when ten percent of a rebellious states voters had sworn loyalty (taken an oath), then the state would be restored to the Union as long as it had approved the thirteenth amendment to abolish slavery. Confederate states rejected Lincoln's offer, however Congress then proposed the Wade-Davis Bill, which Henretta refers to as a tougher substitute to Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan. With Lincoln's assassination, it was time for his vice president, Andrew Johnson, to take over. Henretta seems somewhat critical of Johnson, saying “ [He] was not even a Republican often seemed to view ex-Confederates as his friends, and abolitionists as his enemies” (464). He offered amnesty to southerners who swore allegiance the the United States, except for high ranking Confederates. He also “appointed provisional governors for southern states and had them …show more content…

Supporters of radical reconstruction attempted to increase black political power in the South in order to support Republican policies. They formed political and social institutions to remake the South in the image of the northern free labor states. Many carpetbaggers journeyed to the South to physically take part in economic development. Scalawags worked as white southerners to assist the growth of the Republican Party. Black Radical Republicans also joined Southern politics to enshrine a civil rights agenda and to rebuild the South in a more progressive manner (469). Radicals also created policies such as the Freedmen’s Bureau, the Reconstruction Act, the Reconstruction Amendments (Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth), and used Congress to take apart the Klan in the

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