After the civil war, the question of “what’s next” was the main focus throughout politics, the government and the country. Abraham Lincoln was president during that time and he had a plan for reconstruction he hoped would bring the nation back together quickly and easily without too many harsh punishments or difficulties. Unfortunately, after Lincoln was murdered, his Vice President, Andrew Johnson had a plan for reconstruction that was different than Lincoln’s and many disagreed with Johnson’s views and ideas. Radical Republicans, were a large majority of the people who did not like Johnson the most, and so they came up with a reconstruction plan of their own as well, however only one was put into place and it changed the future of the United States forever.
President Lincoln developed a reconstruction plan called the “Ten Percent Plan”. This reconstruction plan offered general amnesty to former confederate supporters and to former confederates if they took an oath in which pledged allegiance to the Union and accepted the end of slavery. Also, after ten percent of a state’s voting population had taken that oath, the state could then set up its new government. After those requirements were completed, and the state outlawed slavery, the state could then be readmitted to the Union. The president felt that only some African Americans deserved the right to vote, with that he decided that only black men who served in the Union army, owned property, or could read would be allowed