Name: ______________________________ Date: _____________________ Period: ____________

RECONSTRUCTION: Presidential vs. Congressional Plans

Essential Question: How did the Reconstruction plans and policies of the President and Congress differ?
In the spring of 1865, the Civil War came to an end, leaving over 620,000 dead and a devastating path of destruction
throughout the South. The North now faced the task of rebuilding the war-torn Confederate states. The process of fixing
the South was made even more difficult because Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and Congress had differing
ideas on how Reconstruction should be handled.
Directions: Read the following articles on Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction. As you read, underline the
major beliefs that each group’s vision for Reconstruction are based upon and answer the questions in the margins.

Presidential Reconstruction
On April 11, 1865, two days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Main Idea: What was Lincoln’s
surrender, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his last public address, during primary goal when rebuilding
Congressional
which he described aReconstruction
generous Reconstruction policy and urged compassion and the South?
open-mindedness throughout the process. He declared that secession was
constitutionally impossible and therefore the Confederate states had never left
the Union. Individuals, not states, Lincoln argued, had rebelled, and the
Constitution gave the president the power to pardon individuals. In short, Lincoln
wanted to make the South’s readmission into the United States as quick and Main Idea: In your own words,
easy as possible. what was Lincoln’s “Ten-
Even before the war had ended, Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Percent Plan”?
Amnesty and Reconstruction in 1863, his compassionate policy for dealing with
the South. The Proclamation stated that all Southerners could be forgiven and
reinstated as U.S. citizens if they took an oath of allegiance (loyalty) to the
Constitution and the Union and pledged to free their slaves. High -ranking
Supporting Detail: Who was
officials who participated in the southern rebellion were excluded from this
pardon and would not be permitted to hold public office. Lincoln’s Proclamation excluded from Lincoln’s plan
was called the “10 percent plan” because once 10 percent of the voting (who wouldn’t be “off the
population in any state had taken the oath, a state government could be put in hook”?)?
place and the state could be reintegrated into the Union.
Though many Congressmen disliked Lincoln’ s Ten-Percent Plan, Vice
President Andrew Johnson agreed with many aspects of Lincoln’s Reconstruction
proposal. When Lincoln was assassinated, Andrew Johnson took over the
presidency and introduced a plan that shared many of the same traits as
Lincoln’s “ Ten-Percent Plan.” Like Lincoln, Johnson believed that the Southern Supporting Detail: How did
states had never really left the Union. He declared that each remaining Johnson & Lincoln’s plans
Confederate state could be readmitted to the Union if it would meet several address the needs of former
conditions. Each state would have to withdraw its secession, swear allegiance to slaves?
the Union, and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery. The
one major difference between Lincoln and Johnson’s plans was that Johnson
wished to prevent most high -ranking Confederates and wealthy Southern
landowners from taking the oath needed for voting privileges. However, Johnson
was not particularly eager to allow former slaves to vote either. He pardoned Summary: In 3 words, describe
more than 13,000 former Confederates because he believed that “white men Lincoln and Johnson’s
alone must manage the South.” Neither his plan nor Lincoln’s addressed the Reconstruction plans (known as
needs of former slaves in three main areas: land, voting rights, and protection Presidential Reconstruction):
under law.
The Confederate states quickly agreed to Johnson’s terms. Within a few
months, all of the Southern states except Texas held conventions to draw up new
state constitutions, to set up new state governments, and to elect representatives
to Congress. On December 6, 1865 Johnson announced that the southern state
had met his conditions for Reconstruction and that the Union was now restored.
How might this plan create
However, when Congress met that same month, the Northern Republicans were
enraged to discover that some of the newly elected representatives to Congress conflict?
from the South were former Confederate leaders, including the former vice
president of the Confederacy. It was clear to these Northerners that a better
Reconstruction plan was needed.
 Congressional Reconstruction
Congressmen generally rejected both Lincoln and Johnson’s plans for Supporting Detail: What
Reconstruction. They believed that by seceding, the southern states had given were Congress’s 2 main goals
up “all civil and political rights under the Constitution.” Moreover, they when rebuilding the South?
believed that it was the responsibility of Congress and not the president to
plan and oversee Reconstruction. In June of 1866, Congress, led by the Radical
Republicans, rejected Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan and began implementing
their own.
The Republicans in Congress had two main goals that anchored their Who comprised this Congress?
Reconstruction plan. The first goal was to integrate African Americans into
society by granting them full citizenship and the right to vote. The second
goal, necessary to ensure the success of the first, was to destroy the political Supporting Detail: In your
power of former slaveholders. To achieve these goals, Congress began their own words, what did the 14th
Reconstruction plan by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This law gave amendment do?
African Americans citizenship, forbade states from passing discriminatory laws,
known as black codes and also authorized the use of federal troops comprised
mainly of Northern soldiers for its enforcement.
Though President Johnson vetoed this bill, Congress overrode his veto.
Shortly after, Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment, which
provided the constitutional basis for the Civil Rights Act. This amendment
made “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” citizens of the
country. All were entitled to equal protection of the law, and no state could
deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law. All Main Idea: Describe Congress’s
Republicans agreed that when the former Confederate states ratified the Reconstruction plan (the
Fourteenth Amendment, they would be welcomed back into the Union. Reconstruction Act of 1867).
When none of the former Confederate states ratified the Fourteenth
Amendment, Congress recognized that more drastic measures would be
needed to achieve their goals
The next year, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867.
According to this law, none of the state governments formed under Lincoln
and Johnson’s plans were legal (except Tennessee, which had ratified the Supporting Detail: In your
Fourteenth Amendment). The act divided the ten former Confederate states own words, what did the 15th
into five military districts, each headed by a Union general. The voters in the amendment do?
districts, including African American men, would elect delegates to
conventions in which new state constitutions would be drafted. In order for a
state to reenter the Union, its constitution had to ensure African American
men the vote, and the state had to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.
Moreover, to ensure that Southerners could not change their state
constitutions in the future to repeal the gains made through Reconstruction,
Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment. According to this amendment, no Summary: In 3 words, describe
state could keep someone from voting on the basis of their “race, color, or Congressional Reconstruction:
previous condition of servitude.” Finally, the last congressional Reconstruction
law came in 1875 with the passage of another Civil Rights Act. This law forbid
racial discrimination in jury selection, transportation, restaurants, and m any
other public places. It did not guarantee equality in schools, churches, and
cemeteries. Unfortunately, the Act lacked a strong enforcement mechanism.

Discussion Questions:
1. Which plan best addressed the Goals of Reconstruction?
2. Which plan would you prefer if you were a former slave, a Confederate soldier, a Radical Republican?
3. Which of the Amendments passed were the most consequential for Freedmen?

1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874