4/23/15
USH
Journal 5.1.3
Pre-Writing
1. Complete the chart to compare the different Reconstruction plans. (6 points)
President Lincoln's Plan
President Johnson's Plan
Radical Plan
How would the South's industries be rebuilt?
Freedmen needed education, homes, and jobs. Where would they live? How would they take care of themselves?
Plantation owners had to deal with property damage. Some of them had lost their land. Planters also lost workers when slavery ended. How would they rebuild their lives?
A lot of people were injured during the war. How would they get medical care?
Many Northerners and Southerners were still angry with one another. How would they work together in the reunited government?
Lincoln's plan required former Confederates to pledge allegiance, or promise to be true, to the Union. They also had to accept the end of slavery. After 10 percent of a Southern state's voters took this oath, the state would be allowed to set up a new government — and it would have to write a new constitution that banned slavery. After that, the state could come back into the Union.
Lincoln felt that some African Americans deserved the right to vote. His plan would give suffrage only to black men who had served in the Union army, who owned property, or who could read. Johnson's Reconstruction Plan
Johnson's plans for Reconstruction differed from Lincoln's:
New governments, old leaders. Johnson planned to select governors to lead Southern states who promised to return Southern society to "normal."
Give land to former Confederates. The Union army and freedmen wanted the land taken or left behind by planters to be given to the former slaves. Instead, Johnson returned this land to its previous owners or gave it to Confederate soldiers, leaving thousands of freedmen homeless.
Forgive and forget. Johnson freed Confederate prisoners, and he pardoned former Confederate soldiers and leaders for their actions against the United States. Many of these people took part in the new governments of Southern states.
Few rights for freedmen. Johnson disliked planters, but he disliked African Americans more. He did not support suffrage or civil rights for freedmen. Ohio senator Benjamin Wade and Maryland representative Henry Winter Davis responded with the Wade-Davis Bill . If passed in Congress, a majority of each Southern state's voting citizens would have to take an oath of allegiance to the United States.
After that, the president would choose a governor for the state. The state could then organize a constitutional convention to write its new constitution. People who wanted to take part would have to swear that they had never fought against the United States. The new state governments would be required to ban slavery, as well as take voting rights away from Confederate leaders.
The Wade-Davis Bill would have allowed each