Abraham Lincoln and Johnson's Reconstructional Plan

Abraham Lincoln framed a lenient plan of reconstruction before the Civil War ended with an aim to heal rather than hurt and integrate states back to the Union.. He was also for less intervention from the federal government during the process of integration. This is seen in this programs like the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, 1863 by which Southerners states that seceded from the Union would be governed by a governor. In addition, most of the Southerners would be pardoned and the Confederate leaders would have to take an oath of allegiance to the United States government and Constitution. Besides, the 10% plan made it compulsory for least 10% of the voters to take an oath in support of the Federal government and the US Constitution. Furthermore, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamations which freed the slaves forever. Moreover, the Freedmen's Bureau, 1866, an agency of the US army ( a temporary body for the purpose of reconstruction) took the charge of providing basic amenities like food, medicine, clothing to the Blacks and also prepared them to be lawful citizens, a right which was denied to them by the white society.

All this caused a lot of bitterness among the Northerners toward the Federal government who felt that the policies were too lenient and proposed a harder deal known as the Wade-Davis Bill according to which the Southern States could be integrated to the Union after 50 percent of voters took an oath of allegiance to the Union .This was not accepted by President Lincoln. However, The Emancipation Proclamation issued by Lincoln came into effect in January 1863, was a step towards providing basic necessities like freedom, health care, and employment to the former slaves. The 13^th, 14^th and the 15^th Amendments of the Constitution were passed with view to safe guard the Black African Americans and to outlaw slavery in the whole of America. After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his successor Andrew Johnson took a more lenient policy which was disliked by the Radical Republicans. With a lack of a strong Federal control not much could be achieved with regard to the conditions of the Black Africans in the Southern States. The Black Codes that existed curbed the freedom of the Blacks and they still were made to work on plantations on contract. As the governments of the Southern States were in the hands of the Negro men, the white men who were disfranchised for supporting the Confederates were indignant towards the new regime and decided to overthrow the government. They started secret societies to keep the Negros away from polls. The consequence was the rise of the Ku Klux Klan that terrorized the Negros and sympathized with the whites. All this was because of the lack of a strong federal control in the South. However, slowly white domination was established in all the Southern States.The Radical section of the Republican Party strongly criticized Johnsons lenient plan and split became inevitable.