RECONSTRUCTION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

RECONSTRUCTION - Essay Example ecause the radical Republicans did not agree with President Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson on softer terms of bringing back the South to the Union. The Liberal Republicans were of the opinion that those whites who had not held onto the ideologies of the union should not have had their rights restored. It was still during the civil war that President Abraham Lincoln made plans to reconstruct the Union. The president first made sure that the union armies conquered the large sections of Tennessee and that this state was under the control of the national government. After this is when he moved to put his plan into action. From his second inaugural address, it was clear that Abraham Lincoln thought it better to approach the matter soberly and not punish the south. His plan focused on all including the South that had born the battle. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln appointed Andrew Johnson to govern the state of Tennessee to serve as a model state for the south. The president then asked the voters of Tennessee to at least have 10% of them taking an oath to uphold the constitution. When this oath was taken, all persons save for the highest officers in the confederate army would be pardoned for their contribution to the war. The rights of the citizens would also be restored except for the slaves. The president also required that the states that would be reconstructed to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. This amendment abolished slavery. This, the president called it the ‘new birth of freedom.’ He was however worried that this would not be received well by the whites in the south. He was of the opinion that, just like the white people, the black people were American citizens (Murrin 463) Due to the differences in ideology between Lincoln and the congress, in July 1864, there was the first direct clash. The congress passed the Wade-Davis bill and adjourned shortly after passing the bill. For Lincoln to continue with his reconstruction plan, he vetoed it by failing to