Political Leader Abraham Lincoln and the Reconstruction Era

The United States has gone through many political changes as a country. Presidents and political leaders have reoccurred, and they have all had distinctive goals and plans going forward. As time goes on, almost all these subversive eras come to an end. One era that has concluded, was the Reconstruction Era. The Reconstruction Era was a moment in America consisting of many presidents, destinations, and attainments. (Highlighted) Abraham Lincoln was one of the first individuals who came up with a plan for Reconstruction.

Even though the Reconstruction era only lasted twelve years, it was one of the most consequential periods in United States history.

The reconstruction of former Confederate states began during the Civil War, and the first stage of reconstruction was Presidential Reconstruction. In 1862, with the Union military proceeding to the South, President Lincoln had chosen army generals to serve as impermanent military governors for oppressed Confederate areas. By the end of 1863, Lincoln had created an architectural plan, supported by conservatives and Republicans, to reestablish government in states freed from Confederate regulation.

On December 8,1863, President Lincoln published a Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction called the “10 percent plan”, which stated that any Confederate state could renew a Union government once a digit equal to 10 percent of those who had voted in 1860 promised loyalty to the Constitution. They also obtained a presidential forgiveness clearing them of crime. However, certain groups were repudiated presidential forgiveness such as: Confederate government officers; senior military officers of the Confederate; judges, congressman, military machine officers of the United States who had left their posts to help the rebellion; and those who had badly treated seized African American soldiers.

In 1864, with the war still incensed, the Radical Republicans tried to take control of Reconstruction by approving the Wade-Davis Bill, paid for and supported by Representative Henry Winter Davis of Maryland and Senator Benjamin Franklin Wade of Ohio. Unlike President Lincoln’s 10-percent plan, the Wade-Davis Bill needed most of white males swear their loyalty to the Union before a Confederate state could be welcomed again. The Wade-Davis Bill never became law, because Lincoln vetoed it as being too jarring. In retribution, Republicans announced the Wade-Davis Manifesto, which suspected Lincoln of going beyond his constitutional authority. Undaunted, Lincoln moved ahead with his exertion to restore the Confederate states to the Union. He was also courageous to provide support the freed slaves in the South.

When the Reconstruction Era started in 1865, the United States was crippled, having just finished combat in the Civil War. The Reconstruction Era was mainly just an interval of rebuilding (hence the “reconstruction”). It was the position where America tried to become a full running country again, but it was not an easy job. President Lincoln was able to change some of his plans through careful consideration, and he was able to make his way through the Reconstruction period by recruiting loyal and reassembled Unionists. Lincoln’s plan was ordained by goodwill, but not everyone in Washington was driven by it. The government-related recrimination on Lincoln’s reconstruction ideas took some time to advance, mostly because of the slavery that was going to be abolished in both the loyal and seceded states, and the Constitution that was going to be changed to prohibit slavery everywhere within the legal control of the United States.

President Abraham Lincoln offered his last perspective of Reconstruction in the last speech of his life. On April 11, 1865, he deserted calls by Radicals for a vindictive truce. Lincoln wanted, “no persecution, no bloody work,” no executions of Confederate leaders, and no excessive work to restructure southern economic and social life. Three days later, on April 14th Lincoln and his wife Mary went to see a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Well, unfortunately, Abrham Lincoln was killed that night at Ford’s Theatre before he could put his ideas in motion. After his assassination, various other political leaders transpired with intensions in mind. These men were a part of the Republican Party and called themselves the Radicals. The Radical Republicans that appeared after Lincoln’s death had two briny goals to their cause. First, they wanted to chastise the south, because they were demented at them for the Civil War that had just finished. Second, they wanted to guide all four million slaves that were now free after the war. They believed that these men needed security, and it was their job to give it to them.    

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