Lincoln’s Vision for Reconstruction: In 1863 after the Union victories at the battles of Gettysburg Pennsylvania, President Lincoln started preparing for reconstruction to reunify the North and South after the war end. During the same year he issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. To attract the poor whites, he offered to pardon all Confederate and to appeal to the former plantation owner and the elites, he swear to protect private property. His plan for Reconstruction was based on forgiveness and generosity. “ But with the death of President Lincoln in the hopes of Reconstruction would end in failure” ( CCN, week 4 lesson).
“The Radical Republican: Did not agreed with Lincoln’s plan to for forgiveness, in fact they ”insisted that the Confederate states pay for their crimes and supported Sherman’s plan to confiscate Confederate land and give it to the slaves” ( CCN, week 4 lesson). They felt that Lincoln’s plan was not harsh enough and that the south should be punished for causing the war. They plan was to assure civil liberties for former slaves with no voting rights and destroy the South’s slave society.
The Vice President Andrew Johnson: Became President shortly after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Like Lincoln, Johnson wanted to restore the union as soon possible. Even though, Johnson disrelished the southern aristocrats by indicating that he intended to deal with the south in a harshly manor, it was not visible. He returned confiscated property to the white southerners and pardon more confederate officers and government officials than any other presidents have done.
Freedmen’s Bureau: In March 1865 congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandonment Lands. Knowing simply as the freedmen’s Bureau, it became an all purposed relief agency in the war-ravaged south. Distributing food, providing