Summary
Highlights
After the Civil War, two major competing plans emerged for Reconstruction. Abraham Lincoln's 10% Plan was lenient, requiring 10% of 1860 voters to pledge loyalty to the Union and states to abolish slavery. Lincoln believed Southern states never legally seceded. In contrast, the Radical Republicans in Congress viewed the South as conquered foes, proposing the Wade-Davis Bill, which required a majority (51%) of voters to pledge loyalty and states to abolish slavery. Lincoln pocket-vetoed this harsher plan, fearing it would harm relations with border states.
Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, just six days after the Civil War ended, brought Vice President Andrew Johnson to power. Johnson, a pro-Union Southern Democrat, attempted to implement Lincoln's lenient plan but lacked the negotiation skills and was largely motivated by personal vengeance against wealthy Southern planters. He issued mass pardons but required wealthy individuals to personally petition him, indulging his animosity towards the planter elite, which ultimately contributed to the failure of early Reconstruction.
Within eight months of the war's end, Johnson declared Reconstruction complete, despite Southern states electing former Confederate leaders (like Alexander Stevens, original VP of the Confederacy) to state legislatures and Congress. Additionally, Southern states passed "black codes" that severely restricted the civil rights of Black Americans, mirroring conditions of slavery. This blatant disregard for federal mandates outraged Radical Republicans, who gained a two-thirds majority in Congress in the 1866 midterm elections, allowing them to override presidential vetoes and seize control of Reconstruction.
The Radical Republicans implemented their vision of Reconstruction through constitutional amendments and federal power. The 13th Amendment (1865) abolished slavery. The 14th Amendment (1868) established birthright citizenship for formerly enslaved people and protected civil rights from state infringement, addressing Johnson's obstruction of civil rights legislation. The 15th Amendment (1870) granted voting rights to Black men. Congress also imposed martial law in the South through the Military Reconstruction Act of 1867, dividing it into five military districts occupied by federal troops to ensure compliance and prevent racial discrimination.
The 15th Amendment, while celebrated by Black Americans, caused a division among women's rights advocates. Organizations like the American Equal Rights Association, formed by abolitionists and women's rights activists, debated its support. Elizabeth Cady Stanton argued against the amendment because it protected voting rights from racial discrimination but not gender discrimination, believing it further sidelined women's suffrage. Frederick Douglass, however, supported it as a necessary step that could eventually lead to women's voting rights. Stanton and Susan B. Anthony ultimately formed the National Women's Suffrage Association to specifically advocate for women's right to vote, a struggle that would continue for another 50 years.