Lincoln Reconstruction Plan
December 1863
Abraham Lincoln had thought about the process of restoring the Union from the earliest
days of the war. His guiding principles were to accomplish the task as rapidly as possible
and ignore calls for punishing the South. Unlike the Radical Republicans, it was
Lincoln’s belief that the Southern states had not really left the Union since it was never
constitutionally possible.
In late 1863, Lincoln announced a formal plan for reconstruction:
1. A general amnesty would be granted to all who would take an oath of loyalty to
the United States and pledge to obey all federal laws pertaining to slavery
2. High Confederate officials and military leaders were to be temporarily excluded
from the process
3. When one-tenth of the number of voters who had participated in the 1860 election
had taken the oath within a particular state, then that state could launch a new
government and elect representatives to Congress.
The states of Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee rapidly acted to comply with these
terms. However, the Lincoln plan was not acceptable to Congress.
The Radical Republicans voiced immediate opposition to Lincoln’s reconstruction plan,
objecting to its leniency and lack of protections for freed slaves. Congress refused to
accept the rehabilitation of Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana.
In July 1864, Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill, their own formula for restoring the
Union:
1. A state must have a majority within its borders take the oath of loyalty
2. A state must formally abolish slavery
3. No Confederate officials could participate in the new governments.
Lincoln did not approve of this plan and exercised his pocket veto.
An angry Congress would later pass the Wade-Davis Manifesto (August 1864), which
charged Lincoln with usurping the powers of Congress. This statement would have little
impact on the public as the military news from the South improved; Sherman’s Atlanta
Campaign restored Lincoln’s popularity and helped assure his reelection.
