the radical republicans' plan for reconstruction
Also known as military reconstruction or congressional reconstruction
radical republicans' plan
- Led by Representative Thaddeus Stevens and Senator Charles Sumner
- Radical Republicans advocated full citizenship, including the right to vote, for African Americans
- Favored punishment and harsh terms for the South, and they supported General Sherman’s plan to confiscate Confederate land and give farms to freedmen ("40 acres and a mule)
- Divided the South in 5 military districts governed by martial law (=military reconstruction)
- Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill in 1864 (while Lincoln was still alive)
- It required that a 50% of a state’s pre-war voters swear loyalty to the Union before the process of restoration could begin
- All new state constitutions must grant African American males the right to vote
- All southern states must ratify the 14th Amendment (granting full citizenship to African Americans including due process rights)
- Required that many southern lands be given to freedmen to start a new life, to Union soldiers as a form of payment for their service in the war, and to the government as a war reparation
- President Lincoln actually "killed" this plan with a “pocket veto” by withholding his signature beyond the 10-day deadline at the end of the congressional session, a process where a president can effectively veto a bill and there’s no chance Congress can override it.
status of former slaves
- advocated for full and equal citizenship rights for African Americans
- Required all southern states to ratify the 14th amendment before being readmitted to the union
- worked with Lincoln to create the Freedmen's Bureau
- Worked to make the Civil Rights Act of 1866 into law
- created federal guarantees of civil rights and superseded state laws (ie: Black Codes) that limited them
- Was vetoed by President Andrew Johnson
- Johnson's veto was then overridden by Congress (1st time in American history!)
- created federal guarantees of civil rights and superseded state laws (ie: Black Codes) that limited them