the radical republicans' plan for reconstruction

Also known as military reconstruction or congressional reconstruction

basic belief about the civil war and reconstruction

The South had committed crimes both by enslaving African Americans and entangling the nation in a war.  The South should be punished and treated harshly. 

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    • created federal guarantees of civil rights and superseded state laws (ie: Black Codes) that limited them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!)

document analysis