Reconstruction lasted from 1865 to 1877, those were the years when the US began to rebuild after the Civil War, also refers to the process the federal govt. used to readmit the defeated Confederate states to the Union. Complicating the process was the fact that Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and the members of Congress all had diff. Ideas about how Reconstruction should be handled.
Lincoln made it clear before his death that he was in favor of a lenient Reconstruction policy. December 1863, Lincoln announced his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction also known as the Ten-percent Plan. Under this plan the govt. would pardon all Confederates except high ranked officials and those accused of crimes against prisoners of war who would swear allegiance to the Union and promise to obey its laws. Under those terms, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia moved toward readmission to the Union. Lincoln's leniency angered the Radical Republicans. The radicals, led by Senator Charles Sumner of MA and Representative Thaddeus Stevens of PA, proposed many laws to ensure African-American rights. .
In July 1864, the Radicals responded to Lincoln's plan by passing the Wade-Davis Bill, which proposed that Congress, not the President, be responsible for Reconstruction. It also declared that for a state govt. to be formed, a majority of those eligible to vote in 1860 would have to take a solemn oath to support the Constitution. Lincoln used a pocket veto to kill the bill.
After the assassination of Lincoln in 1865, Andrew Johnson the successor was left to deal with the Reconstruction controversy. He came up with the plan called Presidential Reconstruction to restore the 7 remaining confederate states. Several conditions were given out; they would have to declare its secession illegal, swear allegiance to the Union, and ratify the 13th amendment, which abolished slavery. The radicals were especially upset that Johnson's plan, like Lincoln's failed to address the needs of former slaves in three areas: land, voting rights, and protection under the law.
