Reconstruction Policies And Their Effects - 1903 Words

Reconstruction Policies and Their Effects Three new Constitutional Amendments were ratified during the Reconstruction Era as well as many policies on both the state and federal levels. The amendments that were ratified during the Reconstruction Era were the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments. The policies to assimilate the Southern states back into the union and for Reconstruction all varied dramatically between the Radical Republicans in Congress, President Abraham Lincoln, and President Andrew Johnson. President Lincoln’s Reconstruction plan was started before the Civil War even ended. He wanted to reunify the North and South in his plan called the â€Å"Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction†, in this plan he would†¦show more content†¦Lincoln pocket-vetoed to Wade-Davis Bill and it was not re-introduced. After President Lincoln’s assassination, then Vice-President Andrew Johnson became president. He pardoned all Confederates but he required the members of the planter class and Confederate leadership to write to him personally for pardons. He also returned property, other than slaves, to those who pledged loyalty to the Union and promised to support the Thirteenth Amendment. Johnson was against slavery, but mostly because he was opposed to the Southern planter class. His plans were very lenient and allowed the formation of the Black Codes in the South, which were a set of laws that limited freedoms of the former slaves that lived there. Initially Johnson’s plans were supported, but the Radical Republicans wanted the rights promised in the Declaration of Independence to be extended to all free men, including former slaves. President Johnson was impeached on February 24, 1868. It was only by one vote that he was not removed from office, but his impeachment greatly reduced his influence over Reconstruction. This was the first time in history that a sitting President was impeached. Congression al (Radical) Reconstruction was the plan set by Radical Republicans in Congress. Leaders of the Radical Republicans included Thaddeus Stevens, who opposed the leniency granted by President