What Effect, If Any, Did the Assassination of President Lincoln Have on Reconstruction?

Reconstruction is the period which followed the American Civil War wherein the Southern Confederate Army lost to the North. During this period, the Union Government of America was debating on how to readmit all the Southern states that seceded during the civil war.

Abraham Lincoln was the first American President to come up with a plan on how to go about with the Reconstruction. In December 1863, Lincoln proposed the ten which states that a southern state could be readmitted into the Union once 10 percent of its voters swore an oath of allegiance to the Union (Reconstruction, n.d.). Lincoln's plan would give all southerners except for Confederate Army officers and officials, full pardon and would protect all the private properties of the southerners except for the retention of their slaves. Lincoln wanted to reunite the Union quickly by being lenient and by showing forgiveness to the Southern States. Most of the moderate Republicans in Congress were in support for Lincoln's plan as they see that his plan would make a more immediate end to the war.

The death of Abraham Lincoln through assassination however changed all the plans and had an effect on the Reconstruction process. If Lincoln hadn't been assassinated, the Reconstruction process would have been quicker. The death of Lincoln had a great blow in the Reconstruction process.

Lincoln's death had an electrifying effect on the people of both the Northern and the Southern States. His death intensified the hatred and the vengeful attitudes of the North towards the South which gave reasons for the extreme Radical Republicans of Congress to push their bills that would punish the seceded States. The Radical Republicans wanted to punish the Southern States for seceding from the Union Government and started pushing a bill called Wade-Davis bill that will demand 50 percent of the voters to swear allegiance and give unequal treatment to southerners. Lincoln has the power of controlling these Radical Republicans had he still lived. There might be opposition from these Radical Republicans but they respected Lincoln as a statesman and reluctantly follows Lincoln's plan. Lincoln would have been able to control the Radical Republicans, at least that is the conventional wisdom. Lincoln's death, however, left a void in leadership. The new President, Andrew Johnson, was a southerner. As you can imagine this bitter irony was not lost on the Radical Republicans who hated him even before he was President. Johnson proposed a plan similar to Lincoln's. Suffice it to say, congress was not amused. The relationship between Lincoln and Congress soured quickly (How did ...).

Lincoln's death also affected people at the South greatly. The South felt that Lincoln was the most-moderate and kind-hearted of the men in power at the North and they believed that he, if any one could, would hold in check all the extreme measures and stand between them and all unnecessary severities (Presidential Reconstruction...).

REFERENCES CITED

Reconstruction (1865-1877) : Lincoln's Ten-Percent Plan: 1863-1865 http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/reconstruction/section1.html

How did the assassination of Abraham Lincoln affect Reconstruction? The Social Studies Help Center. http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/Lesson_36_Notes.htm

Presidential Reconstruction. http://civilwarhome.com/presidentalreconstructionpartI.htm