page_title: Presidency of Abraham Lincoln
section_title: Reconstruction
hierarchical_section_title: Presidency of Abraham Lincoln / Slavery and Reconstruction / Reconstruction
caption_attribution_description: English: "The Rail Splitter Repairing the Union" — a political cartoon of Andrew Johnson and Abraham Lincoln from 1865, during the Reconstruction era of the United States (1863–1877). Cartoon print shows Vice President Andrew Johnson sitting atop a globe, attempting to stitch together the map of the United States with needle and thread. Abraham Lincoln stands, right, using a split rail to position the globe. Johnson warns, "Take it quietly Uncle Abe and I will draw it closer than ever." While Lincoln commends him, "A few more stitches Andy and the good old Union will be mended."
context_page_description: The presidency of Abraham Lincoln began on March 4, 1861, when he was inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States, and ended upon his assassination and death on April 15, 1865, 42 days into his second term. Lincoln was the first member of the recently-established Republican Party elected to the presidency. He was succeeded by Vice President Andrew Johnson. Lincoln presided over the Union victory in the American Civil War, which dominated his presidency.
  Lincoln took office following the 1860 presidential election, in which he won a plurality of the popular vote in a four-candidate field. Almost all of Lincoln's votes came from the Northern United States, as the Republicans held little appeal to voters in the Southern United States. A former Whig, Lincoln ran on a political platform opposed to the expansion of slavery in the territories. His election served as the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the Civil War. After being sworn in as president, Lincoln refused to accept any resolution that would result in Southern secession from the Union.
context_section_description: As Southern states were subdued, critical decisions had to be made as to the leadership and policies of these states. Louisiana, which had a larger slave population than other Confederate state occupied early in the war, became the center of discussion regarding Reconstruction under Lincoln and military governor Benjamin Butler. Butler and his successor, Nathaniel P. Banks, implemented a labor system in which free blacks worked as laborers on white-owned plantations. This model, which paid blacks wages but also represented a continuation of plantation agriculture, was adopted throughout much of the occupied South. Banks also presided over the ratification of a new state constitution that banned slavery, but did not guarantee free blacks the right to vote.
  After 1862, Democrats like Reverdy Johnson sought the withdrawal of the Emancipation Proclamation and amnesty for the Confederates. By contrast, Radical Republicans like Sumner argued that rebel Southerners had lost all rights by attempting to secede from the Union. In his ten percent plan, Lincoln sought to find a middle ground, calling for the emancipation of Confederate slaves and the re-integration of Southern states once ten percent of voters in a state took an oath of allegiance to the U.S. and pledged to respect emancipation. Radical Republicans countered with the Wade–Davis Bill, a Reconstruction plan that included protections for the rights of freed African Americans and required fifty percent of voters to swear the "Ironclad Oath" indicating that they had never and never would support a rebellion against the United States. As the Wade–Davis Bill interfered with Lincoln's plans for the readmission of Louisiana and Arkansas, Lincoln pocket vetoed the bill in late 1864.
  Even as they cooperated on most other issues, Lincoln and congressional Republicans continued to clash over Reconstruction policies after the 1864 election. Many in Congress sought far-reaching reforms to Southern society that went beyond the abolition of slavery, and they refused to recognize Lincoln's reconstituted Southern governments. Disagreements within Congress prevented the passage of any Reconstruction bill or the recognition of governments in Arkansas and Louisiana. As the war came to a close, Lincoln indicated an openness to some of the proposals of the Radical Republicans, and he signed a bill creating the Freedmen's Bureau. Established as a temporary institution, the Freedmen's Bureau was designed to provide food and other supplies to free blacks in the South, and was also authorized to grant confiscated land to former slaves. Lincoln did not take a definitive stand on black suffrage, stating only that "very intelligent blacks" and those that had served in the military should be granted the right to vote.
  Historian Eric Foner notes that no one knows what Lincoln would have done about Reconstruction had he served out his second term, but writes,
  Unlike Sumner and other Radicals, Lincoln did not see Reconstruction as an opportunity for a sweeping political and social revolution beyond emancipation. He had long made clear his opposition to the confiscation and redistribution of land. He believed, as most Republicans did in April 1865, that the voting requirements should be determined by the states. He assumed that political control in the South would pass to white Unionists, reluctant secessionists, and forward-looking former Confederates. But time and again during the war, Lincoln, after initial opposition, and come to embrace positions first advanced by abolitionists and Radical Republicans. ... . Lincoln undoubtedly would have listened carefully to the outcry for further protection for the former slaves. ... It is entirely plausible to imagine Lincoln and Congress agreeing on a Reconstruction policy that encompassed federal protection for basic civil rights plus limited black suffrage, along the lines Lincoln proposed just before his death."
caption: A political cartoon of Vice President Andrew Johnson (a former tailor) and Lincoln, 1865, entitled The 'Rail Splitter' At Work Repairing the Union. The caption reads (Johnson): "Take it quietly Uncle Abe and I will draw it closer than ever." (Lincoln): "A few more stitches Andy and the good old Union will be mended."
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