The President Versus Congress
A. During the Civil War, Lincoln and the Congress often disagreed about government policy. Some Republican leaders thought the President should be harder on the South. They also felt that Lincoln’s plan for reconstruction, or rebuilding the Union after the war, was too soft on the South. This led to a struggle between the President and Congress. They could not agree on what branch of government should direct reconstruction, or how it would be carried out. Things grew worse following Lincoln’s death when Andrew Johnson took office.
After the Union victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, President Lincoln had begun to make plans for returning the seceded states to the Union. In December, 1863, he presented a Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction which outlined his plans. It said that if southern whites took an oath of loyalty to the United States they would then be given amnesty, or a general pardon, by the government. Confederate military and government leaders were not part of this plan. Once 10 percent of the people in each state who had voted in 1860 had taken the oath, those states could begin to form new governments. The new state governments had to recognize the freedom of blacks. Lincoln did not push for further changes.
Many member of Congress thought Lincoln’s plan was too mild. One group of republicans were called Radicals because they wanted to make radical, or major changes. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts and Benjamin Wade of Ohio, as well as Representatives Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and Henry Winter Davis of Maryland, were Radicals. They ware most upset with Lincoln’s plan.
B.Lincoln felt that the southern states had never been legally out of the Union. So they still had all the rights of states. The Radicals, however, thought that the southern states that had left the Union should be treated as territories. Most Republicans also feared that the Democratic party would come back to power. They wanted to keep the southern states, which had been Democratic, out of the Union as long as possible.
The Radicals in Congress did not like the 10 percent part of Lincoln’s plan. They felt it was not only too mild, but also allowed the President, not Congress, to control reconstruction. In 1864, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana were ready to return to the Union under Lincoln’s plan.
In July 1864, Congress passed the Wade-Davis bill. It said that the majority of the white male citizens in each seceded state should take the oath of loyalty to the United States. Then a convention could be held to set up a new government. Only those who took an oath that they never willingly aided the Confederacy could vote or serve in these state conventions. This barred anyone who had voluntarily fought for the South. Also, the new state constitution must abolish slavery. Then, if Congress agreed, the state would be readmitted.
Lincoln kept the Wade-Davis bill from becoming law through the use of a pocket veto. A pocket veto occurs when a President fails to sign a bill presented to him by Congress within ten days of its recess. Lincoln’s action further angered the Radicals, and the split between the President and Congress grew wider.