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How did Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction plan compare to Congress's?
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Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction plan focused on quickly reintegrating the South without punishing its leaders, largely ignoring African-American rights. In contrast, Congress's Radical Republican plan aimed for a thorough transformation of Southern society, including granting African-American males the right to vote, redistributing land, and providing federal support for African American schools. The Radical Republicans also implemented stricter controls, such as military oversight, to ensure compliance.
There were significant differences between Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction plan and the plan put forth by the Republicans in Congress, which was known as the Radical Republican plan. Andrew Johnson wanted to provide amnesty and a return of property to individuals who promised to be loyal to the country. However, the former leaders of the Confederacy had to apply directly to the President in order to be granted amnesty. Only individuals who had been pardoned could vote for delegates that would write the new state constitutions that needed to be developed. Those constitutions needed to reject secession and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. Unfortunately, President Johnson’s plan didn’t grant too many rights to the former slaves.
The Radical Republicans wanted to completely change the South. Their plan called for granting all African American males the right to vote while denying voting rights to former Confederate leaders. They also wanted to take land...
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from the plantation owners and give it to the former slaves. Their plan wanted to provide federal funds for African American schools.
Since the Radical Republicans controlled the Reconstruction process, they were able to accomplish many of their goals. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 gave African Americans full citizenship. The Radical Republicans also gave the Freedmen’s Bureau the power to prosecute people who violated the rights of the African Americans. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were passed, which stated that anybody born in the United States would be a citizen of the country and prevented the denial of voting rights based on race or having been a slave in the past. The Reconstruction Act of 1867 placed the South under military rule. The military oversaw the rebuilding of the South and the writing of new state constitutions. The Radical Republican plan was far more stringent on the South than Andrew Johnson’s plan would have been.
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President Andrew Johnson’s plan for Reconstruction was much more lenient than the plan that Congress eventually passed that is known as “Radical Reconstruction.” Johnson, like President Lincoln before him, was much less inclined to treat the South harshly than the Radicals were.
Johnson did not believe that Reconstruction was really even necessary. He did not believe that the Southern states had ever really left the Union (since there was no right to secede) and he did not believe in equal rights for African Americans. Therefore, he proposed a plan similar to Lincoln’s. He amnestied all Southerners who were not rich and had not been senior officials in the Confederacy. He then pardoned many who did not qualify for amnesty. He did ask states to abolish slavery and to repudiate Confederate war debts, but that was all.
The Radical Republicans, by contrast, really wanted to be tough on the South. Therefore, they created a plan that put military governments in place in the South. They required the Southern states to give African Americans the vote and to ratify the 14th Amendment. They did not give amnesty to nearly as many ex-Confederates as Johnson would have.
In short, the Congressional/Radical plan was much tougher on the South than Johnson’s lenient plan.