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President Lincoln's Reconstruction Policy

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In 1863, both President Lincoln and a group of legislators were working on plans for reconstruction. The President was working on his reconstruction policy, at the same time Congressman Davis and Senator Wade were presenting a bill to congress. Even though the desired outcome would have been the same, and there were similarities, there were a number of differences between the two. Some of these differences caused the President to veto Wade-Davis. President Lincoln was looking to get reconstruction going even before the war was officially won. Lincoln thought that the beginning of reconstruction would help speed the war effort and bring it to a close sooner. Wade and Davis would have preferred to delay and wait for the war to end and for the South to be completely beaten with pre-secession institutions gone and needing to be rebuilt. There were a number of concepts that both Lincoln’s 10 percent plan and the Wade-Davis bill had in common. In 1863, with Union victory apparently on the horizon Lincoln “announces a policy for the reconstruction of recanting Confederates”, “Whereas it is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in said rebellion to resume their …show more content…

“The Wade-Davis bill required 50 percent instead of 10 percent of the voters to swear an oath of allegiance, specified that a constitutional convention must take place before election of state officers, and restricted the right to vote for convention delegates to men who could take the ironclad oath that they never voluntarily supported the rebellion” (McPherson 712). The Presidents policy did not require a convention “whenever the number of persons in any state taking the oath reached 10 percent of the number of voters in 1860, this loyal nucleus could form a state government which would be recognized by the President” (McPherson

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