President Abraham Lincoln began the task of rebuilding the Confederate states to reunite the North and South well before the end of the Civil War. As Union forces gained control of the Mississippi River by capturing the Confederate towns of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, and as the Confederates were forced to abandon following the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln offered his conciliatory plan for reunification with his Proclamation of amnesty and Reconstruction in 1863. To build a strong Republican Party in the South and end the bitter relationship between the two regions, Lincoln issued a proclamation aiming to fully pardon and restore the property of nearly all Southerners engaged in the Rebellion. This plan also offered a method for the reintegration of the Southern states, provided that at least ten percent of the voters took an oath of allegiance to the union and respected the previous Emancipation Proclamation, which abolished slavery in the rebellious states. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Lincoln's policies, based on forgiveness, were primarily aimed at unifying the nation as quickly as possible without overly punishing the South. The president feared that a prolonged war would not only cause him to lose public support, but would also always make the reunification of the North and South more difficult. By granting amnesty to the Southern states, Lincoln's lenient Amnesty and Reconstruction Proclamation proved successful as it strengthened the Emancipation Proclamation and encouraged an increasingly weary Confederate Army to surrender, ultimately leading to the preservation of the union, Lincoln's primary goal. Despite these accomplishments, Lincoln's Reconstruction plan failed to address how freedmen would integrate into a racially divided society and to ensure any real measure of racial equality. It also created divisions within the Republican Party and further widened the already existing divide between the Northern and Southern states. The decision to rebuild the nation was made almost immediately after the start of the Civil War, as both Abraham Lincoln which the majority of Congress saw defeated. Lincoln also maintained his Unionist position during his first inaugural address, stating that the Constitution meant that no state could legally secede from the federal union. Indeed, four months into his first term, on July 4, 1861, Lincoln addressed Congress and alluded to the eventual defeat of the South, stating, “Lest there be any uneasiness in the minds of sincere men as to what will be the course of the government towards the Southern States after the rebellion has been repressed, the Executive deems it appropriate to say that it will then be its aim, as always, to be guided by the Constitution and the laws..." Making it clear that the defeat of the South is However, and believing that the South had never actually legally seceded from the union, Lincoln viewed Southerners as internal rebels who could be legally repressed by the militia. Furthermore, the president, accustomed to expanding presidential powers since the beginning of the Civil War, believed and declared in 1862 that he had “…the right to take any measure which will best subdue the enemy.” Believing that it was the president's responsibility as commander in chief to both call up the militia and grant general amnesty, Lincoln went ahead and initiated a reconstruction plan based on the principles of forgiveness, ease, and justice. Lincoln issued the Amnesty and Reconstruction Proclamation in 1863, at the height of the Civil War asmeans of quickly ending the war, thus preserving the union. He announced his proclamation as Union armies captured large sections of the South and some states such as Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee were willing to rebuild their government. The President, addressing those involved in the rebellion in the South declared that “they and each of them are granted full pardon, with the restoration of all property rights…” The President also required an oath of allegiance from the Southern states demanding that “a certain number of persons, not less than one-tenth of the votes cast in such State in the presidential election… each having taken the aforesaid oath… shall re-establish a state government which shall be republican… and State shall hereby receive the benefits of the constitutional provision declaring that the United States shall secure to every state in this Union a republican form of government and shall protect each of them from invasion. ten percent of eligible voters to pledge allegiance to the United States to be readmitted to the union and form their own government, Lincoln offered a lenient plan to the Southerners. He hoped this would speed up their surrender. The Confederate states were also willing to accept the president's proposal since the Civil War had left the confederacy in chaos, destroying its infrastructure and devastating the economy. Lincoln's offer to protect Southern property and rebuild the South detached Southerners from their allegiance to the Confederacy, encouraging surrender. Indeed, by 1864 Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee had all been rebuilt according to Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan and had developed fully functioning Union governments. Although presented to the public as a Reconstruction plan, Lincoln's Amnesty and Reconstruction Proclamation was actually a political ploy, encouraging the Southern states to surrender and thus preserve the union. Lincoln's Amnesty and Reconstruction Proclamation also reinforced his earlier emancipation policy by insisting that newly formed state governments entering the union must abolish slavery. In his decree, Lincoln stated: “…that any provision which may be made by such state government respecting the freed persons of such state, which recognizes and declares their permanent freedom, provides for their education, and which may yet be consistent as a temporary accommodation with their present condition…” By offering a lenient Reconstruction plan, which guaranteed property rights and the establishment of their own government, Lincoln hoped that Southern voters would come to terms with the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln feared that the forcible imposition of the Proclamation alone could lead to the defeat of the Republican Party in the 1864 election, and thus the overturning of his Proclamation by the incoming Democrats. The president appeased Southern voters by offering policies that benefited them and gently persuaded them to accept the terms of emancipation. Louisiana, the first state to respond to Abraham Lincoln's plan to readmit the Southern states to the Union, selected delegates to write a new constitution. Their new Constitution abolished slavery and discarded Louisiana's old order of government by planters and aristocrats. Arkansas also succumbed to Lincoln's Reconstruction plan in 1864. The new state constitution stated that: "All men, when they form a social compact, are equal, and have certain inherent and inalienable rights, among which are those to enjoy and defend life and life." freedom; to acquire, own and protect property and reputation; and to pursue one's own happiness." Proposinga lenient policy, which favored the Southerners in the first two parts of the amnesty proclamation and the Reconstruction plan, Lincoln successfully managed to convince the rebellious states to accept the entire proposal. This helped Lincoln achieve his Reconstruction goals of emancipating the slaves and preserving the union. Despite its successes, Lincoln's proclamation had several drawbacks. It not only created divisions within the Republican Party, but also widened the already existing gap between the Northern and Southern states. While moderate Republicans supported Lincoln's position that the Southern states needed to be reinstated on as quickly as possible and clemency was granted, radical Republicans in Congress strongly opposed it, arguing that it would lead to the re-enslavement of blacks and the restoration of the Southern aristocracy. The radicals believed that Lincoln's plan was too lenient and were angry that Lincoln would not leave Reconstruction to legislators. Therefore, on July 2, 1864, Congress attempted to pass the Wade-Davis bill, a stricter version of Lincoln's ten percent plan. This bill provided that “if the persons taking the oath shall constitute a majority of the persons enrolled in the State,” the former Confederate States could return to the Union and establish a new government. Additionally, the bill guaranteed Southern voters the right to vote only if at least fifty percent of citizens took an oath of allegiance, promising never to have voluntarily taken up arms against the Union or supported the Confederacy. The Wade-Davis proposal also called for the abolition of slavery in newly formed states and vehemently opposed Lincoln's attempt to pursue a policy of compensated emancipation in which the government would compensate slaveholders in states that had not joined the confederation. Lincoln, fearing that the bill would "sabotage his own Reconstruction efforts in states like Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee and jeopardize state-level emancipation movements in loyal border states like Missouri and, especially, Maryland ”, he vetoed. His decision to ignore the bill caused great dissent and political discord within the Republican Party. Angry radical Republicans in Congress quickly responded by issuing the Wade-Davis Manifesto, accusing the president of trying to gain political strength by usurping the power of Congress and securing voters' freedom. the south. The Manifesto stated that Lincoln "was under the dictation of his personal ambition" and ordered the president "to confine himself to his executive duties - to obey and execute, not to make laws - to suppress armed rebellion with arms and to leave political reorganization to Congress." The different political philosophy promoted by the two Reconstruction plans not only divided the party but also served to widen the already existing divide between North and South. Radical Republicans attempted to reshape the South as a way to punish them for attempting to secede they did so by establishing a pro-Republican government in the Southern legislature and attempting to enfranchise blacks. Angry Southerners denounced such measures and sought to further widen the gap between the North and the South. Lincoln's Reconstruction failed to preserve the union, failed to protect newly emancipated slaves, to address how they would integrate into a racially divided society, and to ensure any real measures on how to achieve racial equality. To find a solution on where to place the blacks after their.