Reconstruction Plans

Federal Government

At one time or another, several people or entities put forth plans for restoring the Union, including:

• The Lincoln Reconstruction Plan
• The Initial Congressional Plan
• The Andrew Johnson Reconstruction Plan
• The Radical Republican Reconstruction Plan

Quotes regarding Reconstruction Plans.

By Salmon P. Chase
Congress was right in not limiting, by its reconstruction acts, the right of suffrage to whites; but wrong in the exclusion from suffrage of certain classes of citizens and all unable to take its prescribed retrospective oath, and wrong also in the establishment of despotic military governments for the States and in authorizing military commissions for the trial of civilians in time of peace. There should have been as little military government as possible; no military commissions; no classes excluded from suffrage; and no oath except one of faithful obedience and support to the Constitution and laws, and of sincere attachment to the constitutional Government of the United States.
Letter to August Belmont, 1868