XIV RECONSTRUCTION AND REUNION ,1865-1888
CHAPTER 42 PRESIDENT JOHNSON RECONSTRUCTION ,1861-1869
437.Lincoln‘s Reconstruction Policy
The great question now before the country was what should be done with the Southern states and people . And what should be done with the freedmen ? On these questions people were not agreed . Some people thought that the states were " indestructible "; that they could not se - cede or get out of the Union . Others thought that the Southern states had been conquered and should be treated as a part of the national domain . Lincoln thought that it was useless to go into these questions . The Southern states were out of the " proper practical relations with the Union .＂ That was clear enough . The thing to do , therefore , was to restore " proper practical relations " as quickly and as quietly as possible . In December ,1863, Lincoln had offered a par - don to al persons , with some exceptions , who should take the oath of alegiance to the United States , and should promise to support the Con - stitution and the Emancipation Proclamation . Whenever one - tenth of the voters in any of the Confederate states should do these things , and should set up a republican form of government , Lincoln promised to recognize that government as the state government . But the admission to Congress of Senators and Representatives from such a reconstructed state would rest with Congress . Several states were reconstructed on this plan . But public opinion was opposed to this quiet reorganization of the seceded states . The people trusted Lincoln , however , and had he lived he might have induced them to accept his plan .
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