Question

Explain the differences between the congressional (Radical Republican) and presidential (Lincoln and Johnson) reconstruction plans.

Answer 1

The main difference between the Lincoln's and Johnson's (presidential) Reconstruction plan and the Radical Republican plan was that the Radical plan wanted to strongly punish the South while the Presidential only wanted to get together the union as fast as they could.

Apart from that, in the presidential plan, they wanted people from the South to take an oath of loyalty, this was called the 10% Plan. It meant that once at least 10% of the state had taken the oath, they could return to the Union as a state.

However, in the Radical Republican Plan, instead of wanting the 10% as the presidential Plan, they wanted 50%.

Answer 2

The Congressional and Presidential Reconstruction Plans had differences as regards the intensity of amnisty and leniency they managed. President Lincoln believed that he had the power and the obligation to carry on the Reconstruction. However, the Republican Members of the Congress did not agree. They said that it was the Congress the one with the power to reconstruct the south.