Final answer:
The Wade-Davis Bill required Southern voters to swear an ‘ironclad’ oath and mandated new constitutions abolishing slavery, but President Lincoln's pocket veto prevented it from becoming law. The Thirteenth Amendment ultimately abolished slavery and addressed the issues intended to be covered by the Wade-Davis Bill.
Step-by-step explanation:
Wade-Davis Bill and Slavery
The Wade-Davis Bill, proposed by Senator Benjamin Wade and Representative Henry Winter Davis, was designed to handle the issue of slavery and those who refused to accept its end post-Civil War. Section 12 and 13 of the bill stipulated stringent terms for the Southern states' reintegration into the Union. It required 50% of voters in Confederate states to swear an ‘ironclad’ oath of loyalty to the U.S. and mandated the drafting of new constitutions that abolished slavery. Those unable to take the oath would be prohibited from voting or holding office. The bill also aimed to ensure the maintenance of freedpeople's liberty through federal courts.
President Abraham Lincoln dealt a significant blow to the bill by exercising a pocket veto, preventing it from becoming law. He believed no Southern state would meet the bill’s heavy conditions and, thus, it would delay the reconstruction process. Instead, the Thirteenth Amendment emerged as the ultimate resolution, legally terminating slavery across the country and supplanting the Wade-Davis Bill.
Lincoln's action and the eventual adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment rendered moot the provisions of the Wade-Davis Bill regarding slavery and political participation of ex-Confederates. The reality of emancipation was finally codified in law with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, ensuring that all individuals born in the U.S. were citizens and effectively overturning earlier compromises and provisions that were supportive of slavery.