If Lincoln had not died

[Rob Wick]

According to Eric Foner:

"Reconstruction emerged as the central problem confronting the nation. But, as James G. Blaine later remarked, Lincoln did not turn to peacetime with a "fixed plan" of Reconstruction. Different approaches had operated simultaneously in different parts of the South. Lincoln had approved the lenient polcies of General Banks in Louisiana and the far more proscriptive acts of Andrew Johnson in Tennessee, all in an attempt to quicken Union victory and secure the abolition of slavery, rather than to fashion a blueprint for the postwar South" (pg. 73) That said, I still think the 10 percent plan would have formed the basis for Lincoln's actions.

Kenneth Stampp points out a few salient facts regarding why. First, the Constitution, since it doesn't provide for how a state could legally secede, it was also quiet on what might happen should one try and fail. It also didn't make clear who would actually oversee such an operation. Lincoln believed he had the authority since he only believed the states were in rebellion and given that he was commander in chief of the militia which could be called out if such a rebellion occurred, he could also guide a state which rebelled back into place, since in his mind, if had never left the Union to begin with. Congress, on the other hand, believed it had the power to oversee restoration because many members believed that the South did indeed form its own government and left the Union, so since the Constitution promised every state a republican form of government, and Congress enforced that provision (almost like a territory which wished to enter the Union), it would take control.

While Lincoln was certainly magnanimous and kind-hearted, Stampp points out that just as important was the political force of the issue. Stampp argues that Lincoln, as a loyal Republican, wanted to make sure his party had influence in the prostrate South, since the Republicans would soon make up a large part of the region. When the Whigs collapsed in the 1850s, those in the South refused to join the Republicans given the party's anti-slavery position, so they migrated to the Democrats or various third parties.

"But it was clear that when the Civil War was over and the Union restored, at least 40 percent of the white voters in the southern states would be men without a party--in a state of political flux," Stampp writes. "Where they would go was still an open question, for the solid Democratic South had not yet emerged. To Lincoln, the Republican party was the true heir of the Whig tradition; and with the slavery issue removed, why should not these politically homeless Southerners find a refuge in his party? Lincoln most emphatically did not intend that the Republicans should remain permanently a sectional organization; nor would he surrender to the Democrats his one-time Whig allies in the South." (pg. 32 The Era of Reconstruction).

I have to say, as crass as it may sound, it makes sense. Lincoln wanted a lenient Reconstruction because he did not believe the South ever had seceded, and that all which was needed was restoration. Plus, as a loyal party man, bringing new voters into the Republican camp would be far easier if they were treated more humanely than the Radicals in Congress had wanted.

Gene, as for Stanton's plan, Lincoln didn't reject it, but also stopped short of acceptance. As Thomas and Hyman point out, he wanted it revised and brought back to the next cabinet meeting. Of course, John Wilkes Booth threw a wrench into those plans.

Best
Rob