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The Wade-Davis Bill of 1864 was a program for the Reconstruction of the South written by two Radical republicans, Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio and Representative Henry Winter Davis of Maryland. In contrast to President Abraham Lincoln's more lenient Ten percent plan, the bill made re-admittance to the Union almost impossible. The bill passed both houses of Congress on July 2, 1864, but was vetoed by Lincoln. 1864 (MDCCCLXIV) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ...
Reconstruction-era military districts in the South For other uses, see Reconstruction (disambiguation). ...
Benjamin Franklin Wade (October 27, 1800–March 2, 1878) was a U.S. lawyer. ...
Henry Winter Davis (August 16, 1817 – 30 December 1865) was an American politician, well known as one of the Radical Republicans during the Civil War. ...
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), sometimes called Abe Lincoln and nicknamed Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator, was the 16th President of the United States (1861 to 1865), and the first president from the Republican Party. ...
After the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln brought up his 10 percent reconstruction plan. ...
Background The Wade-Davis bill emerged from a plan introduced in the Senate by Ira Harris of New York in February, 1863. It proposded to base Reconstruction in traditional concepts of federalism and republicanism. The Wade-Davis bill was also important for a new conception of national and congressional power. Although federally-imposed conditions of reconstruction retrospectively seem logical, there was a widespread belief that southern Unionism would return the seceded states to the Union after the South's military power was broken. This belief was not fully abandoned until 1863. Reconstruction-era military districts in the South For other uses, see Reconstruction (disambiguation). ...
Contents It provided: 1. Until states were readmitted, they would be under the control of a governor appointed by the president.
2. The provisional governor would enroll all white men. If over 50% of them took the "Ironclad Oath," these same loyalists would be allowed to elect a constitutional convention. No one who who held any Confederate office or served in the confederate army would be allowed to vote for this convention. The "Ironclad Oath," attested that the white male had never borne arms against the Union or supported the confederacy. Considering the numbers in the Confederate Army, historians believe it would have been impossible for a southern state to meet this requirement, leaving the states in limbo. This article is in need of attention. ...
3. The new constitution must abolish slavery, punish Confederate leaders by distributing their property, and repudiate debts collected during the war. After meeting these conditions, a state could finally be readmitted to the Union. Motto: Deo Vindice (Latin: With God As Our Vindicator) Anthem: God Save the South (unofficial) Dixie (popular) The Bonnie Blue Flag (popular) Capital Montgomery, Alabama February 4, 1861–May 29, 1861 Richmond, Virginia May 29, 1861–April 9, 1865 Danville, Virginia April 3–April 10, 1865 Largest city New Orleans...
4. Freedmen, although not citizens, were to be granted federal habeas corpus rights, and former masters who denied freedom to the enslaved were subject to federal fines and imprisonment. If the bill passed, the federal government would be able to intrude into any state by emancipating slaves immediately and transferring legal authority over ex-slaves from state to federal courts. A freedman is a former slave who has been manumitted or emancipated. ...
5. Senior Confederate civil officials and military officers of the rank of colonel and higher would lose their U.S. citizenship.
The Wade-Davis bill looked to the past: anyone who supported the Confederacy lost his vote. Lincoln looked to the future: under his plan people had to pledge to support the Union in the future.
Lincoln's veto Lincoln feared the bill would sabotage his own reconstruction movements in states like Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee, all of which had seceded but were under the control of a loyal minority. This would also jeopardize state-level emancipation movements in loyal border states like Missouri and, especially, Maryland. Worst of all, the bill threatened to destroy the delicate political coalitions that Lincoln had begun to construct between northern and southern moderates. Lincoln therefore killed the bill with a pocket veto and it was not resurrected. A pocket veto is a legislative maneuver in American federal lawmaking. ...
Davis was a bitter enemy of Lincoln, because he was not harsh enough. He and Wade issued a manifesto "To the Supporters of the Government" on August 4, 1864, that accused Lincoln of using reconstruction to secure electors in the South who would “be at the dictation of his personal ambition, ” condemned his efforts to usurp power from Congress, and implicitly recommended dumping him from the Republican ticket. Lincoln survived their attacks and greatly strengthened his position with a landslide victory in the election, and the passage of the 13th Amendment in February, 1865. He marginalized the Radicals in terms of shapingReconstruction policy; after Lincoln's death and the failures of Andrew Johnson, the Radicals took control of reconstruction policy in 1866. Reconstruction-era military districts in the South For other uses, see Reconstruction (disambiguation). ...
Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875) was the sixteenth Vice President (1865) and the seventeenth President of the United States (1865–1869), succeeding to the presidency upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. ...
External links
References - Belz, Herman. "Henry Winter Davis and the Origins of Congressional Reconstruction" Maryland Historical Magazine 1972 67(2): 129-143. Issn: 0025-4258
- Belz, Herman. Emancipation and Equal Rights: Politics and Constitutionalism in the Civil War Era 1978
- Belz, Herman. Reconstructing the Union: Theory and Policy during the Civil War 1969
- Benedict, Michael Les A Compromise of Principle: Congressional Republicans and Reconstruction, 1863–1869 1974
- Harris, William C. With Charity for All: Lincoln and the Restoration of the Union 1997, pp 123–70.
- Hesseltine, William B.; Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction 1960
- Hyman; Harold M. A More Perfect Union: The Impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on the Constitution 1973
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