USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Lincoln’s Vision for Reconstruction Unlike Radical Republicans in Congress, Lincoln did not want to punish southerners or reorganize southern society.

Detailed explanation-2: -Abraham Lincoln wanted to be lenient to the South and make it easy for southern states to rejoin the Union. He said that any southerner who took an oath to the Union would be given a pardon.

Detailed explanation-3: -Lincoln issued his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, which established lenient terms for the return to the Union of former Confederates, but required them to “abide by and faithfully support all proclamations of the President made during the existing rebellion having reference to slaves."

Detailed explanation-4: -As President, he built the Republican Party into a strong national organization. Further, he rallied most of the northern Democrats to the Union cause. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy.