Why did President Abraham Lincoln want Reconstruction to be simple and easy?
Choices are:
A. He wanted to win the votes in the South in his reelection campaign.
B. He wanted to keep a good working relationship with former Confederates who would probably return to the Congress.
C. He thought the United States would look bad to the rest of the world if it punished its own citizens for a simple act of rebellion.
D. He believed the southern states had never left the Union and therefore there was no need to go through a lengthy process to make them part of the United States again

Question

Why did President Abraham Lincoln want Reconstruction to be simple and easy?
Choices are:
A. He wanted to win the votes in the South in his reelection campaign.
B. He wanted to keep a good working relationship with former Confederates who would probably return to the Congress.
C. He thought the United States would look bad to the rest of the world if it punished its own citizens for a simple act of rebellion.
D. He believed the southern states had never left the Union and therefore there was no need to go through a lengthy process to make them part of the United States again

anonymous · Answer

All those options have some validity. The best answer may be D. Here's why: "We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper practical relation with the Union; and that the sole object of the government, civil and military, in regard to those States, is to again get them into that proper practical relation. I believe it is not only possible, but in fact, easier, to do this, without deciding, or even considering, whether these states have even been out of the Union, that with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations between these states and the Union; and each forever after, innocently indulge his own opinion whether, in doing the acts, he brought the States from without, into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it." -Lincoln, 4/11/1865 (source: http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=60&subjectID=3) A: The Southern States did not vote in the 1864 election. However, Lincoln's 1863 did consider whether he would gain Southern support in the upcoming election. B: He didn't even have a good working relationship with the (Radical Republican) Union Congress. (This didn't hinder him too much, though.) C: Many outsiders believed Lincoln was TOO soft on the South and should have inflicted further punishment. I hope this helps.

anonymous · Answer

Thank you so much