Question

How did the Republicans and Radical Republicans differ over the issue of Reconstruction?

Radical Republicans supported a simple reentry plan for the South, while Republicans wanted to see the South punished.

Republicans wanted to control the keep the South under military control, while Radicals wanted to allow free elections.

Radical Republicans wanted to see the South punished, while Republicans supported Lincoln’s plan.

Republicans believed Congress should control Reconstruction, while Radicals believed the president should be in control

Answer 1

Kitty,
In July 1864, the Radical Republicans passed the Wade-Davis Bill in response to Lincoln’s 10 percent plan (1863 known as the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction). This bill required that more than 50 percent of white males take an “ironclad” oath of allegiance before the state could call a constitutional convention. The bill also required that the state constitutional conventions abolish slavery. Confederate officials or anyone who had “voluntarily borne arms against the United States” were banned from serving at the conventions. Lincoln pocket-vetoed, or refused to sign, the proposal, keeping the Wade-Davis bill from becoming law. This is where the issue of Reconstruction stood on the night of Lincoln’s assassination, when Andrew Johnson became president.

President Johnson wanted to stick to the intent of President Lincoln's objective with the 1863 Proclomation.