Which is true regarding how presidential and congressional reconstruction plans differed?

Question

A. The president wanted to bring seceded states back into the Union as quickly as possible
B. The president believed that Congress would be too soft on Southern “rebels”
C. The president wanted Southerners to pay steep fines for damages caused by the war.
D. Congress refused to grant African Americans citizenship rights

Answer 1

The correct answer is A. The president wanted to bring seceded states back into the Union as quickly as possible.

During the period of Reconstruction following the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln and, later, President Andrew Johnson favored a more lenient approach to reintegrating the Southern states into the Union, aiming for a faster reconciliation process. In contrast, Congress, particularly the Radical Republicans, advocated for more stringent measures to ensure civil rights and protections for freed African Americans and to impose stricter conditions on the Southern states before they could be readmitted.