In December 1863 Abraham Lincoln announced his Reconstruction Plan. He declared that as soon as any seceded state formed a accepted presidential decisions on the subject of slavery and took oaths of allegiance to the Constitution, they would be readmitted to the Union. By the end of the Civil War Arkansas and Louisiana had established governments based on these terms. Radical Republicans opposed Lincoln's Reconstruction Plan because it did not ensure equal civil rights for freed slaves.

After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, the new president, Andrew Johnson, issued his own Reconstruction Plan. He announced that on the ratification of the 13th Amendment Southern states would be re-admitted into the Union. This upset Radical Republicans and impeachment proceedings were began against him.