With Charity for All: Lincoln and the Restoration of the Union

by William C. Harris

Harris maintains that Lincoln held a fundamentally conservative position on the process of reintegrating the South, one that permitted a large measure of self-reconstruction, and that he did not modify his position late in the war. He examines the reasoning and ideology behind Lincoln's policies, describes what happened when military and civil agents tried to implement them at the local level, and evaluates Lincoln's successes and failures in bringing his restoration efforts to closure.

Genres: History, Civil War

Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

William C. Harris is Professor Emeritus of History at North Carolina State University.

Reviews

[Mike Stone, · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Excellent Book On Some Neglected Civil War History

William C Harris has done a great service to all those interested in Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, and The Reconstruction Era afterward. He gives a good account of the "pre-history" of Reconstruction, covering all the early efforts by Lincoln to set up loyal governments in seceded states.

Some of this has been written about before, notably the loyal government of Virgina, which cleared the way for the State of West Virginia to be created, and the well-known Louisiana experiment. But much of it is comparatively new. The Union governments in Arkansas and Tennessee, which have attracted far less attention than the Louisiana one, get a fairer share of the spotlight. The Tennessee chapter, in particular, is of interest for the light it throws on the wartime career of Andrew Johnson, perhaps giving some early glimpses of the personality traits which would land him in hot water as President. On top of this, I was delighted to find chapters on the much more obscure attempts at Reconstruction in the occupied bits of North Carolina and Florida, of which I had vaguely heard but about which I knew virtually nothing. The book has nicely plugged a little gap in my civil War knowledge.

Another thing I like about this book (though others may not) is that it provides a useful, and in my opinion long overdue, corrective to the view of Lincoln, at the end of his life, as having become a sort of "closet" Radical Reconstructionist, all set to move away from his previous conservative approach and embrace some if not all of the Radical programme. Harris demonstrates, to my satisfaction at least, that the evidence for this is somewhere between slim and none, and that while Lincoln's approach to Reconstruction, had he lived, would have differed in important details from that of Andrew Johnson, it would still have been a good deal nearer to Johnson's approach than to that of, say, Thaddeus Stevens.

As always, there are a few minor grumbles. I do wonder if some of the "what-ifs" in the epilogue aren't a bit on the optimistic side. Harris believes that Lincoln could have got the Southern Senators and Representatives seated in 1865, which, looking at earlier attempts, may underestimate Congressional stubbornness. But this is quibbling. It is a fine book, and a worthy addition to everyone's Civil War library.

[Joseph Griffith · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good account of Lincoln's reconstruction policy

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who would have thought that at such a late date, a historian could produce a work that so brilliantly and sharply alters our perceptions of the thinking and policies of Abraham Lincoln, one of the most written-about figures in history? Harris makes the reader realize that previous scholars have not been methodical or rigorous enough in examining Lincon's reconstuction policy. Given Lincon's immense prestige, contemporaries and historians have struggled to make his opinions match theirs. After Lincoln's death, Radical Republicans who bitterly opposed his reconstruction policy keenly felt the need to convince the public (and perhaps themselves) that Lincoln, before his death, had begun to come around to their way of thinking. Too many historians have mistakenly accepted this deceptive assertion. As Harris powerfully demonstrates, Lincoln's reconstruction policies were extremely consistent, and one must also say, very conservative. Due to his desire to prevent anarchy and restore order and stable, "republican" (with a lowercase r) government, Lincoln was willing to allow "loyal" Southern whites an almost free hand in reestablishing state governments, as long as they abolished slavery and granted African Americans minimal legal rights. Contrary to the later assertions of the Radicals, Lincoln evidently never determined to insist on voting rights, or perhaps even full legal equality, for African Americans. (He may have been willing to accept discriminatory "Black codes" or even a slavery-like apprentice system).

Given Lincoln's immense prestige, it is more than a little disturbing to consider what the results of his policies would have been if implemented. As Professor Harris points out in his well-reasoned conclusion, however, one should not assume that Lincoln would have stood idly by and let white Southerners brutally and lawlessly reimpose white supremacy, as actually happened. Faced with such a situation, given his undoubted humanitarian instincts, he may well have concluded that only full, federally supported legal equality could salvage the situation in the South, and if he had decided this, he alone had the ability and influence to impose such a policy.

[Zack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harris deftly shows that Lincoln embraced a fundamentally conservative vision of conciliating and readmitting the border slave states, a vision that helped win the war and brought potential promise to the peace that followed.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harris explores Lincoln's plans for wartime Reconstruction. Each state in Rebellion that received a military governor is placed into a national policy context by Harris. Excellent.