Who was the president during the first phase of Reconstruction?

• A. Ulysses S. Grant
• B. Andrew Johnson
• C. Abraham Lincoln
• D. Rutherford B. Hayes

Answer: (B)

The first phase of Reconstruction refers to the period of Presidential Reconstruction, when the sitting president set the terms for readmitting Southern states after the Civil War. Lincoln began shaping the plan, but after his assassination in 1865, Andrew Johnson took over and carried that early effort forward. Johnson offered broad pardons to many former Confederates, allowed Southern states to rejoin the Union relatively quickly as long as they nullified secession and accepted emancipation, and he limited protections for newly freed people. Because he was the national leader directing these initial steps during that early postwar period, he is the best match for who was in the presidency during the first phase. The approach began to shift in 1867 when Congress asserted more control with the Reconstruction Acts, marking the move into Congressional or Radical Reconstruction.