In his last public address, April 11, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln defined the problem of Reconstruction as how to end the war, re-inaugurate the national authority, and get the seceded states back into “their proper practical relation with the Union.” No provision in the Constitution explained how this should be done. There was no government to make a treaty with as in a war between independent nations. Lincoln observed: “No one man can give up the rebellion for any other man. We must simply begin with, and mould from, disorganized and discordant elements.” In Statesmanship and Reconstruction: Moderate Versus Radical Republicans…

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