Editing Wade–Davis Bill (section)

==Background==
The Wade–Davis Bill emerged from a plan introduced in the Senate by [[Ira Harris]] of New York in February, 1863.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Belz |first= Herman |title= Henry Winter Davis and the Origins of Congressional Reconstruction |journal=Maryland Historical Magazine |year= 1972 |volume=67 |number=2 |pages=129–143 |issn=0025-4258}}</ref>

It was written by two [[Radical Republicans]], Senator [[Benjamin Wade]] of Ohio and Representative [[Henry Winter Davis]] of Maryland, and proposed to base the [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction of the South]] on the federal government's power to [[Guarantee Clause|guarantee a republican form]] of government. The Bill was also important for national and congressional power. Although federally imposed conditions of reconstruction retrospectively seem logical, there was a widespread belief that southern Unionism would return the [[Confederate States of America|seceded states]] to the Union after the Confederacy's military power was broken. This belief was not fully abandoned until later in 1863.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}} The provisions, critics complained, were virtually impossible to meet, thus making it likely there would be permanent national control over the states formerly in rebellion.<ref name="Harris, pp 123" />