Editing Wade–Davis Bill (section)

==The aftermath==

Davis was a bitter enemy of Lincoln because he believed that the President was too lenient in his policies for the South. Davis and Wade issued a manifesto "To the Supporters of the Government" on August 4, 1864, accusing Lincoln of using reconstruction to secure electors in the South who would "be at the dictation of his personal ambition," and condemning what they saw as his efforts to usurp power from Congress ("the authority of Congress is ''paramount'' and must be respected"). The Manifesto backfired, however, and while it initially caused much debate on the nature of the Reconstruction to come, Winter Davis was not renominated for his Congressional seat in Maryland.{{sfn | Nevins | pages=84}} Its ideas, particularly that Congress should be the main driver of the post-war process and that the Presidency should be a weaker office (the President "must confine himself to his executive duties &ndash; ''to obey and execute'', not to make the laws &ndash;, to suppress by arms armed rebellion, and leave political reorganization to Congress"<ref>{{cite news|title=THE WAR UPON THE PRESIDENT; Manifesto of Ben. Wade and H. Winter Davis against the President's Proclamation |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1864/08/09/news/war-upon-president-manifesto-ben-wade-h-winter-davis-against-president-s.html?pagewanted=all|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=August 9, 1864}}</ref>), did influence Congressional Republicans during the following years, however, eventually leading to [[Andrew Johnson]]'s impeachment trial.{{citation needed|date=February 2009}}

Lincoln survived their attacks and greatly strengthened his position with a landslide victory in the 1864 election, and national passage of the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]] in February, 1865. He momentarily marginalized the Radicals in terms of shaping [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] policy.  After Lincoln's death, Radical Republicans battled President Andrew Johnson, who tried to implement a version of Lincoln's plan.  The midterm elections of 1866 turned into a referendum on the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth amendment]] and the trajectory of Reconstruction policy.  With the Republicans' victory, Congress took control of Reconstruction.  The radicals wanted a much harsher plan, but they did not try to reimpose the terms of Wade-Davis. Instead they implemented the [[Reconstruction Acts]] and took control of the former rebel states with the [[United States Army]], which registered black men as voters and barred some former Confederate leaders from running for office.<ref>{{cite book|first=Herman |last=Belz |title=Emancipation and Equal Rights: Politics and Constitutionalism in the Civil War Era |url=https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_h7n0 |url-access=registration |date= 1978}}</ref>