Wade–Davis Bill

[citation needed] 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.

From Lincoln's point of view, states were not constitutionally allowed to secede in the first place, so the ordinances of secession were null and void from the moment they passed.

[7] On a more pragmatic level, Lincoln also feared the bill would sabotage his own reconstruction activities in states like Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee, all of which had passed ordinances of secession but were under Federal occupation and controlled by pro-Union governments.

The bill threatened to destroy the delicate political coalitions which Lincoln had begun to construct between Northern and Southern moderates.

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.

[10] 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 – to obey and execute, not to make the laws –, to suppress by arms armed rebellion, and leave political reorganization to Congress"[11]), did influence Congressional Republicans during the following years, however, eventually leading to Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial.

[citation needed] Lincoln survived their attacks and greatly strengthened his position with a landslide victory in the 1864 election, and national passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in February, 1865.