During the Civil War, President Lincoln’s foremost task was to ensure military victory over the Confederacy, but he also had to consider the process for Reconstruction, or how to reintegrate the seceded states back into the political Union.  He assumed that his executive powers under the Constitution, primarily as commander in chief and secondarily through the presidential pardoning power, gave him the authority to establish Reconstruction policy during wartime with little congressional assistance or interference.  However, he did admit that Congress had ultimate authority to approve a presidential Reconstruction plan because Congress had the constitutional power to seat or not seat representatives elected from the states (senators and congressmen).  In formulating his Reconstruction policy, Lincoln realized the plan should not undermine Union military policy, and that it would need to appeal to Southern Unionists as well as to the diverse views of the Northern population.  Thus, there were constitutional, political, and strategic limitations on presidential Reconstruction policy. 

Lincoln announced his Reconstruction plan as part of the annual presidential message to Congress on December 8, 1863, the text of which appeared in the December 26, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly (published December 16).  Reacting to concerns among abolitionists, the president pledged that he would “not attempt to retract or modify the Emancipation Proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress.”  On the other hand, in affirming that he would uphold all presidential orders and congressional acts concerning slavery, he recognized the Supreme Court’s authority to modify or nullify either and Congress’s authority to change or rescind its own measures (but not presidential ones).

Lincoln’s Reconstruction plan required the former Confederate states to accept all congressional and presidential wartime measures dealing with emancipation.  Nevertheless, he stated he would not object to state laws recognizing the permanent freedom of the slaves while also keeping the ex-slaves temporarily in “their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class.”  The presidential message did not mention the future status of slavery in the loyal Border States, where none of the wartime emancipation policies of Congress or the president were in force.