Lincoln’s Pocket Veto refers to when President Abraham Lincoln refused to sign the Wade-Davis Bill, a Congressional Reconstruction bill passed in 1864. The bill required a majority of white male voters in a former Confederate State to take an Oath of Loyalty before forming a new government and imposed stricter requirements for readmission to the Union than Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan. Because Congress adjourned before the bill could become law without his signature, Lincoln effectively killed it through a “pocket veto.” This increased tensions between Lincoln and Radical Republicans over control and direction of Reconstruction.
Lincoln’s Pocket Veto appears in the following entries on American History Central:
Lincoln’s Pocket Veto appears in the following AP US History sections on American History Central:
