RECONSTRUCTION
oFreedmen’s Bureau
o13-15th Amendments
oLincoln’s plans
Wade-Davis bill signed on July 2, 1864. Required
an oath of allegiance to the Union by a majority
of each state’s white adult males, new governments
to be formed by only those who had never taken up
arms against the North, and permanent
disenfranchisement of ex-Confederate leaders.
Lincoln’s blueprint for Reconstruction included the Ten-Percent
Plan, which specified that a southern state could be readmitted into
the Union once 10 percent of its voters (from the voter rolls for the
election of 1860) swore an oath of allegiance to the Union. Voters
could then elect delegates to draft revised state constitutions and
establish new state governments. All southerners except for high-
ranking Confederate army officers and government officials would
be granted a full pardon. Lincoln guaranteed southerners that he
would protect their private property, though not their slaves. Most
moderate Republicans in Congress supported the president’s
proposal for Reconstruction because they wanted to bring a quick
end to the war.
In many ways, the Ten-Percent Plan was more of a political
maneuver than a plan for Reconstruction. Lincoln wanted to end
the war quickly. He feared that a protracted war would lose public
support and that the North and South would never be reunited if the
fighting did not stop quickly. His fears were justified: by late 1863, a
large number of Democrats were clamoring for a truce and peaceful
resolution. Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan was thus lenient—an
attempt to entice the South to surrender.
oJohnson’s plans
In May 1865, Johnson advanced his own version of
Reconstruction. His plan offered full amnesty to
all Southerners who swore allegiance to the US
(excluding high-ranking Confederate leaders,
provisional governors for southern states and only
asked them to revoke succession, repudiate
Confederate debts and ratify the 13th Amendment.
Johnson demanded that high-ranking officials go
beyond the oath he required of everyone else and
