Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan
Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan: 1863–1865
Events
1863 Lincoln issues Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
1864 Congress passes Wade-Davis Bill; Lincoln pocket-vetoes it
1865 Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse Congress creates Freedmen’s Bureau Lincoln is assassinated; Johnson becomes president
Key People
Abraham Lincoln - 16th U.S. president; proposed Ten-Percent Plan for Reconstruction in 1863; assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in 1865
Andrew Johnson - 17th U.S. president; was vice president in Lincoln’s second term and became president upon Lincoln’s assassination
Plans for Reconstruction
After major Union victories at the battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln began preparing his plan for Reconstruction to reunify the North and South after the war’s end. Because Lincoln believed that the South had never legally seceded from the Union, his plan for Reconstruction was based on forgiveness. He thus issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in 1863 to announce his intention to reunite the once-united states. Lincoln hoped that the proclamation would rally northern support for the war and persuade weary Confederate soldiers to surrender.
The Ten-Percent Plan
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.
Events
1863 Lincoln issues Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
1864 Congress passes Wade-Davis Bill; Lincoln pocket-vetoes it
1865 Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse Congress creates Freedmen’s Bureau Lincoln is assassinated; Johnson becomes president
Key People
Abraham Lincoln - 16th U.S. president; proposed Ten-Percent Plan for Reconstruction in 1863; assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in 1865
Andrew Johnson - 17th U.S. president; was vice president in Lincoln’s second term and became president upon Lincoln’s assassination
Plans for Reconstruction
After major Union victories at the battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln began preparing his plan for Reconstruction to reunify the North and South after the war’s end. Because Lincoln believed that the South had never legally seceded from the Union, his plan for Reconstruction was based on forgiveness. He thus issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in 1863 to announce his intention to reunite the once-united states. Lincoln hoped that the proclamation would rally northern support for the war and persuade weary Confederate soldiers to surrender.
The Ten-Percent Plan
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.