Ten percent plan

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During the American Civil War, in December 1863, Abraham Lincoln offered a full pardon called the 10 percent reconstruction plan. It decreed that a state could be reintegrated into the Union when 10 percent of its voters in the presidential election of 1860 had taken an oath of allegiance to the U.S. and pledged to abide by emancipation. The next step in the process would be for the states to formally elect a state government. Also, the states were able to write a new constitution, but in it had to abolish slavery forever. At that time, Lincoln would recognize the purified regime. By 1864, Louisiana and Arkansas had established fully functioning Unionist governments.

This policy was meant to shorten the war by offering a moderate peace plan. It was also intended to further his emancipation policy by insisting that the new governments abolish slavery.

Congress reacted sharply to this proclamation of Lincoln's. Republicans feared that the planter aristocracy would be restored and the blacks would be forced back into slavery. Lincoln's reconstructive policy toward the South was lenient because he wanted to popularize his Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln feared that compelling enforcement of the proclamation could lead to the demise of the Republican Party in the election of 1864, and the popular Democrats could overturn his proclamation. The unhappy Republicans then pushed through Congress the Wade-Davis Bill in July of 1864.

The Radical Republicans in the North were also in strong opposition to this plan, as they thought it was too lenient towards the South and wanted more stringent requirements to be placed on the Southern states for re-admission into the Union. Lincoln, however, chose not to further punish the South, and his plan was lenient because he merely wanted to preserve the Union and start perpetuating the wealth and prosperity of the country rather than wasting time on further subjugating the South. Many people overlooked the fact that the South, in losing the war, were struggling because of the ravaged land and the poverty that the North had caused them. However, many radicals in the South believed that they were the victims of the war and wanted unconditional re-integration into the Union. Lincoln wanted the United States to stay as a Union, so the 10% plan helped by including the Southern people.