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The Ten-Percent Plan
Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction included the Ten-Percent Plan, which stated that a southern state could be
readmitted into the Union once 10 percent of its voters swore an oath of allegiance (loyalty) to the Union.
Voters could then elect representatives to draft new state constitutions and create new state governments. All
southerners except for high-ranking Confederate army officers and government officials would be given a full
pardon. Lincoln promised southerners that he would protect their private property, though not their slaves. Most
moderate Republicans in Congress supported the president’s plan for Reconstruction because they wanted to
bring a quick end to the war.
Lincoln wanted to end the war quickly. He feared that a long-drawn-out 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 correct: by late
1863, a large number of Democrats were asking for a truce and peaceful end to the war. Lincoln’s Ten-Percent
Plan was very easy on the South—an effort to get the South to surrender.
Lincoln’s Idea for Reconstruction
President Lincoln seemed to favor self-Reconstruction by the states with little help from Washington. To appeal
to poorer whites, he offered to pardon all Confederates; to get former plantation owners, he promised to
protect private property. Unlike Radical Republicans in Congress, Lincoln did not want to punish southerners
or reorganize southern society. His actions showed that he wanted Reconstruction to be a short process in
which secessionist states could create new constitutions as fast as possible so that the United States could
exist as it had before. But historians can only guess that Lincoln wanted a quick reunification, for his
assassination in 1865 cut his plans for Reconstruction short.
The Radical Republicans
Many leading Republicans in Congress feared that Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction was not strong enough,
believing that the South needed to be punished for causing the war. These Radical Republicans hoped to
control the Reconstruction process, change southern society, destroy the planter class, redistribute land,
develop industry, and guarantee civil rights for former slaves. Although the Radical Republicans were the
minority party in Congress, they managed to influence many moderates in the postwar years and came to
dominate Congress.
The Wade-Davis Bill
In the summer of 1864, the Radical Republicans passed the Wade-Davis Bill to counter Lincoln’s Ten-Percent
Plan. The bill stated that a southern state could rejoin the Union only if 50 percent of its voters swore an
―ironclad oath‖ of allegiance to the United States. The bill also created safeguards for black civil rights but did
not give blacks the right to vote.
President Lincoln feared that asking 50 percent of voters to take a loyalty oath would ruin any chance of ending
the war quickly. Moreover, 1864 was an election year, and he could not afford to have northern voters see him
