Abraham Lincoln was the first president to present a plan for Reconstruction. He proposed a lenient policy that would allow Southerners to rejoin the Union quickly. In December 1863, he offered full pardons to Confederates, other than a few high-ranking leaders. To receive the pardons, Southerners would have to swear their allegiance to the United States and agree to the end of slavery. Once ten percent of the voting population of a seceded state took the oath of allegiance, Lincoln authorized these individuals to form a state government that was loyal to the United States government. States like Louisiana and Arkansas, where Union troops had firm control, quickly applied for readmission to the Union. By pursuing a relatively lenient policy towards the seceded states and former Confederates, Lincoln tried to persuade reluctant Confederates to return to the United States. He hoped to bring the Civil War to an early conclusion.
The United States Congress was less forgiving than Lincoln was. Radical Republicans wanted to give African-American men the right to vote. The Radicals, as well as more moderate Republicans in Congress, <u>did not want to give former Confederates an equal voice in the government. </u>Benjamin Wade, a senator from Ohio, proposed the Wade-Davis Bill. Under this bill, fifty percent of Southern voters would have to swear allegiance to the United States before a seceded state could form a new state government. Only people who could swear that they never willingly supported the rebellion would be permitted to vote and have a say in the formation of the new state government. Lincoln refused to sign the bill, effectively vetoing it. As a result of this split between the president and Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate refused to accept Unionist representatives and senators from Louisiana and Arkansas in 1864. Before a compromise between the President and the Congress could be reached, Lincoln died from an assassin's bullet on April 15, 1865, less than a week after the official end of the Civil War.
