The Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction contained Lincoln’s blueprint for Reconstruction after the war. Under this plan, Southern citizens were required to express their allegiance to the Union by taking an oath to receive amnesty. Additionally, only those states whose 10% of the white population supported the Union in the 1860 polls could form a government. However, top confederate officials could not be a part of the new administration. Further, the state constitutions were to include provisions for emancipation. The goal was to restore the Union’s dominance over the former confederate states and ensure they remain loyal to the federal government. Congress, on its part, desired that over 50% of all voters in Southern states swear allegiance to the Union before Reconstruction could begin. Thus, the legislature and executive were divided over these policies.
A majority of the Northerners considered Lincoln’s policy lenient to the Southern states. They wanted more sanctions to be imposed on the South for attempting to secede. Republican congressional representatives opposed the presidential amnesty as a precondition for Reconstruction. They held that the president’s plan usurped the legislative powers of Congress and would revive the Southern aristocracy. Northerners also opposed this program because it lacked clear provisions for the abolition of slavery in the former confederate states and protections for freed slaves. Because of the conflicting positions of the executive and the legislature, the president vetoed the 1864 congressional Wade-Davis Bill that favored abolitionism and non-participation of former confederate rulers in state governments. This move allowed Lincoln to implement his plan for Reconstruction.