Avery Craven

By the middle of 1863, the Union army occupied Tennessee, Louisiana, and North Carolina. As it became apparent that the North would triumph in the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln began developing a plan to bring the conquered areas back into the United States. His 10 Percent Plan required that seceded states obtain an oath of allegiance to the United States from 10 percent of the voters before they would be admitted back into the Union.

In the following viewpoint Avery Craven argues that Lincoln’s efforts at reconstruction failed because the 10 Percent Plan was too conservative. In Lincoln’s mind, while the southern states had seceded from the Union, they had never lost their statehood or the rights that attended their status. Thus, Lincoln did not believe that Congress had the constitutional authority to dictate...