In December 1863, even before the war ended, Lincoln formulated a Reconstruction plan "the "10 percent plan" that offered a general amnesty to all white Southerners, with the temporary exception of Confederate high civil and military officials. As soon as 10 percent of the number of 1860 voters in any state took a loyalty oath, they could set up a state government. At this juncture, Lincoln was interested primarily in restoring the Union as soon as possible and was willing to postpone questions about race relations. Concerned about the mildness of this program, in July 1864 Republicans pushed through Congress the stronger Wade-Davis Bill, which required the majority of voters in each conquered state to take the oath of allegiance before Reconstruction could begin and forbade former Confederates from participating in the drafting of new state constitutions. Lincoln refused to sign the bill. He did show some flexibility, however, declaring in his last public address in April 1865 that he endorsed the idea of limited suffrage for blacks. However, on the night of April 14, 1865, the president was shot; he died the following day. .
Land and Labor .
As Yankee armies seized Confederate property and thousands of slaves became free workers, what to do with this property and how to organize labor on it became critical issues. A number of wartime labor experiments were attempted, but it was along the Mississippi Valley that a labor system developed that would most resemble postwar southern labor relations. Here, Union commanders enacted a labor code requiring planters to sign contracts with former slaves, to pay them wages, and to provide food, housing, and medical care. Though liberating slaves from formal bondage, the code forced black laborers to enter into contracts, work hard, and remain subservient to their white employers. In short, the army sought to restore plantation agriculture with wage labor, not to incite a social or economic revolution.
