ANDREW JOHNSON. PRINTED DOCUMENT REGARDING ANDREW JOHNSON EXTENDING LINCOLN'S AMNESTY PROCLAMATION, 29 MAY 1865

Six pages (8 x 12 1/2 in.; 203 x 318 mm), Washington, [D.C.], 29 May 1865; some foxing, old folds, some splits to folds.

The ten percent plan (formally the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, 13 Stat. 737), was issued on 8 December 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln. Three years into the Civil War, the Union Army had pushed the Confederate Army out of several regions of the South, and some rebellious states were eager for their governments to be rebuilt. Lincoln's established a plan that would set in motion a process by which this postwar reconstruction could be achieved. Following Lincoln’s assassination, however, disagreements over the postwar reconstruction policy led to a heated battle between Andrew Johnson and Congress. Johnson's proclamation of 29 May 1865, for example, suggested a certain amount of punishment or prosecution for the rebellion. In the end, several factors led Johnson to exercise greater clemency; namely, he was influenced by the attitude of Lincoln for reconciliation, and by Seward's similar leniency towards the former rebels.