Final answer:
Lincoln intended to heal the nation after the Civil War with a lenient approach known as the Ten Percent Plan, focusing on rapid reunification and reconciliation, including a possible extension of voting rights to black men. His assassination left uncertainty regarding Reconstruction's direction.
Step-by-step explanation:
President Abraham Lincoln's intentions to heal the nation after the Civil War involved a plan known as the Ten Percent Plan. This plan was designed to be lenient, aiming to bring former Confederate states back into the Union swiftly and with minimal punishment. It required that only 10 percent of the 1860 voting population in the former rebel states take a binding oath of future allegiance to the United States and the emancipation of the enslaved. Lincoln's broader vision for the post-war period included the nation's obligation to the slaves and the process of reconciliation, suggesting supportive measures such as potentially extending voting rights to black men. However, after Lincoln's assassination, the approach to Reconstruction and the integration of African Americans into society remained uncertain, with different factions advocating for various levels of leniency or punishment toward the South.