Final answer:
President Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction, known as the Ten Percent Plan, aimed to readmit Southern states to the Union quickly by requiring only 10 percent of voters to take a loyalty oath and accept emancipation. It was a lenient plan designed to facilitate fast reunification but faced criticism for not adequately protecting the rights of freed slaves.
Step-by-step explanation:
The goal of President Abraham Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction was to reunify the nation quickly following the Civil War. His Ten Percent Plan was designed to be moderate and lenient to encourage Southern loyalty and speed up the process of readmitting Southern states into the Union. It required that only 10 percent of the 1860 voting population in the former rebel states take a loyalty oath to the United States and accept the emancipation of the enslaved. The plan was lenient because it offered a general pardon to most Southerners, except for high-ranking Confederate leaders, and it permitted the Southern states to decide how to implement the end of slavery.
However, the major issue that arose with Lincoln's Reconstruction approach was that it did not necessarily guarantee civil rights to the formerly enslaved individuals. Radical Republicans in Congress found the plan too lenient and sought a more punitive approach that would also protect the freedoms of African Americans. Although Lincoln's plan was enacted, it was not fully realized, as his assassination led to changes under his successor, Andrew Johnson, and later Congressional influence over Reconstruction.