Answer:
Lincoln's reconstructive policy toward the South was lenient because he wanted to popularize his Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln feared that compelling enforcement of the proclamation could lead to the defeat of the Republican Party in the election of 1864, and that popular Democrats could overturn his proclamation.
Step-by-step explanation:
One weakness of the plan was that President Lincoln only encouraged the southern states to give the former slaves the right to vote. His plan didn't require voting rights for the former slaves. Some people also believed that his plan was too easy on the southern states.
However, Reconstruction failed by most other measures: Radical Republican legislation ultimately failed to protect former slaves from white persecution and failed to engender fundamental changes to the social fabric of the South. ... Reconstruction thus came to a close with many of its goals left unaccomplished
The chief mistake of Reconstruction was conferring the right to vote on African-Americans, who, it was said, were incapable of exercising it intelligently.