President Lincoln began to reconstruct the seceded States when he issued his amnesty proclamation in December, 1863, which offered pardon to all who were in arms if they would lay them down and take an oath to support the government of the United States. He said he would recognize a State government as a loyal government, provided as many as one-tenth of the number who voted in 1860 would organize a State government and comply with certain …showed first 75 words of 1275 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1275 total…to the extreme party in Congress even before his death. He recognized that the States had control of suffrage, and that negroes had no legal right to vote except as that boon was given them by the State. It is generally agreed now, that the death of Mr. Lincoln was at least a great blow to early reconciliation, if it did not end the last hope entertained for a conservative and wise policy of reconstruction.