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That is the stuff of Lincoln Republicanism and I thought you would find it full of merit.

It sounds like this to me:

"...the Wade-Davis bill clarified and stiffened the reconstruction policy Lincoln had begun, and nearly all Republicans in both houses gave the measure their support. Among other things, it prohibited slavery in all reconstructed states and made slave owning a federal crime punishable by fines and imprisonment. Moreover, the bill threw out Lincoln's ten percent test and decreed that a majority of voters in a conquered rebel state must take an oath of allegiance before they could establish a new government. As outlined in the bill, the restoration process would now work like this for every rebel state: the President would appoint and the Senate would confirm a provisional governor whose job was to administer the oath and call a constitutional convention charged with creating a republican form of government.

So far as the convention was concerned, the bill required that an "iron-clad" oath be taken in order to exclude ex-confederates."

"With Malice Toward None", by Stepen Oates, p. 392

But President Lincoln vetoed that bill.

And this is interesting:

"A second salient feature of clemency policy during the Lincoln administration is the December 8, 1863, issuance of a "Declaration of Amnesty and Reconstruction."

Lincoln issued the Proclamation on the same day as his annual message to Congress outlining his plan for dealing with the rebellious South. Congress had indicated its conditional approval for the President to engage in such a measure by its act of July 17, 1862, stating the President had the ability "to extend to persons who may have participated in the existing Rebellion in any State or part thereof, pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions and at such time and on such conditions as he may deem expedient for the public welfare" (McCarthy 1966, 24).

According to Lincoln's plan, if at least ten percent of the number of voters in the 1860 Presidential election in a rebellious state took an oath and constructed a republican government for the state, they could receive recognition and protection under the Guarantee Clause of Article IV, section 4 (Basler VII, 50, 55)."

President Lincoln held malice towards none, and charity for all.

But you knew that.

Walt