Under new president Andrew Johnson, presidential reconstruction

Under President Andrew Johnson's “Presidential Reconstruction” plan, he proposed to restore the southern states to the Union on the basis that they rescind their ordinances of secession, repudiate the Confederate debt, and acknowledge the thirteenth amendment (passed in 1865) that abolished slavery. However, he also stipulated that the former Confederate states had to pardon former Confederates, declare loyalty to the Union, and accept the rights of African Americans to hold public office. Johnson's goal was to bring the southern states back into the Union quickly, without lengthy debates over military occupation, constitutional amendments, and civil rights. To this end, he issued a series of proclamations that allowed the former Confederate states to reestablish loyal state governments as soon as ten percent of the voters in 1860 had taken a loyalty oath.