Lincoln's restoration plans began before the war even ended. Lincoln was motivated by a desire to build a strong Republican Party in the South and end the anxieties caused by the war. On December 8, 1863, Lincoln issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction for those areas of the Southern Confederacy that would support the United States Constitution and swear an oath of loyalty to the union. Lincoln's plan offered a pardon to any state and would be allowed to reenter the union when ten percent of those who voted in the 1860 election took an oath of loyalty to the union and would be required to obey all laws, including including the prohibition of slavery. and even declared that senior Confederate officials and military leaders should be temporarily excluded from the process. Few states reacted quickly to this "plan" and even established governments based on these terms. However, Radical Republicans disagreed with Lincoln's plan, due to the fact that it did not guarantee equal rights for freed slaves. Postwar Radical Republicans were interested in primary factors such as the desire to ...