n. When Congress
met, he communicated the text of a "Proclamation of Amnesty and
Reconstruction."(2) This great document on which all his concluding
policy was based, offered "a full pardon" with "restoration of all
rights of property, except as to slaves, or in property cases, where
rights of third persons shall have intervened" upon subscribing to
an oath of allegiance which required only a full acceptance of the
authority of the United States. This amnesty was to be extended to all
persons except a few groups, such as officers above the rank of colonel
and former officials of the United States. The Proclamation also
provided that whenever, in any Seceded State, the new oath should be
taken by ten per cent. of all those who were qualified to vote under the
laws of 1860, these ten per cent. should be empowered to set up a new
State government.

From the Vindictive point of view, here was a startling announcement.
Lincoln had declared for a degree of magnanimity that was as a red rag
to a bull. He had also carried to its ultimate his assumption of war
powers. No request was made for congressional cooperation. The message
which the Proclamation accompanied was informative only.

By this time, the Vindictive Coalition of 1861 was gradually coming
together again. Or, more truly, perhaps, various of its elements were
fusing into a sort of descendant of the old coalition. The leaders
of the new Vindictive group were much the same as the leaders of the
earlier group. There was one conspicuous addition. During the next six
months, Henry Winter Davis held for a time the questionable distinction
of being Lincoln's most inveterate enemy. He was a member of the House.
In the House many young and headstrong politicians rallied about him.
The Democrats at times craftily followed his lead. Despite the older and
more astute Vindictives of the Senate, Chandler, Wade and the rest who
knew that their time had not come, Davis, with his ardent followers,
took up the President's challenge. Davis brought in a bill designed to
complete the reorganization of the old Vindictive Coalition. It appealed
to the enemies of presidential prerogative, to all those who wanted
the road to reconstruction made as hard as possible, and to the
Abolitionists. This bill, in so many words, transferred the whole matter
of reconstruction from the President to Congress; it required a majority
(instead of one-tenth) of all the male citizens of a Seceded State as t