History of the United States II / Unit 1 USH2 0003 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Future Loyalty or Past Innocence
The idea
Under Lincoln's plan, a tenth of a state's eighteen sixty electorate would pledge loyalty to the Union from that day forward, after which the state could write a new constitution. The Wade-Davis Bill asked a majority of voters and officials to take the Ironclad Oath, a sworn denial of any past support for the Confederacy or any war against the Union. Congress passed the bill in July eighteen sixty-four, and Lincoln let it die unsigned, a pocket veto.
In practice
Ten percent against a majority, and an oath about what a man will do against an oath about what he has already done.
Where people slip
The familiar version says the two sides disagreed only about how severe to be. The oaths show a sharper difference. Anyone willing to accept defeat could take Lincoln's oath. Few men in a seceded state could take the Ironclad Oath truthfully, so the bill's majority would have been nearly impossible to reach, while Lincoln wanted a quick settlement.
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