What is the "10 percent" clause?

Question

This is history... in Lincolns time

Answer 1

"Lincoln’s blueprint for Reconstruction included the Ten-Percent Plan, which specified that a southern state could be readmitted into the Union once 10 percent of its voters (from the voter rolls for the election of 1860) swore an oath of allegiance to the Union. Voters could then elect delegates to draft revised state constitutions and establish new state governments. All southerners except for high-ranking Confederate army officers and government officials would be granted a full pardon. Lincoln guaranteed southerners that he would protect their private property, though not their slaves. Most moderate Republicans in Congress supported the president’s proposal for Reconstruction because they wanted to bring a quick end to the war.
In many ways, the Ten-Percent Plan was more of a political maneuver than a plan for Reconstruction. Lincoln wanted to end the war quickly. He feared that a protracted war would lose public support and that the North and South would never be reunited if the fighting did not stop quickly. His fears were justified: by late 1863, a large number of Democrats were clamoring for a truce and peaceful resolution. Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan was thus lenient—an attempt to entice the South to surrender."

Answer 2

Oh that's easy. Poor Abraham was dealing with Confed states already taken over by the Union. Basically he asked the populace you know the voting citizens if they would abolish slavery and take an allegiance vote. IF (big if) that was met and ten percent of them took that oath, then he would readmit them to the Union. This was late in 1862 or 1863, yes, 1863 maybe December.