It was far from certain that the North would win the Civil War in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln introduced his plan for the restoration of the Union following the end of hostilities. Lincoln had always argued that secession was unconstitutional and therefore that the states forming the Confederacy had not left the Union but were only in rebellion. Because, under the Constitution, the president was commander in chief of the armed forces, Lincoln believed that he had the authority to determine when the rebellion was over and the conditions under which the rebellious states could resume their relationship to the Union. His plan, announced in his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction of December 8, 1863, outlined a policy of forgiveness aimed at healing the nation’s wounds as quickly as possible.