A. R. Nelson and former congressman Emerson Etheridge, opposed it, arguing it would serve only to postpone a Union victory in the war. By mid-1863, Johnson was under pressure from Lincoln to hold elections in the state. He continuously hesitated, however, as he was concerned that Unionists who opposed the Proclamation (known as "Conservative Unionists") would prevail. Conservative Unionists thus grew increasingly frustrated with Johnson over his emancipation stance and his refusal to hold elections. At Johnson's request, the East Tennessee Convention reassembled at the Knox County Courthouse in Knoxville on April 12, 1864 (the date was chosen as the third anniversary of the attack on Fort Sumter). The purpose of this session was to discuss Lincoln's ten percent plan, which allowed any former Confederate state to reenter the Union if ten percent of its prewar voting population took the Oath of Allegiance and pledged to support emancipation. Just 160 delegates from 23 counties attended, substantially fewer than the first two sessions. The April 1864 session of the East Tennessee Convention was wrought with infighting. Johnson opened the Convention with a speech attacking slavery, but it quickly became clear that Conservative Unionists, led by Nelson, John Baxter, Frederick Heiskell, and William B. Carter, were in the majority. Those who supported emancipation, led by Brownlow and Daniel C. Trewhitt, called for "immediate and unconditional emancipation" and the arming of black soldiers, and endorsed Lincoln for president. The Conservative Unionists endorsed General George McClellan for president, and called for leniency toward former Confederates. The arguments quickly became personal. Baxter was ruthlessly assailed for having taken the Confederate oath, and a motion to allow only truly loyal men at the Convention failed by a narrow vote. Heiskell accused Brownlow of selling out to northerners over the issue of slavery. After four days, with the Convention hopelessly deadlocked, Sam Milligan, a lifelong friend of Johnson, motioned successfully for the Convention to adjourn sine die, leaving the debate unresolved. Postwar period Andrew Johnson, who had been serving as Tennessee's military governor since 1862, was elected Vice President of the United States in November 1864 and was elevated to the presidency after Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865. William "Parson" Brownlow, a member of the Convention's Knox delegation, was elected Governor of Tennessee in January 1865. More than a dozen former delegates would serve in the state legislature during war's aftermath, including Alfred Cate (Hamilton), William