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Reconstruction
Main article: Reconstruction era of the United States

A political cartoon of Andrew Johnson and Abraham Lincoln, 1865!. The caption reads (Johnson to the former rail-splitter): Take it quietly Uncle Abe and I will draw it closer than ever!! (Lincoln to the former tailor): A few more stitches Andy and the good old Union will be mended!Northern anger over the assassination of Lincoln and the immense human cost of the war led to demands for harsh policies!. Vice President Andrew Johnson had taken a hard line and spoke of hanging rebel Confederates!. In late April, 1865 he was noted telling an Indiana delegation that, "Treason must be made odious!.!.!. traitors must be punished and impoverished !.!.!. their social power must be destroyed!." However, when he succeeded Lincoln as President, Johnson took a much softer line noting, "I say, as to the leaders, punishment!. I also say leniency, reconciliation and amnesty to the thousands whom they have misled and deceived!."[15] and ended up pardoning many Confederate leaders and ex-Confederates to maintain their control of Southern state governments, Southern lands, and black people!.[16]

His class-based resentment of the rich appeared in a May 1865 statement to W!.H!. Holden, the man he appointed governor of North Carolina: "I intend to confiscate the lands of these rich men whom I have excluded from pardon by my proclamation, and divide the proceeds thereof among the families of the wool hat boys, the Confederate soldiers, whom these men forced into battle to protect their property in slaves!."[17] In practice, Johnson was not at all harsh toward the Confederate leaders!. He allowed the Southern states to hold elections in 1865, resulting in prominent ex-Confederates being elected to the U!.S!. Congress; however, Congress did not seat them!. Congress and Johnson argued in an increasingly public way about Reconstruction and the manner in which the Southern secessionist states would be readmitted to the Union!. Johnson favored a very quick restoration, similar to the plan of leniency that Lincoln advocated before his death!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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