Sunday, November 4, 2018

What was the attitude of President Johnson toward the Reconstruction of the South?

Like
Lincoln, Johnson wanted the former Confederate states brought back into the Union as quick as
possible. Johnson did not insist on the Radicals "Ironclad Oath" which prohibited
anyone who willingly helped the Confederacy from taking an active role in government.  Johnson
realized that this would not only prohibit former Confederate bureaucrats from holding office,
but it would also stop former soldiers of the Confederacy from playing an active role in .
 Johnson, a resident of East Tennessee before the war and military governor of the state during
the conflict, did not like the planter class because he felt as though they dragged the majority
of Southerners into the Civil War.  Johnson also believed that the former slaves would be for
the planters' interests because of the security provided under the slave system.  Johnson, while
desiring free enterprise in the South, wanted to see a system where blacks would continue to
work the former plantations for wages.  He saw black suffrage as a hindrance to Reconstruction
because it would only cause whites in the South to hinder the Reconstruction process.  Johnson
wanted the Reconstruction South to be ably maintained, even if this meant giving government
positions to the planter class that he personally despised.  Johnson personally pardoned many
former Confederate officials, much to the consternation of the Radicals in his own Cabinet and
Congress.   

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