Ladies and Gentlemen, Andrew Johnson....

Andrew Johnson became the 17th president of the United States.

Johnson launched his plan for Reconstruction which would restore the rights to white southerners, but first, they had to take an oath of loyalty.



Johnson also required Southerners who had over $20,000 to apply for a pardon. Johnson himself decided on punishments for these guys. The problem was, Johnson sort of hated the rich.



Congress was uneasy about this, and they sent him a letter. They asked him to suspend his plan and work with Congress to come to a more reasonable solution.

As Michael Scott of Dunder Mifflin would end up doing many years later, President Johnson filed this in his "important papers" file.




The Republicans were concerned because Johnson didn't seem too interested in African Americans taking part in government.

Well, the truth was, he wasn't. He felt that only white men should manage the South.

Because of this, many pre war politicians were back in power in the South. They wanted their lives to go back to as normal as possible.

Because of that pesky 13th Amendment, they couldn't keep slaves, so they had to come up with some other ways to keep things unequal.