Episode Details

Reconstruction plans discussed long before war’s end, with little agreement. Lincoln’s assassination brings Johnson into office. New president grants amnesty to thousands of former Confederates: plantation owners, politicians, generals. Angers Radical Republicans in Congress. Mid-year Republican victories give party clout to override Johnson’s vetoes of their proactive Reconstruction efforts. Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to Constitution passed. Johnson impeached and just misses conviction in Senate. Grant elected his successor.