He was determined to achieve his goal of the speedy reincorporation of the southern states all by himself, acting by presidential proclamation to bring in the rebel states before Congress came back into session in December 1865. After Virginia came North Carolina, then six other southern states, including the one that had led the South out of the Union: South Carolina. Johnson asked nothing of these states save that they recognize the end of slavery by ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment. This was perfectly in keeping with his understanding of what had happened when the southern states rebelled
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