Johnson’s answer to such objections was that he was making a distinction between individual treason and collective treason. He had no intention, at least initially, of letting individual traitors escape unscathed. He wanted to protect Southern states, not Confederate leaders. But no matter how logically plausible Johnson’s argument might seem, even he had to make exceptions to it. He, after all, was appointing provisional governors, ordering new state constitutional conventions, and demanding certain terms for reunion: agreement to the abolition of slavery, renunciation of secession, and,
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