Those who insisted Johnson was only following Lincoln’s lead conveniently forgot that Lincoln had said, just days before being shot, that since slavery had caused the war, this terrible war would be waged “until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’ ” Lincoln had not blinked. Despite his penchant for kindness and
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