sers supported Johnson in refusing to recognize the
Southern state governments; but three of them--Seward, Welles, and
McCulloch--were influential in moderating his zeal for inflicting
punishments. Nevertheless, he soon had in prison the most prominent of
the Confederate civilians and several general officers. The soldiers,
however, were sent home, trade with the South was permitted, and the
Freedmen's Bureau was rapidly extended.

Previous to this Johnson had brought himself to recognize, early in
May, the Lincoln "ten percent" governments of Louisiana, Tennessee, and
Arkansas, and the reconstructed Alexandria government of Virginia. Thus
only seven states were left without legal governments, and to bring
those states back into the Union, Johnson inaugurated on May 29, 1865,
a plan which was like that of Lincoln but not quite so liberal. In his
Amnesty Proclamation, Johnson made a longer list of exceptions aimed
especially at the once wealthy slave owners. On the same day he
proclaimed the restoration of North Carolina. A provisional governor, W.
W. Holden, was appointed and directed to reorganize the civil government
and to call a constitutional convention elected by those who had taken
the amnesty oath. This convention was to make necessary amendments
to the constitution and to "restore said State to its constitutional
relations to the Federal Government." It is to be noted that Johnson
fixed the qualifications of delegates and of those who elected them,
but, this stage once passed, the convention or the legislature would
"prescribe the qualifications of electors... a power the people of the
several States composing the Federal Union have rightfully exercised
from the origin of the government to the present time." The President
also directed the various cabinet officers to extend the work of their
departments over the Confederate States and ordered the army officers
to assist the civil authorities. During the next six weeks, similar
measures were undertaken for the remaining six states of the
Confederacy.

To set up the new order, army officers were first sent into every county
to administer the amnesty oath and thus to secure a "loyal" electorate.
In each state the provisional governor organized out of the remains of
the Confederate local regime a new civil government. Confederate local
officials who could and would take the amnesty oath were directed to
resume office until relieved; the laws of 1861, except those