USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The assassination of Lincoln had a huge impact on Reconstruction. This is primarily because his successor, Andrew Johnson, was a Southerner himself. While not a secessionist, Johnson was sympathetic to the Southern states and allowed them to be readmitted to the Union with little to no penalty.

Detailed explanation-2: -After Lincoln’s death, President Johnson proceeded to reconstruct the former Confederate States while Congress was not in session in 1865. He pardoned all who would take an oath of allegiance, but required leaders and men of wealth to obtain special Presidential pardons.

Detailed explanation-3: -Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia to Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, which had signaled the effective end of the American Civil War. Lincoln’s death plunged much of the country into despair, and the search for Booth and his accomplices was the largest manhunt in American history to that date.

Detailed explanation-4: -But Johnson did not intend to punish the South. And while he did oversee the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution outlawing slavery (a process Lincoln had started), Johnson also believed on principle that each state had the right to decide the best course of Reconstruction for itself.