Page "Andrew Johnson" Paragraph 52

Many officials, including those from Maryland, Virginia and Louisiana, as well as Chief Justice Chase personally, underscored for the President that the Southern states were economically in a state of chaos and governmental disorganization, and most anxious to reach agreements that would restore them to the Union.

These officials urged the President to use his leverage to insist on conditions assuring the rights of freedmen.

But Johnson, with the support of other officials including Seward, insisted that the states, not the federal government, had the right to address the issue of suffrage.

The cabinet was divided on the issue.

Johnson grew increasingly intransigent on this position, believing that the southern states had legally never left the Union.