As soon as possible the War Department notified the Union commanders to stop all attempts at reconstruction and to pursue and arrest all Confederate governors and other prominent civil leaders.

The President was even anxious to arrest the military leaders who had been paroled but was checked in this desire by General Grant's firm protest.
His cabinet advisers 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.