[x]

Federally-appointed governors as transitional replacements for a few months doesn't seem like much of a problem. Would continued military rule have been better? Or should Johnson have turned everything over to the people who had been fighting against the US for four years? Even if he should have, could anyone really believe that was an alternative given the circumstances?

It's nice to think that somehow the CSA or the antebellum US were just a bunch of anti-government guys who only wanted to do as they pleased before bad old Abe came along and made everything dictatorial, but they were governments (or aspired to be governments) and some who came under their own power had as many legitimate grievances as subjects ever do.

[OneWingedShark]

The bigger issue is being deprived of a vote in the Congress; see the linked articles [in the previous post] on the events surrounding the 14th Amendment, which is supported by congressional records.