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Thaddeus Stevens offered to defend Jefferson Davis against a treason charge, and would have tried to get him off on a technicality, not by arguing that his actions were legal.

As defense counsel, Thaddeus Stevens would have had no legal authority to dictate the defense. He would have been legally obligated to follow the will of the client.

Clearly, the defense set forth by Jefferson Davis and Charles O'Conor and the Dream Team of that day was the correct one. The Government, knowing they would lose, caved in.

As for giving away land, why not welcome the ex-slaves with a grant of land in the North or in the territories. There was plenty of land to be offered. When they could not unconstitutionally give away somebody else's land, they never did give up a square inch of their own land, now did they? Rather they passed laws to keep Blacks from settling in their states.

If Andrew Johnson was part of the Rebellion, please explain why Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party made him the Vice-President.

Welles offered a rather good description of the the plans and designs of the Radicals led by Thaddeus Stevens.

"If Andrew Johnson was part of the Rebellion, please explain why Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party made him the Vice-President."

During the Civil War, Andrew Johnson was the only loyal southern Senator, even though as a Democrat he had campaigned for Breckinridge and had criticized Lincoln during the campaign. A clue to his thinking is his middle name -- Jackson -- named after another southern-born nationalist Democrat. There were also two or three loyal southern Representatives, including one the rebels imprisoned rather than allow take his seat in Washington. Anyway, Andrew Johnson became President Lincoln's Military Governor of Tennessee, and Lincoln, wanting a loyal Democrat as his 1864 running mate, chose Johnson. Johnson revealed himself to be a die-hard Democrat after the war, allied with the ex-rebel Democrats to preserve as much as possible of pre-war power structure as possible.

Stevens' plan was to confiscate land held by rebels, which was already authorized by the Confiscstion Act of 1862, and give it to the slaves who actually worked it (and also sell it for a nominal fee to the millions of landless whites). Anyway, this "40 acres and a mule" program was never enacted.