The assassination of Abraham Lincoln at the very moment of the Union's victory led to a rupture between the new Democrat President, Andrew Johnson, and the Republican party, which controlled Congress. Democrat President Andrew Johnson feared and despised blacks and was happy to see them become second-class citizens under the control of their former masters. The Republican party, however, believed that the federal government had a duty to protect the former slaves from being exploited and abused. The 1866 Civil Rights Bill therefore declared that 'all persons born in the United States' were citizens, and that all citizens were entitled...