Kim, what I was taught in my history classes was that Johnson wanted to be lenient on the former confederacy....It was that he had no power/influence in the government. The Republican majority would pass some vengeance law and he would veto it.....then they would just override his veto. Which needs a 2/3 majority and therefore alot of trouble....They eventually got tired of this game and tried to impeach him to get him out of the way.....