On May 29, 1865, President Johnson issued a very important Proclamation of Pardon and Amnesty, with several provisions to it, in regards to what those who brought rebellion to the United States, needed to do in order to become citizens of good standing with their attendant rights returned to them by this nation. It has to be remembered that those that make war, and thereupon lose that war, would not thus be in a position to demand much of anything, for as the losers of this civil war as well as being the initiators of that war, they would have to rely on the mercy of the victors; yet this nation to its esteemed credit did not desire to have malice to those that had rebelled against them.
While President Johnson's Proclamation had many provisions, the most salient one, was that those who had taxable property of over $20,000 would have to make a special application to the President in order to secure back their right to vote as well as to hold office. In other words, Johnson's Proclamation was seen as being the instrument that would once and for all, put a sword to those of the privileged white class, who had been the biggest slave owners, as well as being the instigators and material contributors to this rebellion of the Southern States, against the United States.
Unfortunately, Johnson decided for whatever reason(s), to pardon pretty much all those who were members of what would considered to be the slaveocracy of the South, so that thereupon in short order, the end result was the return to power of the very privileged people that were the previous office holders within those Southern States, or their equivalency, and therefore returning those that had rebelled against the United States, to their previous condition of superiority and control within those States.
This then meant that though the Southern States had lost many men, as well as having property destroyed or confiscated by the victorious North, in their futile fight against the Northern States, and despite having been the proximate cause of this war, things were able to return to essentially how they had been before the civil war, though, new laws and Constitutional Amendments had been ratified, to, in theory, preclude such. Sure, slavery was no longer the law of the land, but those of the South recognized that there were other avenues available to them to still exploit those that had been enslaved, to thereby serve the purposes of the South. So too, the South was still united in their belief of what they would or would not tolerate from those that were non-white, which continued to be a drag upon liberating national policy, for decade upon decade.
In summary, it can be said, that the Amnesty proclaimed by President Johnson, was well reasoned, and a necessary precondition for the people of those previous rebellious States who were thus required to swear to such so as to come back to the Union in good standing; it was though, implemented in such a manner that it kept those that had previously been enslaved, for the most part, in the same unjust and inferior position that they had not only expected to have seen changed but also undercut the very emancipation that they had been granted in 1863. The end result was that the slaveocracy which should have been shattered, upon the conclusion of this civil war, was not, and therein lies the human tragedy, of which the remnants of such, live until the present day.