Interracial marriage was prohibited. In some areas freemen needed special licenses to engage in specific trades and in others they were denied certain lands for farming. The South was left in economic ruin filled with racial discrimination. With the South in a state of desperation it was clear that the federal government needed to take action. However, how to do so was greatly debated. Much of the failings of Reconstruction were a result of the opposing views of President Andrew Johnson and Congress. Johnson, a southerner and former slaveholder fully disagreed with the Republican aims of strict southern reinstatement and racial equality and from the beginning called such radicals his "adversaries." Johnson's Jacksonian convictions for a truly united nation led him to insist on the speedy restoration of Southern governments based on the prewar white electorate. High Confederate officials and all those owning property valued at more than $20,000 were excluded from amnesty, but were entitled to individual pardons granted directly by the president. Such pardons placed the president in a position of great power and made reinstatement too easy. Provisional governors were also appointed to call constitutional conventions, in which the states were expected to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, nullify their secession ordinances, and repudiate the Confederate debt. However, Johnson's plan in practice revealed that little had changed in the South. None of the states enfranchised even literate blacks. Many declined to nullify the secession ordinances and repudiate their debt. Furthermore, Mississippi even refused to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. For the most part, Johnson's plan of reconstruction left the south in its prewar state. Doubting Johnson's program and concerned for the safety of the freedmen, the Republican Congress opposed the president's efforts and sought their own plan for reordering the South.