According to Stevens, the South needed to be changed completely as he implied in his speech "the whole fabric of southern society must be changed"(American Horizons Volume II: 162). Stevens also advocated his Reconstruction plan in his speech, which he believed that the former lands of plantation owners should be divided and sold to the newly freed-men in order to achieve the real purpose of Reconstruction. .
Even though the Republican Party was only a decade old, they benefited from the Civil War as veterans; they sought to have a strong support from the North and the newly-freed men from South. The influence they inherited from the Civil War continued to serve them well politically during Reconstruction. When radical republicans advocated for a tougher Reconstruction plan, along with the call to put a stop to the increasing racial violence that were happening around the country, many northerners and former slaves supported the Republicans and criticized Johnson for being soft and leaving the South unapologetic. This fact can be observed in Thomas Nast's cartoon Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction in Harper's Weekly on September 1, 1866 (American Horizons Volume II:164). .
Thomas Nast was an early critic of Johnson. His attention-grabbing cartoon was clearly meant to mock President Johnson. In the center of his cartoon, Nast drew a Shakespearean motif to cast Johnson as the evil Iago plotting against a black wounded Union veteran who is denied with his promised and justified place in American political life. Around the central characters are cruel drawing scenes implying the violent acts against African Americans. Behind the two characters are President's Johnson's past promises, veto of Reconstruction legislation, and amnesty for Confederates. .
Thomas Nast's cartoon was intended to both criticize Johnson's too lenient Reconstruction plan and to gain support for the radical Republicans.
