thaddaeus stevens. but stevens was by no means a cing his maneuvers through weak or enfeebled congress. instead, over and over stevens is able to sustain a majority of republicans, in fact, usually a unanimous front of republicans behind them. not because they're scared of him but because he is articulating things they have come to believe. and when the joint committee passes, johnson is shocked. while people still do talk about the potential for working together, johnson and johnson's newspaper say the peace we have struggled for, hoped for, we have so finely dreamed of, has now faded away. as early as that moment, they understood that what was at stake was congress's determination not to return to peace. beyond the joint committee, though, it took time especially in december for policies to cohere. you see an interesting paradox, which is that you see in these early moments contradictions where senators will say we're in a time of peace. just as grant after appomattox would say the war is over and the