African Americans and their white allies insisted that enfranchisement was necessary to reward black men for their loyalty and military service. The vote would allow the freedmen to protect themselves and the Union from white Southerners. Despite arguments that the formerly enslaved were unqualified to vote, that only states could determine who voted, and that race war would ensue, black suffrage gained increasing support. Northerners, shocked at the swift return of former Confederates to power in Presidential Reconstruction and the anti-black riots in Memphis and New Orleans, blamed President Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction policy and supported Congressional Republicans in the 1866 mid-term elections, setting the stage for Congressional Reconstruction.