year, Grant spoke at Cooper Union in New York in support of Johnson's presidency. Further travels that summer took the Grants to Albany, New York, back to Galena, and throughout Illinois and Ohio, with enthusiastic receptions. On July 25, 1866, Congress promoted Grant to the newly created rank of General of the Army of the United States. Saved Lee's life On June 7, 1865, Robert E. Lee, and other former Confederate officers were indicted by a grand jury for the high crime of treason against the United States, a capital offense punished by imprisonment and hanging. Johnson wanted to punish Lee, and "make treason odious". When informed, Grant objected and went to the White House telling President Johnson that Lee was protected by Grant's surrender terms Grant had generously given Lee at Appomattox in April. When an angered Grant threatened to resign, President Johnson backed down, and on June 20, Johnson's Attorney General James Speed ordered the United States Attorney General in Norfolk, Virginia to drop treason proceedings against Lee, saving Lee from punishment and prosecution. Tour of the South President Johnson's Reconstruction policy included a speedy return of the former Confederates to Congress, reinstating whites to office in the South, and relegating blacks to second-class citizenship. On November 27, 1865, General Grant left Washington, sent by Johnson on a fact-finding mission to the South, to counter a pending less favorable report by Senator Carl Schurz. Grant recommended continuation of the Freedmen's Bureau, which Johnson opposed, but advised against using black troops, which he believed encouraged an alternative to farm labor. Grant did not believe the people of the South were ready for self-rule, and that both whites and blacks in the South required protection by the federal government. Concerned that the war led to diminished respect for civil authorities, Grant continued using the Army to maintain order. Grant's report on the South, which he later recanted, sympathized with Johnson's conservative Reconstruction policies. Although Grant desired former Confederates be returned to Congress, he advocated eventual black citizenship. On December 19, the day after the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment was announced in the Senate, Johnson's response used Grant's report, read aloud to the Senate, to undermine Schurz's final report and Radical opposition to Johnson's policies. Break from Johnson Grant was initially optimistic about Johnson, saying he was satisfied the nation had "nothing to fear" from the Johnson administration. Despite differing