No - at least, not initially.

In the twelve years after the end of the war, the federal government was not soft on the former rebel states; the government actively used the U.S. military to enforce laws defending the civil rights of black Americans in the South. This period is known as Reconstruction (1865-1877). However, after Ulysses S. Grant’s presidency ended in 1877, political maneuvering at the federal level resulted in an extremely lenient policy towards the Southern states, leading to the rise of Jim Crow segregation and other racist policies and practices that continued for much of the next century. Many of the immense social and political changes brought about in the years after the Civil War were undone following the end of Reconstruction.

During Reconstruction, the U.S. federal government worked to restore state governments to what President Lincoln called their “proper practical relation with the Union”. As the war neared an end, Lincoln had been formulating plans to reintegrate rebel states into the national government, but he was assassinated in April 1865, just days after Lee’s surrender to Grant. As a result, it fell to Congress and the next two presidents to navigate the post-war years. Lincoln’s successor, President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, was hostile to many of the Reconstruction policies passed by the Republican Congress. These included stringent laws like the Military Reconstruction Act of 1867, which divided the Southern states into military districts to be governed by federal authorities. This law also required the Southern states to ratify the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution (abolishing slavery and providing equal protection under the law, respectively) in order to reestablish their representation in the federal government. President Johnson used his authority as president to fight against many of these bills, but Congress consistently overrode his vetoes (more than 50% of his vetoes were overridden by Congress).

When Grant became president in 1869, he endorsed Congress’ Reconstruction policies in a way Johnson never had. Grant committed himself to enforcing civil rights laws and defending the rights of black Americans, including the right to vote. Grant also used his authority as Commander-in-Chief to fight against the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and other groups that sought to intimidate and terrorize black Americans and those who supported their rights. During Grant's presidency, Congress passed several Civil Rights Acts, including one in 1870, one in 1871, and one in 1875. Furthermore, federal efforts to support black voting rights during Reconstruction resulted in a number of black Americans being elected to federal office in the South in the 1870s. [1] However, once Reconstruction ended and Southern states began instituting racist policies aimed at limiting black rights, this number fell significantly. By the early 1900s, no black Americans served in Congress at all for nearly 30 years, and no black American represented a Southern state in Congress from 1901 to 1973.

Reconstruction ended following the presidential election of 1876, which led to what is known as the Compromise of 1877. Rutherford B. Hayes was elected president in exchange for an end to enforcement of Reconstruction in the South (it's somewhat more complicated than that, but that's the gist of it). Upon his inauguration, President Hayes promptly withdrew federal troops from the South and effectively stopped enforcing federal civil rights laws in the South. Southern states were once again free to enact laws that restricted the rights of black Americans, including the right to vote. After Reconstruction ended in 1877, Congress would not pass another Civil Rights Act until 1957. [2]

So, was the federal government ‘soft’ on the Confederacy? No - at least not in the years immediately after the Civil War. But after the end of Grant’s presidency and the Reconstruction era, Southern whites were able to reestablish a system of laws that was extremely oppressive to the rights of black Americans, undoing much of the work of Reconstruction.

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[1] “Black-American Representatives and Senators by Congress, 1870-Present”, https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Historical-Data/Black-American-Representatives-and-Senators-by-Congress/

[2] “Constitutional Amendments and Major Civil Rights Acts of Congress Referenced in Black Americans in Congress”, https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Historical-Data/Constitutional-Amendments-and-Legislation/