In the December 29, 1866 issue of Harper’s Weekly, George William Curtis asked, “What Next?” After reviewing Southern opposition to the Fourteenth Amendment, the failure of President Johnson’s Reconstruction plan, anti-black and anti-Union violence in the South, and the strong Republican victory in the 1866 elections, the editor concluded that Congress should start anew with its own Reconstruction program.

Curtis’s conclusion reflected the thinking of both moderate and Radical Republicans.  When the outgoing 39^th Congress reconvened in December 1866, there was broad agreement among Republicans that state governments established under Presidential Reconstruction (except for Tennessee) should not be considered permanent; former Confederates should be disfranchised; and, black men should be given voting rights.  

Congressman Thaddeus Stevens proposed dividing the South into military districts to ensure enforcement of Reconstruction.  Congressman John Bingham urged requiring the states to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and enfranchise black men before readmission to Congress, and Representative James Blaine added the stipulation that ex-Confederates be disfranchised.  The proposals were combined by a Senate committee headed by Senator John Sherman of Ohio.  The result was the First Military Reconstruction Act, passed by the Senate on February 17, 1867, and the House three days later.  On March 2, Congress received word of the president’s veto, which both chambers immediately overrode.  Democratic Senator Reverdy Johnson of Maryland was the only member of Congress to break party ranks when he voted for the override and in favor of the Reconstruction Act. 

The First Military Reconstruction Act declared that no legal state governments existed in the former Confederacy (except for Tennessee), and divided those ten states into five military districts under the direction of presidentially-appointed military officers, who would be supported by federal troops.  Military courts could be used to try cases involving violations of civil and property rights, as well as criminal cases.  During the selection of delegates to state constitutional conventions, black men and loyal white men were allowed to participate as voters and candidates, while former Confederates were temporarily barred from voting and office-holding.  The new state constitutions had to grant voting rights to black men.  A state could regain representation in Congress only after (1) it ratified the Fourteenth Amendment and (2) the Fourteenth Amendment became part of the U.S. Constitution.   

On March 2, 1867, Congress also passed over President Johnson’s veto the Tenure of Office Act, which required the president to get Senate approval before he could remove a cabinet member from office.  When the president later failed to get Senate approval for firing of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who was cooperating with Congressional Republicans on Reconstruction, Johnson’s violation of the Tenure of Office Act became the major charge leading to his impeachment in 1868.   

On March 23, 1867, Congress passed over the president’s veto the Second Military Reconstruction Act, which gave directions to the district military commanders for holding state constitutional conventions.  On July 19, 1867, Congress enacted over Johnson’s veto the Third Military Reconstruction Act, which affirmed that the district military commanders could remove state officials from office and added other details. 

In the March 30, 1867 issue of Harper’s Weekly (published March 20), George William Curtis expressed satisfaction that President Johnson had appointed able generals as military commanders in the South, and then the editor explained the provisions of the Second Military Reconstruction Act.  Curtis characterized the two points of view on the Reconstruction Acts as of those, like President Johnson, who “see in the result the destruction of the Constitution and the end of civil liberty,” and those, like himself, who “see in it the salvation of the Constitution and the beginning of civil liberty.” 

Following passage of the First Reconstruction Act, two more states approved the Fourteenth Amendment:  Massachusetts on March 20, 1867, and the new state of Nebraska on June 15.  At that point, 22 states had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, while 13 had rejected it outright or refused to take action on it.  No former Confederate state except for Tennessee had voted in favor of it.  During the rest of 1867 and early 1868, Southern states went through the process of Congressional Reconstruction:  electing delegates to state constitutional conventions, drafting new state constitutions, holding new state elections, and seating new Republican-dominated, biracial legislatures.  That paved the way for the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment.   

After Iowa’s ratification on March 16, 1868, five Southern states voted their approval—Arkansas on April 6, Florida on June 9, North Carolina on July 4, and Louisiana and South Carolina both on July 9—for a total of 28 of the 37 states, which met the constitutional requirement of ratification by a three-quarters majority of the states.  New Democratic majorities in the legislatures of New Jersey and Oregon rescinded on March 24 and October 15, 1868, their earlier approval, but only the original ratifications were deemed legitimate.  Alabama and Georgia ratified the Fourteenth Amendment on July 13 and July 21, 1868, respectively.  Representatives and Senators from the former Confederate states were then seated in Congress, except for Georgia, Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas, which would be required to enact the Fifteenth Amendment, as well.