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 39th
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. |