What did the Reconstruction Act of 1867 do to the South?

On March 2, 1867, Congress overrode President Andrew Johnson’s veto and passed the first of four statutes known as the Reconstruction Acts. These laws divided the former Confederate states (with the exception of Tennessee) into five military districts and outlined the process of readmission to the Union.

In order to be readmitted to the Union, each state was required to draft a new constitution to be approved by Congress, to ratify the 14th Amendment, and to grant suffrage to African American men. According to the Library of Congress:

The Reconstruction Acts established military rule over Southern states until new governments could be formed. They also limited some former Confederate officials’ and military officers’ rights to vote and to run for public office. (However, the latter provisions were only temporary and soon rescinded for almost all of those affected by them.) Meanwhile, the Reconstruction acts gave [formerly enslaved men] the right to vote and hold public office.

The former Confederate states began meeting these demands the next year, with Arkansas being the first to do so on June 22, 1868.

The Reconstruction Acts, or the Military Reconstruction Acts, (March 2, 1867, 14 Stat. 428-430, c.153; March 23, 1867, 15 Stat. 2-5, c.6; July 19, 1867, 15 Stat. 14-16, c.30; and March 11, 1868, 15 Stat. 41, c.25) were four statutes passed during the Reconstruction Era by the 40th United States Congress addressing the requirement for Southern States to be readmitted to the Union. The actual title of the initial legislation was "An act to provide for the more efficient government of the Rebel States" and was passed on March 4, 1867. Fulfillment of the requirements of the Acts was necessary for the former Confederate States to be readmitted to the Union from military and Federal control imposed during and after the American Civil War. The Acts excluded Tennessee, which had already ratified the 14th Amendment and had been readmitted to the Union on July 24, 1866.

Background[edit]

Reconstruction first began under the Union Army, which implemented policies conducive to their military goals. The succession of Andrew Johnson to the Presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln was initially supported by Radicals in Congress, who thought Johnson's policies would be more punitive and far reaching than Lincoln's. However, Johnson took a conciliatory approach and inflicted almost no punishment on the South, even as Southern states passed the Black Codes and sent Confederates to Congress. Johnson sought to finish Reconstruction by December 1865, before Congress would meet again. He was unsuccessful at this goal and when Congress met in 1866, they passed the Freedmen's Bureau Bill and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, both over Johnson's veto. Johnson's hostility to Congressional plans led to growing discontent in Congress with his administration. The midterm elections of 1866 produced a resounding endorsement of Radical policy and rejection of Johnson's. Support grew among Congressional Republicans to wipe away the current Johnson state governments and their abuses and to create new governments.

History[edit]

The passage of the Reconstruction Acts marks the beginning of Congressional Reconstruction. The Acts set forth the requirements for the late rebel states to regain entry into the Union. For reentry, each state had to draft a new state constitution, which would have to be approved by Congress. These constitutions would have to enfranchise the freedmen and abolish the Black Codes. A key addition of the Acts included the creation of five military districts in the South, each commanded by a general, which would serve as the highest authority for the region, though few generals were actively involved in day to day affaires, especially after new constitutions were passed. The states were also required to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. President Andrew Johnson's vetoes of these measures were overridden by Congress.

General George Meade (of the Third Military District) appointed Brig. General Thomas H. Ruger to replace Governor of Georgia Charles J. Jenkins, who had been elected as the only candidate in 1865 to succeed James Johnson, who had been appointed by President Andrew Johnson.

After Ex parte McCardle (1869) came before the United States Supreme Court, Congress feared that the Court might strike the Reconstruction Acts down as unconstitutional. To prevent this, Congress repealed the Habeas Corpus Act 1867, eliminating the Supreme Court's jurisdiction over the case.

The U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867

After the North defeated the South in the Civil War, politicians faced the task of putting the divided country back together. There was great debate about how severely the former Confederate states should be punished for leaving the Union. With the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865, it was up to President Andrew Johnson to try to reunite former enemies. The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 laid out the process for readmitting Southern states into the Union. The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) provided former slaves with national citizenship, and the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) granted black men the right to vote. These were only the first steps, however, toward reconstructing the fragmented nation.

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