Military Reconstruction Acts 15 Stat. 2 (1867) 15 Stat. 14 (1867)

AuthorWilliam M. Wiecek
Pages1728

Page 1728

The first Military Reconstruction Act established procedures for the resumption of self-government and normalized constitutional status for ten states of the former Confederacy. Though it preserved extant governments intact for the time being, it authorized military peacekeeping and required adoption of new state constitutions. It also mandated black suffrage.

By February 1867, congressional Republicans realized that the FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT, even if ratified, constituted an insufficient program of RECONSTRUCTION. They were unwilling to accept the forfeited-rights theory of southern state status propounded by Rep. THADDEUS STEVENS, or to sanction indefinite military governance. However, the intransigence of President ANDREW JOHNSON and the Machiavellian politics of congressional Democrats, who both demanded immediate and unconditional restoration of white rule in the South, convinced the Republicans that federal supervision of the process of recreating state governments was essential if the freedmen and Republican war objectives were not to be abandoned.

The first Military Reconstruction Act divided the ex-Confederate states (Tennessee excepted) into five military districts each under the command of a regular brigadier general, who was charged with peacekeeping responsibilities. He was empowered to use either ordinary civilian officials or military commissions to accomplish this objective. Though the commissions were authorized to overrule civilian authorities if necessary, the act did not replace the state governments previously created under presidential authority. Rather, under the first and subsequent Military Reconstruction Acts (1867?1868), the commanding general was required to call for the election of delegates to CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS. In these elections, blacks were entitled to vote, and whites disfranchised by the Fourteenth Amendment were excluded. The new state constitution had to enfranchise blacks. When it was ratified by a majority of eligible voters, elections were to be held under it for new state governmental officials. Only then would the existing governments cede authority. The new legislature had to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and present its state constitution to Congress. Congress would then complete the process by admitting the state's congressional delegation to their seats.

President Johnson vetoed the...

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