-The Civil Rights Act of 1866
-The content of the Fourteenth Amendment
-The fight for the Fourteenth Amendment
-The Reconstruction Acts
-The impeachment of President Andrew Johnson
-The election of Ulysses S. Grant
-The Fifteenth Amendment

[SLIDE 1]

Congress and Andrew Johnson were about to clash in a major way. Under President Andrew Johnson's administration it was clear that Reconstruction was not going as Radical Republicans had hoped. Southern authorities had passed black codes and had failed to stem the violence overtaking black people in the South. Growing numbers of moderates joined the Radicals in believing that President Johnson's soft approach was allowing this to happen. In December 1865, Johnson declared the Union whole and Reconstruction complete. Republicans disagreed. When Congress convened on December 4, 1865, representatives of states formerly in the Confederacy were prepared to submit their credentials to Congress and be admitted for representation. Instead, Congress established a committee to determine whether to allow newly elected Southern congressmen to serve in Congress. It was Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens who proposed the committee, which empowered nine House members and six Senators to investigate political and social conditions in the former Confederate states before considering their readmission to the Union. Congress has the constitutional right to determine the fitness of its members. For his part, Johnson declared that Congress was not a "legal body" because "eleven reconstructed states of the South were not represented." Congress then passed two protective bills over Johnson's veto.

[SLIDE 2]

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 expanded federal authority and limited states' rights, giving federal protection priority over state legislation. In theory, the act recognized the authority of the federal government to force states to follow the principle of equality before the law. The problem was, even though the intentions of Congress were uncompromising, the Act provided little power of enforcement: federal penalties were not provided, so that remedies were left to the individuals involved. Because those being discriminated against had little access to legal help, this left many victims of discrimination without recourse. Johnson had vetoed the Act because it privileged the authority of the federal government over states' rights. When Johnson vetoed the legislation, even moderate Republicans realized they could not work with him. Their override of his veto was the very first time Congress had overridden a presidential veto of major legislation.

[SLIDE 3]

To overcome questions about whether Congress had the constitutional authority to pass the Civil Rights Act, Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment, which, once ratified by the states, additionally ensured that no subsequent Congress could later repeal or alter the main provisions of the Act. In some ways, the wording of the Fourteenth Amendment is similar to that in the Civil Rights Act.

[SLIDE 4]

The concepts of state citizenship and national citizenship were mentioned in the original U.S. Constitution adopted in 1789, but the details were unclear. Prior to the Civil War, only some persons born or naturalized in the United States were citizens of the United States and of the state where they lived. There were a variety of applicable state and federal laws and court decisions. The Fourteenth Amendment was primarily intended to remedy the status of African Americans. It was simultaneously intended to exclude American Indians.

[SLIDE 5]

The Constitution and the Bill of Rights protect individual liberties from curtailment by the Federal Government. The Fourteenth Amendment protects individual liberties from curtailment by State Governments. The Fourteenth Amendment protects citizens against actions by state governments that would deprive them of their civil rights. The Equal Protection Clause states that states cannot deny citizens the equal protection of the law. The Equal Protection Clause continues to be invoked to argue on behalf of civil rights cases, most recently for protections against state laws limiting same-sex marriage. The Due Process Clause states that citizens are entitled to due process of the law in actions against them by the state. The amendment was the result of intense negotiation in Congress, and some issues were left vague for the sake of broad acceptance. Many Radical Republicans wanted the amendment to go farther than it did. 

[SLIDE 6]

The text of Section 2 of the Amendment reads: "Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state."
In other words, it excludes "Indians not taxed" from representation as they are not citizens (at that time), and it diminishes representation for a state if it limits the voting rights of males aged 21 or over unless they've been involved in a crime or insurrection.

[SLIDE 7]

Congressional Republicans battled with President Johnson for control of the Reconstruction process. Ratification of the Amendment was an uphill battle. Only ten states would have to reject it to keep the Amendment from passing. Tennessee was the only Southern state to quickly ratify it, becoming the first reconstructed state government to be recognized by Congress; it was then exempted from much of Reconstructionist legislation that followed. When the other former Confederate states refused to ratify, the Republicans were able to impose military governance and make ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment a requirement for regaining their representation in Congress. Complicating matters, New Jersey and Ohio subsequently withdrew the ratification of their previous legislatures. Secretary of State Seward declared their withdrawals to be invalid, which enabled the Amendment to pass.

[SLIDE 8]

It must be recalled that Andrew Johnson was a Democrat who had been brought onto the ticket with Lincoln only to draw in Democrats who still supported the war. Johnson then only became president by mischance. Johnson's sentiments were not with the Republicans who dominated Congress. Because Johnson tried to block them at every turn, Congress passed several acts to seize control of the process of Reconstruction. 

First of all, Congress felt that Johnson was impeding the recreation of the South by supporting former Confederates and allowing them to undermine—by means of both legislation and violence—the advance of black Americans. Accordingly, the Military Construction Act was meant to impose military rule and force the election of new officials in the South who were not former Confederates and who would write new state constitutions that conformed to the Reconstructionist program. Secondly, the Command of the Army Act was meant to ensure that the president wouldn't interfere with military rule by issuing direct orders to military commanders, and the Tenure of Office Act meant that the Senate's previous authority to approve new appointments now was extended to require the Senat's approval if the president were to try to remove appointments. President Johnson considered all of these infringements on his presidential authority. 

Finally, once the terms set out were met and new state governments established and constitutions written, Congress would evaluate whether the states would regain representation in Congress. 

[SLIDE 9]

The House of Representatives has the sole constitutional authority to charge a president with misconduct, known as impeachment. The Senate then holds a trial on the charges presided over by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. In the case of Andrew Johnson's impeachment, it is clear that hostility between Radical Republicans and the president had been building for some time and was now reaching a climax. The legal basis for impeachment was slight, causing some moderate Republicans to join with Democrats in voting against conviction. They were afraid of setting a precedent for easy removal from office of a president simply on the basis of dislike or disagreement.

[SLIDE 10]

After Johnson's impeachment, he had less than a year left in office. Despite the voter intimidation that spread through the South, General Ulysses S. Grant became the next United States President.

[SLIDE 11]

From a purely pragmatic standpoint, Republicans needed the black vote to continue to win elections. Voting rights, however, were still being controlled at the state level. Even the seven Northern states that had actually taken the stop of enfranchising black voters could change their laws at any time. Another constitutional amendment was necessary to guarantee male African Americans the right to vote: the Fifteenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1870: ""The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The amendment bars discrimination on the basis of race, but not on the basis of gender. Because women's suffrage had previously been partnered with black suffrage, a rift now widened between the two camps. Women's suffrage would not be addressed until the 19th  Amendment, ratified in 1920. Democrats, as might be expected, decried the Fifteenth Amendment as an infringement of a state's right to define voting rights. Radicals had wanted a broader amendment that specifically barred other possible reasons beyond race for restricting voting rights, such as education, place of birth, property ownership, or religious beliefs.

[SLIDE 12]

Violence in the South continued despite the new amendments. The amendments had included the provision that Congress had the authority to pass legislation to enforce the amendments. Congress now stepped in to pass several enforcement acts, which led to the prosecution and in some cases the conviction of Klansmen. In addition, President Grant declared martial law in South Carolina. It took this federal intervention to bring the Klan under control. 

[SLIDE 13]

Charles Sumner, who had long before nearly lost his life by being caned in the Senate chamber for his ardent attacks on slavery, finally passed away in 1874. He had spent the last several years of his life fighting for a bill he had introduced banning discrimination. It was passed after his death.
In 1883, the Supreme Court ruled in the Civil Rights Cases that the public accommodation sections of the act were unconstitutional, saying Congress was not afforded control over private persons or corporations under the Equal Protection Clause. Parts of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 were later re-adopted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, both of which cited the Commerce Clause as the source of Congress's power to regulate private actors.