Reconstruction Acts

Reconstruction Acts (1867–68) Legislation passed by the US Congress dealing with the reorganization of the South in the aftermath of the AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. The question of the treatment of the defeated CONFEDERACY raised conflicting priorities between reconciliation with white Southerners and justice for the freed slaves. In 1866 an impasse developed between President Andrew JOHNSON, and the Republican majorities in Congress. In 1867 Congress passed, over the President's veto, a Reconstruction Act that divided the South into military districts, and required the calling of a new constitutional convention in each state, elected by universal manhood suffrage. The new state governments were to provide for black suffrage and to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment as conditions for readmittance to the Union. Further Reconstruction Acts were passed in the following 12 months to counter Southern attempts to delay or circumvent the implementation of the first measure.