Reconstruction Legislative Actions and the Fourteenth Amendment

Key Events in Reconstruction

• Johnson's $1866$ veto of Trumbull's bills; portrayal as federal authority overreach
• Veto of Civil Rights bill due to race distinctions
• Failure of Congressional-Executive collaboration; override by two-thirds majority in Congress

The Emergence of the Fourteenth Amendment

• $1866$ proposal to constitutionalize Civil Rights Act; requirement of three-fourths state approval
• Initial agreement followed by contention over black male voting rights
• Radical insistence on voting rights as support condition

Provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment

• Citizenship for all born or naturalized in U.S.
• State prohibition from abridging privileges or denying equal protection
• Reduced Congressional representation for states limiting male voting
• Office-holding ban for rebels previously in federal office
• Nullification of Confederate debts
• June $1866$ passage; sent for state ratification
• Withholding of Congressional seats pending state ratification