Reconstruction Acts

The Reconstruction Acts, or the Military Reconstruction Acts, sometimes referred to collectively as the Reconstruction Act of 1867, were four landmark U.S. federal statutes enacted by the 39th and 40th United States Congresses over the vetoes of President Andrew Johnson from March 2, 1867 to March 11, 1868, establishing martial law in the Southern United States and the requirements for the readmission of those states which had declared secession at the start of the American Civil War. The requirements of the Reconstruction Acts were considerably more stringent than the requirements imposed by Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson between 1863 and 1867 and marked the end of that period of "presidential" reconstruction and the beginning of "congressional" or "radical" reconstruction.

The Acts did not apply to Tennessee, which had already ratified the 14th Amendment and had been readmitted to the Union on July 24, 1866.

Throughout the American Civil War, the Union army confronted the challenges of administering captured territory and establishing loyal civilian governments. Within the Union government and officer corps, there was disagreement over the legal nature and consequences of secession, the conditions for recognition of civilian governments, and the desirability or necessity of social reform in the South. In practice, President Abraham Lincoln and the Army implemented reconstruction policies which were deemed most conducive to military aims. Lincoln instituted a lenient "ten percent plan" in December 1863 and vetoed the more radical Wade–Davis Bill. For a time, Congress had seated members from the reconstructed governments of Virginia, Louisiana, and Tennessee, but this practice ended abruptly upon the start of the 38th Congress in December 1863.

After the conclusion of hostilities and assassination of Abraham Lincoln in April 1865, Vice President Andrew Johnson succeeded Lincoln as president. Johnson prioritized reconciliation and reunion with the defeated Confederate States of America, provided that the new reconstructed governments repudiated secession, slavery, and debts incurred by the Confederate government. He pardoned a number of Confederate civilian and military leaders and did not press for social reform in the South, permitting civilian governments to restrict the rights of free people of color ("freedmen") in the form of discriminatory "Black Codes". By the start of the 39th Congress in December 1865, reconstructed governments were functioning in eight of the eleven former Confederate states, seven of which had ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and several of which had sent representatives to Congress. However, the Clerk of the House refused to seat these representatives-elect, and Congress approved their exclusion after a complex debate on the legality of and remedy for secession. The 39th Congress passed several bills seeking to establish civil rights for freedmen, which Johnson vetoed. Hostilities between Johnson and the Congress, as well as more radical members of the administration he had inherited from Lincoln, grew through the course of 1866.

In the 1866 midterm elections, Johnson publicly campaigned for his reconstruction policies; the speaking tour backfired badly, and radicals in Congress greatly expanded their majority. Even before the start of the 40th Congress, Republicans sought to supplant Johnson's authority over reconstruction, and radicals in the new Congress soon sought his impeachment and removal from office.

In parallel to the political conflict between Johnson and Congress and in response to objections to the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, Congress proposed the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution for ratification.

The Reconstruction Act began as a bill introduced by Representative John Bingham of Ohio on February 26, 1865, on behalf of the Joint Select Committee on Reconstruction as part of the same package as the initial proposal for the Fourteenth Amendment. It would have restored states that ratified the new amendment to representation in Congress upon its adoption. Until that time, the reconstructed governments established under Lincoln and Johnson would continue to function subject to military oversight and without congressional approval. However, when Congress met in December 1866, only the civilian government of Tennessee had ratified the proposed amendment, and every other Southern state had rejected it.

The Rebel States under military rule were grouped into five military districts or occupation departments: