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U.S. Statutes at Large
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Historical SummaryThe question of the restoration of the insurrectionary States to a place in the Union early engaged the attention of Congress, and many resolutions setting forth the opinions of their framers as to the way in which such restoration should be brought about, were submitted. A concurrent resolution of March 2, 1866, declared "that, in order to close agitation upon a question which seems likely to disturb the action of the government, as well as to quiet the uncertainty which is agitating the minds of the people of the eleven States which have been declared to be in rebellion, no senator or representative shall be admitted into either branch of Congress from any of said States until Congress shall have declared such State entitled to such representation." The majority report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction was submitted June 18, 1866, and the minority report four days later. A bill to reconstruct North Carolina was introduced by Thaddeus Stevens December 13. February 6, 1867, however, Stevens reported from the joint committee a general reconstruction bill. on the 13th a substitute offered by Stevens was agreed to, and the bill passed the House, the vote being 109 to 55, 26 not voting. An amendment submitted by James G. Blaine of Maine, providing that when Congress should have approved the Constitution of any State conferring suffrage in accordance with the Fourteenth Amendment, the other sections of the bill should become inoperative, was rejected. In the meantime the Fourteenth Amendment had been rejected by all the seceding States except Tennessee. The Blaine amendment, offered by Sherman in the Senate, was accepted by that house, and the amended bill passed, February 16, by a vote of 29 to 10. On the 19th the House, by a vote of 73 to 98, refused to concur, but the next day receded from its disagreement, and concurred in the amendments of the Senate, with the addition of amendments embracing section 6 and the proviso of section 5 of the act as passed. The bill was vetoed by President Johnson March 2, but was promptly passed over the veto the same day, the vote in the House being 138 to 51, 3 not voting, and in the Senate 35 to 11. An act of January 22 had provided "for the meeting of the fortieth and all succeeding Congresses immediately after the adjournment of the preceding Congress," while another act of February 21 directed the clerk of the House to include in the roll of representatives for the next Congress members from those States only which had been represented in the preceding Congress. A joint resolution of March 30 appropriated $500,000 for the expenses of executing the various reconstruction acts. REFERENCES. — Text in House and Senate Journals, 39th Cong., 2d Sess., and the Cong. Globe. The bill reported February 6 is the same as the act as passed, except the fifth and sixth sections, which were added as amendments. For the texts of the more important resolutions on reconstruction, with the action upon them, see McPherson, Reconstruction, 109–114, 183–187. Johnson’s message of July 20, 1867, transmitting a report of a cabinet meeting, is in Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, VI., 527–531. The documentary literature is extensive. The report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction is House Report 30, 39th Cong., 1st Sess. On the early disturbances in the South see House Exec. Doc. 96 and House Report 101, 39th Cong., 1st Sess.; House Exec. Docs. 61, 68, and 72 and House Report 16, 39th Cong., 2d Sess. The most important orders, etc., relating to military reconstruction, are in Senate Exec. Doc. 14, 40th Cong., 1st Sess.; see also Senate Exec. Doc. 14, and Senate Report 14, 38th Cong., 1st Sess.; House Report 23, 39th Cong., 2d Sess.; House Exec. Doc. 342, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. The State constitutions of the reconstruction period are in Poore, Charters and Constitutions. On political Conditions see House Exec. Doc. 131, Senate Exec. Doc. 43, Senate Misc. Doc. 62, and Senate Report 112, 39th Cong., 1st Sess.; House Exec. Does. 20 and 34 and House Misc. Docs. 29 and 53, 40th Cong., 1st Sess.; House Exec. Docs. 53 and 276 and Senate Exec. Doc. 53, 40th Cong., 2d Sess.; Senate Exec. Doc. 13, 41st Cong., 2d Sess. On the constitutional question see particularly Mississippi v. Johnson, 4 Wallace, 475; Georgia v. Stanton, 6 ibid., 51; Texas v. White, 7 ibid., 200.
No. 149.
First Reconstruction Act
March 2, 1867
An Act to provide for the more efficient Government of the Rebel States.
WHEREAS no legal State governments or adequate protection for life or property now exists in the rebel States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and Arkansas; and whereas it is necessary that peace and good order should be enforced in said States until loyal and republican State governments can be legally established: Therefore,
Be it enacted . . . , That said rebel States shall be divided into military districts and made subject to the military authority of the United States as hereinafter prescribed, and for that purpose Virginia shall constitute the first district; North Carolina and South Carolina the second district; Georgia, Alabama, and Florida the third district; Mississippi and Arkansas the fourth district; and Louisiana and Texas the fifth district.
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the President to assign to the command of each of said districts an officer of the army, not below the rank of brigadier-general, and to detail a sufficient military force to enable such officer to perform his duties and enforce his authority within the district to which he is assigned.
SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of each officer assigned as aforesaid, to protect all persons in their rights of person and property, to suppress insurrection, disorder, and violence, and to punish, or cause to be punished, all disturbers of the public peace and criminals; and to this end he may allow local civil tribunals to take jurisdiction of and to try offenders, or, when in his judgment it may be necessary for the trial of offenders, he shall have power to organize military commissions or tribunals for that purpose, and all interference under color of State authority with the exercise of military authority under this act, shall be null and void.
SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That all persons put under military arrest by virtue of this act shall be tried without unnecessary delay, and no cruel or unusual punishment shall be inflicted, and no sentence of any military commission or tribunal hereby authorized, affecting the life or liberty of any person, shall be executed until it is approved by the officer in command of the district, and the laws and regulations for the government of the army shall not be affected by this act, except in so far as they conflict with its provisions: Provided, That no sentence of death under the provisions of this act shall be carried into effect without the approval of the President.
SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That when the people of any one of said rebel States shall have formed a constitution of government in conformity with the Constitution of the United States in all respects, framed by a convention of delegates elected by the male citizens of said State, twenty-one years old and upward, of whatever race, color, or previous condition, who have been resident in said State for one year previous to the day of such election, except such as may be disfranchised for participation in the rebellion or for felony at common law, and when such constitution shall provide that the elective franchise shall be enjoyed by all such persons as have the qualifications herein stated for electors of delegates, and when such constitution shall be ratified by a majority of the persons voting on the question of ratification who are qualified as electors for delegates, and when such constitution shall have been submitted to Congress for examination and approval, and Congress shall have approved the same, and when said State, by a vote of its legislature elected under said constitution, shall have adopted the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed by the Thirty-ninth Congress, and known as article fourteen, and when said article shall have become a part of the Constitution of the United States said State shall be declared entitled to representation in Congress, and senators and representatives shall be admitted therefrom on their taking the oath prescribed by law, and then and thereafter the preceding sections of this act shall be inoperative in said State: Provided, That no person excluded from the privilege of holding office by said proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, shall be eligible to election as a member of the convention to frame a constitution for any of said rebel States, nor shall any such person vote for members of such convention.
SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That, until the people of said rebel States shall be by law admitted to representation in the Congress of the United States, any civil governments which may exist therein shall be deemed provisional only, and in all respects subject to the paramount authority of the United States at any time to abolish, modify, control, or supersede the same; and in all elections to any office under such provisional governments all persons shall be entitled to vote, and none others, who are entitled to vote, under the provisions of the fifth section of this act; and no persons shall be eligible to any office under any such provisional governments who would be disqualified from holding office under the provisions of the third article of said constitutional amendment.
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Chicago: "First Reconstruction Act," U.S. Statutes at Large in Documentary Source Book of American History, 1606-1913, ed. William MacDonald (1863-1938) (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916), 501–504. Original Sources, accessed November 21, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=U89FYSFG2I7BNWR.
MLA: . "First Reconstruction Act." U.S. Statutes at Large, Vol. XIV, in Documentary Source Book of American History, 1606-1913, edited by William MacDonald (1863-1938), New York, The Macmillan Company, 1916, pp. 501–504. Original Sources. 21 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=U89FYSFG2I7BNWR.
Harvard: , 'First Reconstruction Act' in U.S. Statutes at Large. cited in 1916, Documentary Source Book of American History, 1606-1913, ed. , The Macmillan Company, New York, pp.501–504. Original Sources, retrieved 21 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=U89FYSFG2I7BNWR.
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