Reconstruction Acts
The four Reconstruction Acts of the United States Congress of March 2, 1867, March 23, 1867, July 19, 1867, and March 11, 1868 marked a turning point in reconstruction policy after the end of the Civil War . The former states of the confederation were occupied militarily on this basis and only accepted back into the union after the amendments to the constitution, which guarantee African-Americans the same rights, were adopted.
prehistory
The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution of June 1866 guaranteed the same rights for all American- born people. The majority of the individual states have accepted this constitutional amendment. Only the former southern states, with the exception of Tennessee, have not ratified the provisions.
The Republicans emerged stronger from the congressional elections of 1866 . They had a two-thirds majority in both chambers of Congress and were able to override a veto by President Andrew Johnson . The reconstruction policy of the president in the period after the war could thus be reversed.
Content
Central to this new policy of Congress were the Reconstruction Acts. These were issued in 1867 in particular and enforced against the president's veto. As a "revolution from above" one wanted to break the resistance of the old elites against the equality of the Afro-Americans. They assumed that none of the southern states, with the exception of Tennessee, had a legal government. These areas are therefore to be regarded as conquered areas. As a result, the southern states were divided into five military districts. These were each subordinate to a military commander.
Only when a new government had been elected in the states by both the whites and the African-Americans and the areas had recognized the 13th, 14th and finally the 15th amendment to the constitution, should the military administration end and the states rejoin the Union to be taken on. The president has questioned the legality of the laws, but has the southern states occupied by 20,000 soldiers.
consequences
An impeachment of Congress against the president early in 1868 was narrowly defeated. The then newly elected President Ulysses S. Grant at the end of the year supported the policy of Congress.
In the course of this process, numerous public officials were dismissed and the constitutions of the individual states were expanded to include the rights of African-Americans in particular. After the states had accepted the 14th and 15th amendments to the constitution, they were re-admitted to the Union by the end of 1870.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Markus Gräser: The Civil War and the American Century. P. 70 Digitized version (PDF; 284 kB)
literature
- Jörg Nagler: Territorial expansion, slave issue, civil war and reconstruction 1815–1877. In: Country Report USA Frankfurt am Main 2005 p. 67f.
- Jochen Meissner, Ulrich Mücke; Klaus Weber: Black America: A History of Slavery. Munich. 2008 p. 262.
- Frederick E. Hosen (Ed.): Federal Laws of the Reconstruction: Principal Congressional Acts and Resolutions, Presidential Proclamations, Speeches and Orders, and Other Legislative and Military Documents, 1862-1875. McFarland, Jefferson 2010, ISBN 978-0-7864-4668-1 .
