[Footnote 1:  Before an amendment proposed by Congress can become a part of the Constitution, it must be accepted or ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of all the states.  In 1865 there were thirty-six states in the Union, and of these, sixteen free, and eleven slave states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, and so made it part of the Constitution.  When an amendment has been ratified by the necessary number of states, the President states the fact in a proclamation.]

%483.  Treatment of the Freedmen in the South%.—­Had the Southern legislatures stopped here, all would have been well.  But they went on, and passed a series of laws concerning vagrants, apprentices, and paupers, which kept the negroes in a state of involuntary servitude, if not in actual slavery.

To the men of the South, who feared that the ignorant negroes would refuse to work, these laws seemed to be necessary.  But by the men of the North they were regarded as signs of a determination on the part of Southern men not to accept the abolition of slavery.  When, therefore, Congress met in December, 1865, the members were very angry because the President had reconstructed the late Confederate states in his own way without consulting Congress, and because these states had made such severe laws against the negroes.

%484.  Congressional Plan of Reconstruction%.—­As soon as the two houses were organized, the President and his work were ignored, the senators and representatives from the eleven states that had seceded were refused seats in Congress, and a series of acts were passed to protect the freedmen.

One of these, enacted in March, 1866, was the “Civil Rights” Bill, which gave negroes all the rights of citizenship and permitted them to sue for any of these rights (when deprived of them) in the United States courts.  This was vetoed; but Congress passed the bill over the veto.  Now, a law enacted by one Congress can, of course, be repealed by another, and lest this should be done, and the freedmen be deprived of their civil rights, Congress (June, 1866) passed the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and made the ratification of it by the Southern States a condition of readmittance to Congress.

Finally, a Freedmen’s Bureau Bill, ordering the sale of government land to negroes on easy terms, and giving them military protection for their rights, was passed over the President’s veto, just before Congress adjourned.

%485.  The President abuses Congress%.—­During the summer, Johnson made speeches at Western cities, in which, in very coarse language, he abused Congress, calling it a Congress of only part of the states; “a factious, domineering, tyrannical Congress,” “a Congress violent in breaking up the Union.”  These attacks, coupled with the fact that some of the Southern States, encouraged by the President’s conduct, rejected the Fourteenth Amendment, made Congress, when it met in December, 1866, more determined than ever.  By one act it gave negroes the right to vote in the territories and in the District of Columbia.  By another it compelled the President to issue his orders to the army through General Grant, for Congress feared that he would recall the troops stationed in the South to protect the freedmen.  But the two important acts were the “Tenure of Office Act” and “Reconstruction Act” (March 2, 1867).