Jack of Harts

The Republicans ran the table in the post-victory election of 1866. They achieved two thirds majorities in both Houses, enough to override any vetoes from President Johnson, and quickly suspended the civilian governments in the Southern States. They enacted a five year suspension of voting rights for former Confederate leaders and officers, and passed the Fourteenth Amendment that clearly stated the freedmen were full citizens of the United States, and could not be deprived of their life, liberty, or property without due process and equal protection. It reapportioned Representatives by counting all the free men over twenty five years of age in each State. It banned former Confederates from government service, and wrote off the debts incurred by those in rebellion or insurrection. And in a move that was particularly stunning, it gave Congress itself the power to enforce the Amendment. A power they quickly sought to use as they pressed what historians called the Radical Reconstruction Plan into the Southern States.