“Section 7. That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Senate, at the close of each session thereof, to deliver to the Secretary of the Treasury, and to each of his assistants, and to each of the Auditors, and to each of the Comptrollers in the Treasury, and to the Treasurer, and to the Register of the Treasury, a full and complete list, duly certified, of all persons who shall have been nominated to and rejected by the Senate during such session, and a like list of all the offices to which nominations shall have been made and not confirmed and filled at such session.
“Section 8. That whenever the President shall, without the advice and consent of the Senate, designate, authorize, or employ any person to perform the duties of any office, he shall forthwith notify the Secretary of the Treasury thereof, and it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury thereupon to communicate such notice to all the proper accounting and disbursing officers of his Department.
“Section 9. That no money shall be paid or received from the Treasury, or paid or received from or retained out of any public moneys or funds of the United States, whether in the Treasury or not, to or by or for the benefit of any person appointed to or authorized to act in or holding or exercising the duties or functions of any office contrary to the provisions of this act; nor shall any claim, account, voucher, order, certificate, warrant, or other instrument providing for or relating to such payment, receipt, or retention, be presented, passed, allowed, approved, certified, or paid by any officer of the United States, or by any person exercising the functions or performing the duties of any office or place of trust under the United States, for or in respect to such office, or the exercising or performing the functions or duties thereof; and every person who shall violate any of the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and upon trial and conviction thereof, shall be punished therefor by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding ten years, or both said punishments, in the discretion of the court.”
The action of Congress in bestowing the franchise, without distinction of race or color, on the inhabitants of the District of Columbia, speedily exerted an influence in other sections. On the 6th of February, 1867, the lower branch of the Tennessee Legislature passed a bill striking the word “white” from the franchise law of the State, by yeas 38, nays 25. On the 18th of February the State Senate concurred, by yeas 14, nays 7. On the 21st of March, the Supreme Court of the State unanimously sustained the constitutionality of the franchise law as thus amended, and in August following, the negroes, for the first time, exercised the franchise, at the election for governor.
In the passage of the Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867, the Republicans of the Thirty-ninth Congress had not fully come up to the positions which it was their duty to occupy.
The bill too was somewhat loosely drawn, and some supplementary legislation was necessary to give it force and efficacy. It was, perhaps, the best that could be done under the circumstances, for they were embarrassed by the diversity of opinions on many of the details of reconstruction, among the Republicans themselves, and by the fact, that any very stringent measure could not be passed over the veto which was sure to come. The Fortieth Congress, which was called together by the officers of its predecessor on the 4th of March, 1867, was fresh from the people, and stronger and more positive in its convictions. One of the measures taken up at its short session of March, 1867, was a supplementary Reconstruction Act, which passed both houses on the 19th of March. This was vetoed March 23, and the same day passed over the veto; in the House by 114 yeas to 25 nays, and in the Senate by 40 yeas to 7 nays.
The following are the main provisions of this act:—
“Before September 1, 1867, the commanding general in each district, defined by an act entitled ‘An Act to provide for the more Efficient Government of the Rebel States,’ passed March 2, 1867, shall cause a registration to be made of the male citizens of the United States, twenty-one years of age and upwards, resident in each county or parish in the State or States included in his district, which registration shall include only those persons who are qualified to vote for delegates by the act aforesaid, and who shall have taken and subscribed the following oath or affirmation: ‘I, ——, do solemnly swear (or affirm), in the presence of Almighty God, that I am a citizen of the State of ——; that I have resided in said State for —— months next preceding this day, and now reside in the county of ——, or the parish of ——, in said State (as the case may be); that I am twenty-one years old; that I have not been disfranchised for participation in any rebellion or civil war against the United States, nor for felony committed against the laws of any State or of the United States; that I have never been a member of any State legislature, nor held any executive or judicial office in any State and afterwards engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof; that I have never taken an oath as a member of Congress of the United States, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, and afterwards engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof; that I will faithfully support the Constitution and obey the laws of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, encourage others so to do, so help me God;’ which oath or affirmation may be administered by any registering officer. Sec. 2. After the completion of the registration hereby provided for in any State, at such time and places therein as the commanding general shall appoint and direct, of which at least thirty days’ public notice shall be given, an election shall be held of delegates to a convention for the purpose of establishing a constitution and civil government for such State loyal to the Union, said convention in each State, except Virginia, to consist of the same number of members as the most numerous branch of the State legislature of such State in the year 1860, to be apportioned among the several districts, counties, or parishes of such State by the commanding general, giving to each representation in the ratio of voters registered as aforesaid, as nearly as may be. The convention in Virginia shall consist of the same number of members as represented the territory now constituting Virginia in the most numerous branch of the legislature of said State in the year 1860, to be apportioned as aforesaid. Sec. 3. At said election the registered voters of each State shall vote for or against a convention to form a constitution therefor under this act. The person appointed to superintend said election, and to make return of the votes given thereat, as herein provided, shall count and make return of the votes given for and against a convention; and the commanding general to whom the same shall have been returned shall ascertain and declare the total vote in each State for and against a convention. If a majority of the votes given on that question shall be for a convention, then such convention shall be held as hereinafter provided; but if a majority of said votes shall be against a convention, then no such convention shall be held under this act: Provided, that such convention shall not be held unless a majority of all such registered voters shall have voted on the question of holding such convention. Sec. 4. The commanding general of each district shall appoint as many boards of registration as may be necessary, consisting of three loyal officers or persons, to make and complete the registration, superintend the election, and make return to him of the votes, lists of voters, and of the persons elected as delegates by a plurality of the votes cast at said election; and upon receiving said returns he shall open the same, ascertain the persons elected as delegates according to the returns of the officers who conducted said election, and make proclamation thereof; and if a majority of the votes given on that question shall be for a convention, the commanding general, within sixty days from the date of election, shall notify the delegates to assemble in convention, at a time and place to be mentioned in the notification, and said convention, when organized, shall proceed to frame a constitution and civil government according to the provisions of this act and the act to which it is supplementary; and when the same shall have been so framed, said constitution shall be submitted by the convention for ratification to the persons registered under the provisions of this act, at an election to be conducted by the officers or persons appointed or to be appointed by the commanding general, as hereinbefore provided, and to be held after the expiration of thirty days from the date of notice thereof, to be given by said convention; and the returns thereof shall be made to the commanding general of the district. Sec. 5. That if, according to said returns, the constitution shall be ratified by a majority of the votes of the registered electors qualified as herein specified, cast at said election (at least one half of all the registered voters voting upon the question of such ratification), the president of the convention shall transmit a copy of the same, duly certified, to the President of the United States, who shall forthwith transmit the same to Congress, if then in session, and if not in session, then immediately upon its next assembling; and if it shall, moreover, appear to Congress, that the election was one at which all the registered and qualified electors in the State had an opportunity to vote freely and without restraint, fear, or the influence of fraud, and if the Congress shall be satisfied that such constitution meets the approval of a majority of all the qualified electors in the State, and if the said constitution shall be declared by Congress to be in conformity with the provisions of the act to which this is supplementary, and the other provisions of said act shall have been complied with, and the said constitution shall be approved by Congress, the State shall be declared entitled to representation, and Senators and Representatives shall be admitted therefrom as therein provided. Sec. 6. All elections in the States mentioned in the said ‘Act to provide for the more efficient Government of the Rebel States,’ shall, during the operation of said act, be by ballot; and all officers making the said registration of voters and conducting said elections shall, before entering upon the discharge of their duties, take and subscribe the oath prescribed by the Act approved July 2, 1862, entitled ‘An Act to prescribe an Oath of Office:’ Provided, That if any person shall knowingly and falsely take and subscribe any oath in this act prescribed, such person so offending and being thereof duly convicted, shall be subject to the pains, penalties, and disabilities which by law are provided for the punishment of the crime of wilful and corrupt perjury.”
Mr. Johnson promised to carry out this act faithfully, but the Republican leaders had seen so often how little dependence was to be placed upon his pledges, that they did not think it prudent to adjourn without making provision for the calling of a Summer Session, should it prove to be necessary.
The event proved that this was a wise and needful precaution. In direct contradiction to his promises, Congress had hardly adjourned before Mr. Johnson procured from his Attorney-General, Mr. Stanbery, a series of opinions in regard to the Reconstruction Acts, in which, with a lawyer’s ingenuity, they were wrested from their plain and obvious meaning, and explained to be merely measures of military police, of no particular importance. The first of these opinions, bearing date May 24, the President had forwarded to the various military commanders, accompanied with a note calling their attention to it. It was his obvious intention, though he was too disingenuous to say so distinctly, that it should be regarded as mandatory; and by this device he hoped to annul the Reconstruction Acts.