Reconstruction and the Constitution, 1866-1876

by John William Burgess

On the same day that the vetoes of the Reconstruction bill and the Tenure-of-Office bill were sent to Congress, this body passed a bill

The supplementary
Reconstruction bill.

It next made it the duty of the commanding generals to order elections, at such times after the completion of the registrations and at such places as they might choose, for delegates to constitutional conventions in the "States" comprised in their respective districts. It required them to give thirty days' notice of the elections, and it fixed the number of delegates to each convention at the number of members in the lower House of the legislature of the "State" concerned in the year 1860, except in the case of Virginia, where, on account of the separation of West Virginia from the old Commonwealth, the number of deputies to the Virginia convention was made to correspond with the number of members in the lower House of the legislature of 1860, representing the territory not included in West Virginia. The bill further directed the commanding generals to distribute the representation in the conventions among the districts, counties and parishes of the "States" in accordance with the number of registered voters in each.

The bill then provided that at the elections for delegates, the voters should vote on the question as to whether there should be a constitutional convention or not, and that such convention should be held only when a majority of the inscribed electors voted upon this question, and a majority of those voting voted in the affirmative. It then ordered the commanding generals, in case the voters did so decide for conventions and elect delegates thereto, to call such within sixty days from the date of the elections, and to notify the delegates to assemble at a given time and place, and frame constitutions according to the provisions of the bill and of the former Act to which it was supplementary, and, when framed, to submit the same to the registered voters for ratification with a notice of thirty days.

The bill then further provided, that if, at such elections, a majority of the registered voters voted upon the question of ratification, and a majority of those voting voted in favor of ratification, the presidents of the respective conventions should transmit copies of the respective constitutions to the President of the United States, who should transmit them to Congress, and that Congress should declare the respective "States," whose conventions had framed these constitutions and whose voters had adopted them, entitled to representation in Congress, provided Congress was satisfied that there had been perfectly free elections, and that no force, fraud or intimidation had been perpetrated at them, and that the constitutions presented met the approval of a majority of the qualified electors and were in conformity with the requirements of the Reconstruction Act.

Finally, the bill put into the hands of the commanding generals the appointment of the officers of the elections, and the control of the machinery of the elections, only requiring them to hold the elections by ballot, and to proclaim the results of the elections in accordance with the returns made to them by their boards of registration.

Congress had passed a resolution ordering the assembly of the Fortieth Congress so soon as the Thirty-ninth expired, and in accordance

Congress in
permanence.

On the 23d of March the veto appeared. The President argued that the oath required by the bill from every person before his name could be

The veto of the
supplemental
Reconstruction
bill.