Johnson vetoed their bills, and congressional Republicans overrode him, setting a pattern for the remainder of his presidency.Frustrated by Johnson's actions, Congress proposed the Fourteenth Amendment to the states, and the amendment was ratified in 1868. Though most of Johnson's cabinet urged him to sign the Civil Rights Act, the president vetoed it, marking a permanent break with the moderate faction of the Republican Party. In his veto message, Johnson argued that the bill discriminated against whites and a dangerous expansion of federal power. Within three weeks, Congress had overridden his veto, the first time that had been done on a major bill in American history.