Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-08-12
CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUE
Anti-Integrotionists
Hit14th Amendment

ern States were barred from rep
reSentation.
. The State Legislatures of the 10
Southern States which eventually
ratif1ed the amendment did so at
the point of Federal bayonets.
. The State Legislatures ratifying
were trump" Legislatures because
Congress had disfranchised large
numbers of voters-i.e., former
Confederate officers-and had I'M
constitutionally passed, over Presi-
dent Andrew Johnson's veto, the
Reconstruction Act of 1864
President johnson, following
what he believed to be Abraham
Lincoln'S policies of amnesty and
forbearance toward the Southern
States whose attempt to secede
had been defeated. called the Re-
construction Act of 1867 uncon-
stitutional. 1t was passed over his
veto, and in the resultant rancpr
President Johnson escaped i'm
parchment by only one Senate vote.
Many historians of the Recon-
struction period agree that the
Reconstruction Act might. in a
strictly technical sense, have been
unconstitutional. But the defenders
of the legality of both the Act and
the subsequently approved 14th
Amendment are quick to recall
that there were no precedents
whatever to the situation prevailing
IN 1867.
The Nation, they point out, had
just survived a war of survival
against an almost successful rebel
lion. In the circumstances it was
unrealistic in the extreme to expect
the North to welcome back the
seceSsioniSt leaders as if nothing
whatever had happened.
Block Codes Adopted
Immediately after the Civil War
in 1865, the States of the defeated
Confederacy had re-established
State governments in compliance
with President Johnson'S Proclama-
ton of Amnesty of May, 1865.
These State governments were led
and stated in general by the men
who had backed secession and had
led the Souths armies. Almost i'm
mediately they adopted laws known
as the BLACK Codes" which, in ef-
feet, guaranteed the continuation Of
servitude for the Southern Negro
even though all the lately seeded
States had ratified the 18th Amend
ment abolishing slavery.
The effect in Congress was sharn
and immediate. The Radical Re-
publicans" were in control, led by
such men as Thaddeus Stevens in
the House and Charles Summer in
the Senate. Their cause immensely
strengthened by the assassination
OF Lincoln, these men of vengeance
were in no mood to let bygones be
bygoneS. They had no difficulty
whatever in barring from the House
and Senate the newly-elected
Southern Representatives and SEN
ators. And there could be nc chal-
lenge to their right to bar, since the
Constitution provides plainly that
the Congress shall be the Judge Of
the elections. returns and qualifica-
tons of its own members !"
Outraged by the BLACK Codes"
Congress under the Radical Repub-
lican leadership went on to pass
the Reconstruction Act. That meas
ure. approved March 2. 1867, abol-
lshed the reconstructed State
governments in the former Con-
federate States and substituted
military rule. Under its terms, any
State could escape military rule and
regain its State government on
ratification of the 14th Amend
ment.
Deny llIeeolity
Thus. defenders of the amend
ment say, there was no illegality
in the adoption of the 14th Amend
ment. There was the fact of re-
bellion, plus the congressional pre-
rogative in the acceptance of
members. The Reconstruction Act
was passed over the Presidents
veto. And the DISTINGUISHING of
former leaders of the Confederacy
was natural result of the Unions
victory in the Civil War.
The legality of the Reconstruc-
ton Legislature appears defend
able on much the same grounds.
They were obviously legally con-
stituted under the terms of the
Reconstruction Act, which has never
been successfully challenged in the
Supreme Court. Thus their exist
ence, however unpalatable to the
disfranchised former leaders of the
South, was completely legal, and
their ratification of the l4th
Amendment strictly constitutional.
The United States Supreme Court
never did rule specifically on the
OF the Reconstruction Act.
The measure was effective long
enough to ensure the ratification of
the l4th Amendment by the neces-
sary two-thirds Of the States. In
1876, the end of Reconstruction was
achieved when the Republicans, in
order to assure one-vote majority
in the electoral college for Ruther-
ford B. Hayes, consented to accept
the return of the Old South in
return for the electoral votes of
three disputed Southern States.