made by Congress. The Rebel element of the
South had gradually come to repose implicit confidence in Johnson, and
this fact increased his power to sow dissension and produce discord.
His stubborn and apparently malicious course at this time, was inspired
in large part by a desire to be avenged on the Northern States and
Northern leaders for the stinging rebuke administered to him in the
recent election.

Sustained by the same popular sentiment which had given offense to the
President, Congress did not doubt its duty or hesitate in its action.
Its course, indeed, was firm to the point of severity. It met the
spirit of defiance on the part of the South with an answer so decisive,
that the misguided people of that section were rapidly undeceived as
to their power to command the situation, even with all the aid the
President could bring. The principal debates for the first two months
of the session related wholly to the condition of the South, and on the
6th of February (1867) Mr. Stevens, from the Committee on
Reconstruction, reported a bill which after sundry amendments became
the leading measure of the Thirty-ninth Congress. In its original form
the preamble declared that "whereas the pretended State governments of
the late so-called Confederate States afford no adequate protection
for life or property, but countenance and encourage lawlessness and
crime; and whereas it is necessary that peace and good order should be
enforced in said so-called Confederate States, until loyal State
governments can be legally established; _therefore_ be it enacted that
said so-called Confederate States shall be divided into military
districts, and made subject to the military authority of the United
States, as hereinafter prescribed; and for that purpose Virginia shall
constitute the first district, North Carolina and South Carolina the
second district, Georgia, Alabama and Florida the third district,
Mississippi and Arkansas the fourth district, and Louisiana and Texas
the fifth district."

It was made the duty of the General of the Army to assign to the
command of each of said districts an officer not below the rank of
Brigadier-general, and to detail a sufficient force to enable such
officer to perform his duties and enforce his authority within the
district to which he was assigned. The protection of life and
property, the suppression of insurrections, disorders, and violence,
and the punishment of all criminals and disturbers