negroes all the rights of citizenship and permitted them to sue for
any of these rights (when deprived of them) in the United States courts.
This was vetoed; but Congress passed the bill over the veto. Now, a law
enacted by one Congress can, of course, be repealed by another, and lest
this should be done, and the freedmen be deprived of their civil rights,
Congress (June, 1866) passed the Fourteenth Amendment to the
Constitution, and made the ratification of it by the Southern States a
condition of readmittance to Congress.

Finally, a Freedmen's Bureau Bill, ordering the sale of government land
to negroes on easy terms, and giving them military protection for their
rights, was passed over the President's veto, just before Congress
adjourned.

%485. The President abuses Congress%.--During the summer, Johnson
made speeches at Western cities, in which, in very coarse language, he
abused Congress, calling it a Congress of only part of the states; "a
factious, domineering, tyrannical Congress," "a Congress violent in
breaking up the Union." These attacks, coupled with the fact that some
of the Southern States, encouraged by the President's conduct, rejected
the Fourteenth Amendment, made Congress, when it met in December, 1866,
more determined than ever. By one act it gave negroes the right to vote
in the territories and in the District of Columbia. By another it
compelled the President to issue his orders to the army through General
Grant, for Congress feared that he would recall the troops stationed in
the South to protect the freedmen. But the two important acts were the
"Tenure of Office Act" and "Reconstruction Act" (March 2, 1867).

%486. The Reconstruction Act%.--The Reconstruction Act marked out the
ten unreconstructed states (Tennessee had been admitted to Congress in
March, 1866) into five districts, with an army officer in command of
each, and required the people of each state to make a new constitution
giving negroes the right to vote, and send the constitution to Congress.
If Congress accepted it, and if the legislature assembled under it
ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, they might send senators and
representatives to Congress, and not before.

To these terms six states (North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida,
Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas) submitted, and in June, 1868, they
were readmitted to Congress. Their ratification of the Fourteenth
Amendment made it a part of the Constitution, and in July, 186