law
the preamble of which asserted unmistakably that Congress had assumed
control of reconstruction.

Meanwhile the Joint Committee on Reconstruction had made a report
asserting that the Southerners had forfeited all constitutional rights,
that their state governments were not in constitutional form, and that
restoration could be accomplished only when Congress and the President
acted together in fixing the terms of readmission. The uncompromising
hostility of the South, the Committee asserted, made necessary adequate
safeguards which should include the disfranchisement of the white
leaders, either Negro suffrage or a reduction of white representation,
and repudiation of the Confederate war debt with recognition of the
validity of the United States debt. These terms were embodied in the
Fourteenth Amendment, which was adopted by Congress and sent to the
States on June 13, 1866.

In the congressional campaign of 1866, reconstruction was almost the
sole issue. For success the Administration must gain at least one-third
of one house, while the radicals were fighting for two-thirds of each
House. If the Administration should fail to make the necessary gain, the
work accomplished by the Presidents would be destroyed. The campaign
was bitter and extended through the summer and fall. Four national
conventions were held: the National Union party at Philadelphia made a
respectable showing in support of the President; the Southern Unionists,
guided by the Northern radicals met at the same place; a soldiers'
and sailors' convention at Cleveland supported the Administration; and
another convention of soldiers and sailors at Pittsburgh endorsed the
radical policies. A convention of Confederate soldiers and sailors at
Memphis endorsed the President, but the Southern support and that of the
Northern Democrats did not encourage moderate Republicans to vote for
the Administration. Three members of Johnson's Cabinet--Harlan, Speed,
and Dennison--resigned because they were unwilling to follow their chief
further in opposing Congress.

The radicals had plenty of campaign material in the testimony collected
by the Joint Committee, in the reports of the Freedmen's Bureau, and in
the bloody race riots which had occurred in Memphis and New Orleans. The
greatest blunder of the Administration was Johnson's speechmaking tour
to the West which he called "Swinging Around the Circle." Every time he
made a speech he was heckled by persons in the