ama included, to
representation in Congress upon the "fundamental condition" that "the
constitutions of neither of said States shall ever be so amended or
changed as to deprive any citizens or class of citizens of the United
States of the right to vote in said State, who are entitled to vote by
the constitution thereof herein recognized."

The generals now turned over the government to the recently
elected radical officials and retired into the background. Military
reconstruction was thus accomplished in all the States except Virginia,
Mississippi, and Texas.

CHAPTER VII. THE TRIAL OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON

While the radical program was being executed in the South, Congress
was engaged not only in supervising reconstruction but in subduing the
Supreme Court and in "conquering" President Johnson. One must admire the
efficiency of the radical machine. When the Southerners showed that they
preferred military rule as permitted by the Act of the 2nd of
March, Congress passed the Act of the 23d of March which forced the
reconstruction. When the President ventured to assert his power in
behalf of a considerate administration of the reconstruction acts,
Congress took the power out of his hands by the law of the 19th of July.
The Southern plan to defeat the new state constitutions by abstention
was no sooner made clear in the case of Alabama than Congress came to
the rescue with the Act of March 11, 1868.

Had it seemed necessary, Congress would have handled the Supreme Court
as it did the Southerners. The opponents of radical reconstruction were
anxious to get the reconstruction laws of March 1867, before the Court.
Chief Justice Chase was known to be opposed to military reconstruction,
and four other justices were, it was believed, doubtful of the
constitutionality of the laws. A series of conservative decisions gave
hope to those who looked to the Court for relief. The first decision, in
the case of ex parte Milligan, declared unconstitutional the trials of
civilians by military commissions when civil courts were open. A
few months later, in the cases of Cummings vs. Missouri and ex parte
Garland, the Court declared invalid, because ex post facto, the state
laws designed to punish former Confederates.

But the first attempts to get the reconstruction acts before the Supreme
Court failed. The State of Mississippi, in April 1867, brought suit to
restrain the President from executing the reconstruction acts. The Court
ref