Reconstruction Acts

American  

plural noun

1. U.S. History. the acts of Congress during the period from 1865 to 1877 providing for the reorganization of the former Confederate states and setting forth the process by which they were to be restored to representation in Congress, especially the acts passed in 1867 and 1868.

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Example Sentences

Congress passed, over President Andrew Johnson’s veto, the first of four Reconstruction Acts.

From Washington Times • Mar. 2, 2021

The Reconstruction Acts required the Southern states to ratify the 14th Amendment and give African Americans the vote before they’d be readmitted to the Union.

From Washington Post • May 16, 2018

Democrats and Conservatives represented the South’s pro-Confederate whites, even though the Reconstruction Acts barred most Confederate leaders from this round of constitution making.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

Spring and Summer 1867 : Congress passes three radical Reconstruction Acts, dividing the Confederacy into military districts, and giving the military power over the judiciary and politics in the former Southern states.

From Slate • Oct. 27, 2017

It was rumored that Mr. Stanbery's previous course as Attorney-general "in construing the Reconstruction Acts" had given offense to certain senators.

From Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 From Lincoln to Garfield, with a Review of the Events Which Led to the Political Revolution of 1860 by Blaine, James Gillespie