Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: A Documentary History of the American Civil War Era
The Fugitive Slave Act, September 18, 1850
Kansas-Nebraska Act, May 30, 1854
The Crittenden Compromise, December 18, 1860
Proposed Thirteenth Amendment of 1860, March 2, 1861
Proposed Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution of 1860–1861
President Abraham Lincoln - A Proclamation, April 15, 1861
Governor Magoffin’s Refusal of Troops, April 16, 1861; and, Kentucky’s Declaration of Neutrality, May 16, 1861
Proclamations on Blockade and Marque
The Crittenden-Johnson Resolutions on the Objects of the War, July 22, 1861
The First Confiscation Act, August 6, 1861
Seditious Conspiracy Act, July 31, 1861
Abolishment of Slavery in the District of Columbia Act, April 16, 1862
Confederate Conscription Act, April 17, 1862; and, The “Twenty Negro” Amendment, October 11, 1862
Homestead Act of 1862, May 20, 1862
Pacific Railroad Act, July 1, 1862
Morrill Land Grant Act, July 2, 1862
Non-Issued Lincoln Veto To Second Confiscation, July 12, 1862
Supplement, Abolishment of Slavery in the District of Columbia Act ,July 12, 1862
Judiciary Act, July 15, 1862
The Militia Act, July 17, 1862
The Second Confiscation Act, July 17, 1862
The Second Confiscation Act Supplement, July 17, 1862
West Virginia Act, December 31, 1862
National Banking Act, February 25, 1863
Federal Conscription Act, March 3, 1863
Habeas Corpus Act, March 3, 1863
The Freedmen’s Bureau Act, March 3, 1865
Thirteenth Amendment, Passed by Congress January 31, 1865, and Ratified December 6, 1865
President Andrew Johnson Veto of the Freedmen’s Bureau Act, February 19, 1866
President Andrew Johnson Veto of the Civil Rights Bill, March 27, 1866
Civil Rights Act, April 9, 1866
The Freedmen’s Bureau Act, July 16, 1866
President Andrew Johnson Freedmen’s Bureau Veto Message, July 16, 1866
Judicial Circuits Act, July 23, 1866
Habeas Corpus Act, February 5, 1867
The Reconstruction Act [First], March 2, 1867
President Andrew Johnson’s Veto of the First Military Reconstruction Act, March 2, 1867
Tenure of Office Act, March 2, 1867
President Andrew Johnson Veto of the Tenure of Office Act, March 2, 1867
Anti-Peonage Act, March 2, 1867
The Reconstruction Act [Second], March 23, 1867
President Andrew Johnson Veto of the Second Military Reconstruction Act, March 23, 1867
Reconstruction Act [Third], July 19, 1867
Veto of the Third Military Reconstruction Act, July 19, 1867
Articles of Impeachment Presented against President Andrew Johnson, February 24, 1868
Reconstruction Act [Fourth], March 11, 1868
Fourteenth Amendment, Passed by Congress, June 13, 1866, and Ratified July 9, 1868
Fifteenth Amendment, Passed by Congress, February 26, 1869 and Ratified February 3, 1870
The Enforcement Act of 1870, May 30, 1870
The Enforcement Act of 1871, April 20, 1871
Civil Rights Act, March 1, 1875
Congressional Electoral Commission Act, January 29, 1877
Posse Comitatus Act, June 18, 1878
Chronology
Selected Readings
Index