Senator Jacob Howard of Michigan and Congressman John A. Bingham of Ohio were members of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction. Bingham was one of the authors of the joint resolution proposing the Fourteenth Amendment, drafting the section defining citizenship and protections of citizens’ rights. Bingham introduced the resolution in the House; Howard introduced it in the Senate.
Prints and Photographs, Library of Congress
Senator Jacob Howard of Michigan, photograph by Mathew B. Brady, ca. 1870
Reconstruction of the Union
After the Civil War, Congress and the executive branch struggled over when and how to bring the former Confederate states back into the Union. The Joint Committee on Reconstruction—established by Congress in December 1865 to investigate under what terms the seceded states should regain their congressional representation—strongly disagreed with President Andrew Johnson’s efforts toward quick readmission. After a yearlong study, the fifteen-member committee outlined qualifications for readmission, including ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
The whole fabric of Southern society must be changed and never can it be done if this opportunity is lost. . . . If the South is ever to be made a safe republic, let her lands be cultivated by the toil of the owners, or the free labor of intelligent citizens.
Thaddeus Stevens, “Reconstruction” Speech, September 6, 1865
Senator Jacob Howard of Michigan and Congressman John A. Bingham of Ohio were members of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction. Bingham was one of the authors of the joint resolution proposing the Fourteenth Amendment, drafting the section defining citizenship and protections of citizens’ rights. Bingham introduced the resolution in the House; Howard introduced it in the Senate.
Prints and Photographs, Library of Congress
