THE COMMITTEE THAT DRAFTED THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT, THE RECONSTRUCTION ACT AND THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT
President Andrew Johnsons failure to pursue an aggressive Reconstruction policy incited Congress to supplant his authority by establishing the Joint Committee of Fifteen on Reconstruction, which drafted the Civil Rights Act (1866), the Reconstruction Act (1867) and the Fourteenth Amendment (1868), which contains the important and oft-debated "due process" clause. The committees journal was never printed by the government. Brought home by Senator William Pitt Fessenden, one of the committees...