V. The Modern Period, 1789–1914 > H. North America, 1789–1914 > 1. The United States, 1789–1877 > d. Reconstruction > 1867, March 2
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  The Encyclopedia of World History.  2001.
 
 
1867, March 2
 
THE BASIC RECONSTRUCTION ACT. This act, as supplemented by regulations of March 23 and July 19, 1867, and March 11, 1868, divided the southern states into five military districts. To be restored to the Union, the states had to hold state conventions, whose delegates were elected with the aid of African-American suffrage; these conventions had to frame constitutions approved by Congress and ratified by the people of the states; and the legislatures elected under each constitution had to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment. The act undercut the power of the planter elite and instigated political activity among the freedmen. During the period of Reconstruction politics that followed, numerous African Americans served in state and national offices. State governments modernized state constitutions, increased male suffrage, extended public education, and established hospitals, penitentiaries, and asylums.  1
 
March 2
 
Tenure-of-Office Act. On March 4, this act was passed over Johnson's veto. The act aimed to prevent the president from dismissing members of his cabinet without Senate approval.  2
 
March 30
 
Purchase of Alaska for $7,200,000.  3
The United States declared a new policy through which it established two great reservations (one in present-day South Dakota and the other in Oklahoma) on which Native Americans were to live until they “learned to walk on the white man's road.” Many Native American groups of the West were cajoled, tricked, and coerced into accepting reservation policy. Meanwhile, nontreaty Indians carried out a guerrilla war against white settlers and U.S. troops.  4
 
 
 
The Encyclopedia of World History, Sixth edition. Peter N. Stearns, general editor. Copyright © 2001 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Maps by Mary Reilly, copyright © 2001 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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