The ascendancy of the radicals in Congress was menaced.

The radicals needed the support of their radical brethren in Southern States and they could not afford to wait for the Fourteenth Amendment to become a part of the Constitution or to tolerate other delay.

On the 22d and the 25th of June, acts were therefore passed admitting seven states, Alabama included, to representation in Congress upon the "fundamental condition" that "the constitutions of neither of said States shall ever be so amended or changed as to deprive any citizens or class of citizens of the United States of the right to vote in said State, who are entitled to vote by the constitution thereof herein recognized." The generals now turned over the government to the recently elected radical officials and retired into the background.

Military reconstruction was thus accomplished in all the States except Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas..