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Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 that divided the Confederate states (except for Tennessee, which had been re-admitted to the Union) into five military districts. Each state was required to accept the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution

Re-admitted - I thought they never left </sarcasm> But I can't seem to find anything in the Constitution that empowers the federal government to convert states into military districts, or to FORCE them to ratify amendments.

Thanks for bumping the thread.

Re-admitted - I thought they never left But I can't seem to find anything in the Constitution that empowers the federal government to convert states into military districts, or to FORCE them to ratify amendments.

Article II in the Vaporware section, near Executive suspension of habeas corpus.

Today our third party quotee has a different version of history yet again. My understanding was that the states didn't need to be kicked out of the Union for passage of the 13th, which passed voluntarily with the votes of the former rebels. It was the inability to ratify the 14th that led to the 'readmission' requirement being levied. Even then, the 14th was passed only by ignoring revocation of prior ratifications by Northern states.