United States Midterm Elections of 1866

Republicans won veto-proof majorities in both chambers, taking control of Reconstruction from Andrew Johnson.

Overview

The 1866 elections became a referendum on President Andrew Johnson's lenient Reconstruction policy and on the proposed Fourteenth Amendment, which Johnson opposed. His Swing Around the Circle speaking tour, marked by angry exchanges with hecklers, backfired badly, and violence against freedpeople in Memphis and New Orleans that year hardened Northern opinion. Republicans emerged with more than two-thirds of the seats in both the House and the Senate, enough to override his vetoes at will. The new Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, placing the former Confederate states under military rule, and in 1868 the House impeached Johnson.