opposed the president's efforts and sought their own plan for reordering the South. Upon meeting in December of 1865, the body refused to seat any of the representatives from the seceded states. All maters pertaining to the restoration of the South were to be reserved for the newly created Joint Committee of Fifteen on Reconstruction. Congress, believing that emancipation was not enough and the rights of former slaves were in need of protection, passed the Freedmen's Bureau and Civil Rights bills. It was contended that the agents of the formerly created Freedmen's Bureau would enforce the Civil Rights bill through their power to conduct courts and settle injustices. Predictably, Johnson opposed both bills and declared them unconstitutional. By vetoing them, the president marked his alienation from Congress and set off a chain of events leading towards failure.
             After overriding Johnson's veto, congress began to develop its own Reconstruction plan. Radicals of the Republican Party sought to frame a new amendment that could pr
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