The Reconstruction Act of 1867 outlined the terms for readmission to representation of rebel states. The bill divided the former Confederate states, except for Tennessee, into five military districts. Each state was required to write a new constitution, which needed to be approved by a majority of voters—including African Americans—in that state. In addition, each state was required to ratify the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. After meeting these criteria related to protecting the rights of African Americans and their property, the former Confederate states could gain full recognition and federal representation in Congress. The act became law on March 2, 1867, after Congress overrode a presidential veto. Admission to representation of the former Confederate states began the next year, with Arkansas leading the way on June 22, 1868.

During the Civil War, senators traded verbal blows trying to answer a vexing question: What constituted a quorum? For the first 75 years of its history, the Senate considered a quorum to be a majority of all authorized seats, whether or not those seats happened to be filled. In 1861, before the 11 states of the Confederacy departed, the Union contained 34 states with 68 senators. The Senate counted a quorum as half of 68, plus one—35 members.

The departure of southern senators resulted in a number of vacant Senate seats. Refusing to formally acknowledge the secession of the Confederate states, the Senate continued to require a 35-member quorum. Increasingly, illness, travel, and military conditions made it difficult to muster 35 senators.

In May 1864, a frustrated Senator John Sherman introduced a resolution defining a quorum of the Senate as “a majority of the Senators duly chosen.”

Read the complete debate from the Congressional Globe  here.